Antoine Watteau
Watteau in the last year of his life, by Rosalba Carriera, 1721.
Birth name	Jean-Antoine Watteau
Born	(1684-10-10)October 10, 1684 Valenciennes, France
Died	July 18, 1721(1721-07-18) (aged 36) Nogent-sur-Marne, France
Nationality	French
Field	Painting and architecture
Movement	Rococo
Works	Embarkation for Cythera, 1718/19 L'Enseigne de Gersaint, 1720/21

Jean-Antoine Watteau (French pronunciation: [ʒan‿ɑ̃twan wato]; October 10, 1684 – July 18, 1721) was a French painter whose brief career spurred the revival of interest in colour and movement (in the tradition of Correggio and Rubens). He revitalized the waning Baroque style, and indeed moved it to the less severe, more naturalistic, less formally classical Rococo.

Watteau is credited with inventing the genre of fêtes galantes: scenes of bucolic and idyllic charm, suffused with an air of theatricality. Some of his best known subjects were drawn from the world of Italian comedy and ballet.

Biography[link]

Early life and training[link]

Pilgrimage on the Isle of Cythera, 1717, Louvre. Many commentators note that it depicts a departure from the island of Cythera, the birthplace of Venus, thus symbolizing the brevity of love.

Watteau was born in the town of Valenciennes, which had recently passed from the Spanish Netherlands to France. His father was a master tiler. Showing an early interest in painting, he was apprenticed to Jacques-Albert Gérin, a local painter. Having little to learn from Gérin, Watteau left for Paris in about 1702. There he found employment in a workshop at Pont Notre-Dame, making copies of popular genre paintings in the Flemish and Dutch tradition; it was in that period that he developed his characteristic sketchlike technique.

In 1703 he was employed as an assistant by the painter Claude Gillot, whose work represented a reaction against the turgid official art of Louis XIV's reign. In Gillot's studio Watteau became acquainted with the characters of the commedia dell'arte (its actors had been expelled from France several years before), a favorite subject of Gillot's that would become one of Watteau's lifelong passions. Afterward he moved to the workshop of Claude Audran III, an interior decorator, under whose influence he began to make drawings admired for their consummate elegance. Audran was the curator of the Palais du Luxembourg, where Watteau was able to see the magnificent series of canvases painted by Peter Paul Rubens for Queen Marie de Medici. The Flemish painter would become one of his major influences, together with the Venetian masters he would later study in the collection of his patron and friend, the banker Pierre Crozat.

Career[link]

Pilgrimage to Cythera is an embellished repetition of his painting of 1717, and exemplifies the frivolity and sensuousness of Rococo painting. (1721, Berlin)

In 1709 Watteau tried to obtain the Prix de Rome and was rejected by the Academy. In 1712 he tried again and was considered so good that, rather than receiving the one-year stay in Rome for which he had applied, he was accepted as a full member of the Academy. He took five years to deliver the required "reception piece", but it was one of his masterpieces: the Pilgrimage to Cythera, also called the Embarkation for Cythera.

Interestingly, while Watteau's paintings seem to epitomize the aristocratic elegance of the Régence (though he actually lived most of his short life under the oppressive climate of Louis XIV's later reign), he never had aristocratic patrons. His buyers were bourgeois such as bankers and dealers.

Although his mature paintings seem to be so many depictions of frivolous fêtes galantes, they in fact display a sober melancholy, a sense of the ultimate futility of life, that makes him, among 18th century painters, one of the closest to modern sensibilities. His many imitators, such as Nicolas Lancret and Jean-Baptiste Pater, borrowed his themes but could not capture his spirit.

Among his most famous paintings, beside the two versions of the Pilgrimage to Cythera (one in the Louvre, the other in the Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin), are Pierrot (long identified as "Gilles"), Fêtes venitiennes, Love in the Italian Theater, Love in the French Theater, "Voulez-vous triompher des belles?" and Mezzetin. The subject of his hallmark painting, Pierrot or Gilles, with his slowly fading smile, seems a confused actor who appears to have forgotten his lines; he has materialized into the fearful reality of existence, sporting as his only armor the pathetic clown costume. The painting may be read as Watteau's wry comment on his mortal illness.

L'Enseigne de Gersaint (1720): In one of Watteau's last paintings, the portrait of Louis XIV and his own artworks are being packed away. The painter had no reason to expect that his name would be remembered long.

La Boudeuse from the Hermitage Museum: "Flirting coquettishly yet innocently, the artist's imaginary heroes – the deliberately indifferent lady and her insistently attentive cavalier – are shown with gentle irony. Their fragile, elegant world is dominated by a lyrical mood with just a touch of elegiac melancholy."^[1]

Watteau's final masterpiece, the Shop-sign of Gersaint, exits the pastoral forest locale for a mundane urban set of encounters. Painted at Watteau's own insistence, "to take the chill off his fingers", this sign for the shop in Paris of the paintings dealer Edme François Gersaint is effectively the final curtain of Watteau's theatre. It has been described as Watteau's Las Meninas, in that the theme appears to be the promotion of art. The scene is an art gallery where the façade has magically vanished. The gallery and street in the canvas are fused into one contiguous drama.

Watteau's commedia dell'arte player of Pierrot, ca 1718–19, traditionally identified as "Gilles" (Louvre)

Watteau alarmed his friends by a carelessness about his future and financial security, as if foreseeing he would not live for long. In fact he had been sickly and physically fragile since childhood. In 1720, he travelled to London, England, to consult Dr. Richard Mead, one of the most fashionable physicians of his time and an admirer of Watteau's work. However, London's damp and smoky air offset any benefits of Dr. Mead's wholesome food and medicines. Watteau returned to France and spent his last few months on the estate of his patron, Abbé Haranger, where he died in 1721 perhaps from tuberculous laryngitis at the age of 36. The Abbé said Watteau was semi-conscious and mute during his final days, clutching a paint brush and painting imaginary paintings in the air.^[2]

Critical assessment and legacy[link]

Little known during his lifetime beyond a small circle of his devotees, Watteau "was mentioned but seldom in contemporary art criticism and then usually reprovingly".^[3] Sir Michael Levey once noted that Watteau "created, unwittingly, the concept of the individualistic artist loyal to himself, and himself alone". If his immediate followers (Lancret and Pater) would depict the unabashed frillery of aristocratic romantic pursuits, Watteau in a few masterpieces anticipates an art about art, the world of art as seen through the eyes of an artist. In contrast to the Rococo whimsicality and licentiousness cultivated by Boucher and Fragonard in the later part of Louis XV's reign, Watteau's theatrical panache is usually tinged with a note of sympathy, wistfulness, and sadness at the transience of love and other earthly delights.

Soon after his death a series of engravings was made after his works, The Recueil Jullienne. The quality of the reproductions, using a mixture of engraving and etching following the practice of the Rubens engravers, varied according to the skill of the people employed by Jean de Jullienne, but was often very high. Such a comprehensive record was hitherto unparalleled. This helped disseminate his influence round Europe and into the decorative arts.

Watteau's influence on the arts (not only painting, but the decorative arts, costume, film, poetry, music) was more extensive than that of almost any other 18th-century artist. According to the 1911 Britannica, "in his treatment of the landscape background and of the atmospheric surroundings of the figures can be found the germs of Impressionism". The Watteau dress, a long, sacklike dress with loose pleats hanging from the shoulder at the back, similar to those worn by many of the women in his paintings, is named after him. A revived vogue for Watteau began in England during the British Regency, and was later encapsulated by the Goncourt brothers and the World of Art. In 1984 Watteau societies were created in Paris, by Jean Ferré, and London, by Dr. Selby Whittingham. A major exhibition in Paris, Washington and Berlin commemorated the tercentenary of his birth in 1984. Since 2000 a Watteau centre has been established at Valenciennes by Professor Chris Rauseo. A catalogue of his drawings has been compiled by Pierre Rosenberg, replacing the one by Sir Karl Parker, and Alan Wintermute is preparing one for his paintings.

Lost painting found[link]

La Surprise

La Surprise, painted around 1718, was known only through a copy in the Royal Collection before the original was found during a routine insurance valuation in 2007. The oil painting shows an actor playing a guitar on a stone bench looking across at a couple locked in an amorous embrace. The action is watched by a small dog in the corner. The painting was sold at auction on July 8, 2008 for 15 million Euros; this set a world record price for a painting by Watteau.

Family[link]

His son, Louis Joseph Watteau, and grandson, François-Louis-Joseph Watteau of Antoine's brother Noël Joseph Watteau (1689–1756), followed him into painting.

In popular culture[link]

In the final scenes of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, after his journey thorugh the Star Gate, astronaut David Bowman finds himself in a stark room resembling a hotel, with several reproductions of Watteau paintings on the walls. Watteau's work was also a key visual reference for Kubrick's later film Barry Lyndon.

The French film Ce que mes yeux ont vu (What my eyes saw; 2007) by Jean-Pierre Marielle, starring Sylvie Testud and Jean-Pierre Marielle, depicts a fictional academic investigation of Watteau's works. In the plot, Watteau supposedly had a secret love relation with Comédie-Française actress Charlotte Desmares.

References[link]

Sources[link]

• Dormandy, Thomas. "The White Death: the History of Tuberculosis". New York University Press, 2000.
• Levey, Michael, Rococo to Revolution. Thames and Hudson, 1966.
• Roland Michel, Marianne, Watteau. Flammarion, 1984.
• Schneider, Pierre, The World of Watteau. Time-Life Books, 1967.
• Dacier, E., and Vuaflart, A., Jean de Jullienne et les graveurs de Watteau au XVIIIe siecle Paris 1921-9
• The Watteau Society Bulletin, London.
• Martin Eidelberg, watteauandhiscircle.org

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Antoine Watteau

• watteauandhiscircle.org
• Antoine Watteau biography, artist context and artwork
• The Rococo and Watteau
• www.Jean-Antoine-Watteau.org 89 works by Antoine Watteau
• Watteau paintings at the Web Gallery of Art
• The Pleasure of Watteau Julian Bell on Watteau from The New York Review of Books

v t e Watteau Works Embarkation for Cythera  · Mezzetin  · Pierrot  · Shop-sign of Gersaint  · Fêtes venitiennes  · Love in the Italian Theater  · Love in the French Theater

Jean Antoine is an American former professional wrestler. After debuting in 1961, she worked a series of mixed tag team matches with partner Terry Funk. In the early 1970s, she went to Japan to work for All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling. While part of the company, she held the WWWA World Championship once and the WWWA World Tag Team Championship twice with partner Sandy Parker. Back in the United States, she wrestled in Oregon's first women's match in over 50 years in 1975.

Professional wrestling career[link]

Antoine first decided to be a professional wrestler after watching a match at the age of 14.^[1] After high school, her mom offered to buy her a new car or pay for college.^[1] Antoine refused both, instead wanting her mom to pay for her wrestling training in Florida.^[1] She debuted in 1961.^[1] In the 1960s, Antoine wrestled in a series of mixed tag team matches with partner Terry Funk against Jack Cain and Kay Noble.^[2] She twice teamed with Gil Hayes in a mixed tag team match against Betty Niccoli and Paul Peller in early February 1971.

In the early 1970s, Antoine competed in All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling. In March 1972, she won the WWWA World Championship from Aiko Kyo, but lost it back to Kyo six days later. She also held the WWWA World Tag Team Championship twice in 1974 with partner Sandy Parker. The duo first won the title on April 24 from the team of Junko Sasaki and Peggy Kuroda, but the lost the title back to them during a rematch on May 21. Their second reign began on July 30 after defeating Mariko Akagi and Miyuki Yanagi. On August 5, however, Akagi and her new partner Jumbo Miyamoto defeated Antoine and Parker for the title.

Back in the United States in 1975, Antoine wrestled against Parker in the first women's wrestling match in the state of Oregon in 50 years.^[1]

She also wrestled in the Midwest, including at All-Star Wrestling.^[3] In the Midwest, she was the California, Kansas, and Central States Champion.^[1]

Personal life[link]

Antoine married her high school sweetheart in a wrestling ring in Mississippi, as Antoine had a wrestling match immediately afterward.^[1] They had a daughter in the early 1960s.^[1] The couple later divorced.^[1]

Championships and accomplishments[link]

• All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling
  • WWWA World Championship (1 time)
  • WWWA World Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Sandy Parker

• Other titles
  • California, Kansas, and Central States Champion^[1]

References[link]

Haydn portrait by Thomas Hardy, 1792

Franz Joseph Haydn (  /ˈdʒoʊzəf ˈhaɪdən/; German pronunciation: [ˈjoːzɛf ˈhaɪdən] ( listen); 31 March^[1] 1732 – 31 May 1809), known as Joseph Haydn,^[2] was an Austrian^[3] composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms. He was also instrumental in the development of the piano trio and in the evolution of sonata form.^[4][5]

A lifelong resident of Austria, Haydn spent much of his career as a court musician for the wealthy Esterházy family on their remote estate. Isolated from other composers and trends in music until the later part of his long life, he was, as he put it, "forced to become original".^[6] At the time of his death, he was one of the most celebrated composers in Europe.^[7]

Joseph Haydn was the brother of Michael Haydn, himself a highly regarded composer, and Johann Evangelist Haydn, a tenor. He was also a close friend of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and a teacher of Ludwig van Beethoven.

Life[link]

Map showing locations where Haydn lived or visited. For discussion, see List of residences of Joseph Haydn.

Childhood[link]

Joseph Haydn was born in Rohrau, Austria, a village near the border with Hungary. His father was Mathias Haydn, a wheelwright who also served as "Marktrichter", an office akin to village mayor. Haydn's mother Maria, née Koller, had previously worked as a cook in the palace of Count Harrach, the presiding aristocrat of Rohrau. Neither parent could read music;^[8] however, Mathias was an enthusiastic folk musician, who during the journeyman period of his career had taught himself to play the harp. According to Haydn's later reminiscences, his childhood family was extremely musical, and frequently sang together and with their neighbors.^[9]

Haydn's parents had noticed that their son was musically gifted and knew that in Rohrau he would have no chance to obtain any serious musical training. It was for this reason that they accepted a proposal from their relative Johann Matthias Frankh, the schoolmaster and choirmaster in Hainburg, that Haydn be apprenticed to Frankh in his home to train as a musician. Haydn therefore went off with Frankh to Hainburg (seven miles away) and never again lived with his parents. He was about six years old.

Life in the Frankh household was not easy for Haydn, who later remembered being frequently hungry^[10] as well as constantly humiliated by the filthy state of his clothing.^[11] However, he did begin his musical training there, and soon was able to play both harpsichord and violin. The people of Hainburg heard him sing treble parts in the church choir.

There is reason to think that Haydn's singing impressed those who heard him, because he was soon^[12] brought to the attention of Georg von Reutter, the director of music in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, who happened to be visiting Hainburg. Haydn passed his audition with Reutter, and in 1740 moved to Vienna, where he worked for the next nine years as a chorister, after 1745 in the company of his younger brother Michael.

Haydn lived in the Kapellhaus next to the cathedral, along with Reutter, Reutter's family, and the other four choirboys.^[13] He was instructed in Latin and other school subjects as well as voice, violin, and keyboard.^[14] Reutter was of little help to Haydn in the areas of music theory and composition, giving him only two lessons in his entire time as chorister.^[15] However, since St. Stephen's was one of the leading musical centers in Europe, Haydn was able to learn a great deal simply by serving as a professional musician there.^[16]

Like Frankh before him, Reutter did not always bother to make sure Haydn was properly fed. As he later told his biographer Albert Christoph Dies, Haydn was motivated to sing very well, in hopes of gaining more invitations to perform before aristocratic audiences—where the singers were usually served refreshments.^[17]

St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna

Struggles as a freelancer[link]

By 1749, Haydn had matured physically to the point that he was no longer able to sing high choral parts—the Empress herself complained to Reutter about his singing, calling it "crowing".^[18] One day, Haydn carried out a prank, snipping off the pigtail of a fellow chorister.^[18] This was enough for Reutter: Haydn was first caned, then summarily dismissed and sent into the streets with no home to go to.^[19] He had the good fortune to be taken in by a friend, Johann Michael Spangler, who shared his family's crowded garret room with Haydn for a few months . Haydn immediately began his pursuit of a career as a freelance musician.

During this arduous time, Haydn worked at many different jobs: as a music teacher, as a street serenader, and eventually, in 1752, as valet–accompanist for the Italian composer Nicola Porpora, from whom he later said he learned "the true fundamentals of composition".^[20] He also was briefly in Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Haugwitz's employ, playing the organ in the Bohemian Chancellery chapel at the Judenplatz.^[21]

When he was a chorister, Haydn had not received serious training in music theory and composition, which he perceived as a serious gap. To fill it, he worked his way through the counterpoint exercises in the text Gradus ad Parnassum by Johann Joseph Fux, and carefully studied the work of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, whom he later acknowledged as an important influence.^[22]

As his skills increased, Haydn began to acquire a public reputation, first as the composer of an opera, Der krumme Teufel "The Limping Devil", written for the comic actor Johann Joseph Felix Kurz, whose stage name was "Bernardon". The work was premiered successfully in 1753, but was soon closed down by the censors.^[23] Haydn also noticed, apparently without annoyance, that works he had simply given away were being published and sold in local music shops.^[24] Between 1754 and 1756 Haydn also worked freelance for the court in Vienna. He was among several musicians who were paid for services as supplementary musicians at balls given for the imperial children during carnival season, and as supplementary singers in the imperial chapel (the Hofkapelle) in Lent and Holy Week.^[25]

With the increase in his reputation, Haydn eventually obtained aristocratic patronage, crucial for the career of a composer in his day. Countess Thun,^[26] having seen one of Haydn's compositions, summoned him and engaged him as her singing and keyboard teacher.^[27] In 1756, Baron Carl Josef Fürnberg employed Haydn at his country estate, Weinzierl, where the composer wrote his first string quartets. Fürnberg later recommended Haydn to Count Morzin, who, in 1757,^[28] became his first full time employer.^[29]

The years as Kapellmeister[link]

Haydn portrait by Ludwig Guttenbrunn, painted ca. 1791-2, depicts Haydn ca. 1770

Haydn's job title under Count Morzin was Kapellmeister, that is, music director. He led the count's small orchestra and wrote his first symphonies for this ensemble. In 1760, with the security of a Kapellmeister position, Haydn married. His wife was the former Maria Anna Aloysia Apollonia Keller (1729–1800), the sister of Therese (b. 1733), with whom Haydn had previously been in love. Haydn and his wife had a completely unhappy marriage,^[30] from which the laws of the time permitted them no escape; and they produced no children. Both took lovers.^[31]

Count Morzin soon suffered financial reverses that forced him to dismiss his musical establishment, but Haydn was quickly offered a similar job (1761) by Prince Paul Anton, head of the immensely wealthy Esterházy family. Haydn's job title was only Vice-Kapellmeister, but he was immediately placed in charge of most of the Esterházy musical establishment, with the old Kapellmeister, Gregor Werner, retaining authority only for church music. When Werner died in 1766, Haydn was elevated to full Kapellmeister.

View of Eszterháza

As a "house officer" in the Esterházy establishment, Haydn wore livery and followed the family as they moved among their various palaces, most importantly the family's ancestral seat Schloss Esterházy in Eisenstadt and later on Eszterháza, a grand new palace built in rural Hungary in the 1760s. Haydn had a huge range of responsibilities, including composition, running the orchestra, playing chamber music for and with his patrons, and eventually the mounting of operatic productions. Despite this backbreaking workload,^[32] the job was in artistic terms a superb opportunity for Haydn.^[33] The Esterházy princes (Paul Anton, then from 1762–1790 Nikolaus I) were musical connoisseurs who appreciated his work and gave him daily access to his own small orchestra.

Prince Nikolaus Esterházy, Haydn's most important patron

During the nearly thirty years that Haydn worked at the Esterházy court, he produced a flood of compositions, and his musical style continued to develop. His popularity in the outside world also increased. Gradually, Haydn came to write as much for publication as for his employer, and several important works of this period, such as the Paris symphonies (1785–1786) and the original orchestral version of The Seven Last Words of Christ (1786), were commissions from abroad.

Haydn also gradually came to feel more isolated and lonely, particularly as the court came to spend most of the year at Esterháza, far from Vienna, rather than the closer-by Eisenstadt.^[34] Haydn particularly longed to visit Vienna because of his friendships there.^[35]

Of these, a particularly important one was with Maria Anna von Genzinger (1754–93), the wife of Prince Nikolaus's personal physician in Vienna, who began a close, platonic, relationship with the composer in 1789. Haydn wrote to Mrs. Genzinger often, expressing his loneliness at Eszterháza and his happiness for the few occasions on which he was able to visit her in Vienna; later on, Haydn wrote to her frequently from London. Her premature death in 1793 was a blow to Haydn, and his F minor variations for piano, Hob. XVII:6, may have been written in response to her death.^[36]

Portrait of Mozart by Joseph Lange

Another friend in Vienna was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whom Haydn had met sometime around 1784. According to later testimony by Michael Kelly and others, the two composers occasionally played in string quartets together. Haydn was hugely impressed with Mozart's work and praised it unstintingly to others. Mozart evidently returned the esteem, as seen in his dedication of a set of six quartets, now called the "Haydn" quartets, to his friend. For further details see Haydn and Mozart.

The London journeys[link]

In 1790, Prince Nikolaus died and was succeeded as prince by his son Anton. Following a trend of the time,^[37] Anton sought to economize by dismissing most of the court musicians. Haydn retained a nominal appointment with Anton, at a reduced salary of 400 florins, as well as a 1000-florin pension from Nikolaus.^[38] Since Anton had little need of Haydn's services he was willing to let Haydn travel elsewhere, and the composer accepted a lucrative offer from Johann Peter Salomon, a German impresario, to visit England and conduct new symphonies with a large orchestra.

The visit (1791–1792), along with a repeat visit (1794–1795), was a huge success. Audiences flocked to Haydn's concerts; Haydn augmented his fame and made large profits, thus becoming financially secure.^[39] Charles Burney reviewed the first concert thus: "Haydn himself presided at the piano-forte; and the sight of that renowned composer so electrified the audience, as to excite an attention and a pleasure superior to any that had ever been caused by instrumental music in England."^[40]

Musically, the visits to England generated some of Haydn's best-known work, including the Surprise, Military, Drumroll, and London symphonies, the Rider quartet, and the "Gypsy Rondo" piano trio. The only misstep in the venture was an opera, L'anima del filosofo, which Haydn was contracted to compose, but whose performance was blocked by intrigues.^[41] Haydn made many new friends and was involved for a time in a romantic relationship with Rebecca Schroeter.

Portrait of Beethoven as a young man by Carl Traugott Riedel (1769–1832)

While traveling to London in 1790, Haydn had met the young Ludwig van Beethoven in his native city of Bonn. On Haydn's return, Beethoven came to Vienna and during the time up to the second London visit was Haydn's pupil. For discussion of their relationship, see Beethoven and his contemporaries.^[42]

Final years in Vienna[link]

Haydn returned to Vienna in 1795. Prince Anton had died, and his successor Nikolaus II proposed that the Esterházy musical establishment be revived with Haydn serving again as Kapellmeister. Haydn took up the position, though only on a part-time basis. He spent his summers with the Esterházys in Eisenstadt, and over the course of several years wrote six masses for them. But by this time Haydn had become a public figure in Vienna. He spent most of his time in his own home, a large house in the suburb of Gumpendorf,^[43] and wrote works for public performance. In collaboration with his librettist and mentor Gottfried van Swieten, and with funding from van Swieten's Gesellschaft der Associierten, Haydn composed his two great oratorios The Creation (1798) and The Seasons (1801). Both were enthusiastically received. Haydn frequently appeared before the public, often leading performances of The Creation for charity benefits. He also composed instrumental music: the popular Trumpet Concerto and the last nine in his long series of string quartets, including the Fifths, Emperor, and Sunrise quartets.

During the later years of this successful period Haydn faced incipient old age and fluctuating health, and he had to struggle to complete his final works. By about 1802, his condition had declined to the point that he became physically unable to compose.^[44] This was doubtless very difficult for him because, as he acknowledged, the flow of fresh musical ideas waiting to be worked out as compositions did not cease. Haydn was well cared for by his servants, and he received many visitors and public honours during his last years, but they could not have been very happy years for him. During his illness, Haydn often found solace by sitting at the piano and playing Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser, which he had composed himself as a patriotic gesture in 1797.^[45] This melody was later used for the Austrian and German national anthems.

A final triumph occurred on 27 March 1808, when a performance of The Creation was organized in Haydn's honor. The very frail composer was brought into the hall on an armchair to the sound of trumpets and drums, and was greeted by Beethoven, by Salieri (who led the performance), and by other musicians and members of the aristocracy – many of whom probably sensed that they were saying goodbye to the elderly composer. Haydn was both moved and exhausted by the experience, and had to depart at intermission.^[46]

Haydn lived on for another year. He died, aged 77, at the end of May 1809, shortly after an attack on Vienna by the French army under Napoleon. Among his last words was his attempt to calm and reassure his servants when cannon shot fell in the neighborhood:^[47] "My children, have no fear, for where Haydn is, no harm can fall." Two weeks later, a memorial service was held in the Schottenkirche on 15 June 1809, at which Mozart's Requiem was performed.

Character and appearance[link]

James Webster writes of Haydn's public character thus: "Haydn's public life exemplified the Enlightenment ideal of the honnête homme (honest man): the man whose good character and worldly success enable and justify each other. His modesty and probity were everywhere acknowledged. These traits were not only prerequisites to his success as Kapellmeister, entrepreneur and public figure, but also aided the favourable reception of his music."^[48] Haydn was especially respected by the Eszterházy court musicians whom he supervised, as he maintained a cordial working atmosphere and effectively represented the musicians' interests with their employer; see Papa Haydn and the tale of the "Farewell" Symphony.

Haydn's signature on a musical work. He writes in Italian, a language he often used professionally: di me giuseppe Haydn, "by me Joseph Haydn".

Haydn had a robust sense of humor, evident in his love of practical jokes^[49] and often apparent in his music, and he had many friends. For much of his life he benefited from a "happy and naturally cheerful temperament",^[50] but in his later life, there is evidence for periods of depression, notably in the correspondence with Mrs. Genzinger and in Dies's biography, based on visits made in Haydn's old age.

Haydn was a devout Catholic who often turned to his rosary when he had trouble composing, a practice that he usually found to be effective.^[51] He normally began the manuscript of each composition with "in nomine Domini" ("in the name of the Lord") and ended with "Laus Deo" ("praise be to God").^[52]

Haydn was short in stature, perhaps as a result of having been underfed throughout most of his youth. He was not handsome, and like many in his day he was a survivor of smallpox, his face being pitted with the scars of this disease. His biographer Dies wrote, "he couldn't understand how it happened that in his life he had been loved by many a pretty woman. 'They couldn't have been led to it by my beauty'".^[53]

His nose, large and aquiline, was disfigured by polypus, which he suffered from for much of his adult life.^[54] This was an agonizing and debilitating disease in the 18th century, and at times it prevented him from writing music.^[55]

Haydn's musical handwriting: the original copy of Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser (click to enlarge)

Works[link]

James Webster summarizes Haydn's role in the history of classical music as follows:^[56] "He excelled in every musical genre… He is familiarly known as the 'father of the symphony' and could with greater justice be thus regarded for the string quartet; no other composer approaches his combination of productivity, quality and historical importance in these genres."

Structure and character of his music[link]

A central characteristic of Haydn's music is the development of larger structures out of very short, simple musical motifs, often derived from standard accompanying figures. The music is often quite formally concentrated, and the important musical events of a movement can unfold rather quickly.^[57]

Haydn's work was central to the development of what came to be called sonata form. His practice, however, differed in some ways from that of Mozart and Beethoven, his younger contemporaries who likewise excelled in this form of composition. Haydn was particularly fond of the so-called "monothematic exposition", in which the music that establishes the dominant key is similar or identical to the opening theme. Haydn also differs from Mozart and Beethoven in his recapitulation sections, where he often rearranges the order of themes compared to the exposition and uses extensive thematic development.^[58]

Haydn's formal inventiveness also led him to integrate the fugue into the classical style and to enrich the rondo form with more cohesive tonal logic (see sonata rondo form). Haydn was also the principal exponent of the double variation form—variations on two alternating themes, which are often major- and minor-mode versions of each other.

Perhaps more than any other composer's, Haydn's music is known for its humor.^[59] The most famous example is the sudden loud chord in the slow movement of his "Surprise" symphony; Haydn's many other musical jokes include numerous false endings (e.g., in the quartets Op. 33 No. 2 and Op. 50 No. 3), and the remarkable rhythmic illusion placed in the trio section of the third movement of Op. 50 No. 1.

Much of the music was written to please and delight a prince, and its emotional tone is correspondingly upbeat.^{[citation needed]} This tone also reflects, perhaps, Haydn's fundamentally healthy and well-balanced personality. Occasional minor-key works, often deadly serious in character, form striking exceptions to the general rule. Haydn's fast movements tend to be rhythmically propulsive and often impart a great sense of energy, especially in the finales. Some characteristic examples of Haydn's "rollicking" finale type are found in the "London" symphony No. 104, the string quartet Op. 50 No. 1, and the piano trio Hob XV: 27. Haydn's early slow movements are usually not too slow in tempo, relaxed, and reflective. Later on, the emotional range of the slow movements increases, notably in the deeply felt slow movements of the quartets Op. 76 Nos. 3 and 5, the Symphonies No. 98 and 102, and the piano trio Hob XV: 23. The minuets tend to have a strong downbeat and a clearly popular character. Over time, Haydn turned some of his minuets into "scherzi" which are much faster, at one beat to the bar.

Evolution of Haydn's style[link]

Haydn's early work dates from a period in which the compositional style of the High Baroque (seen in Bach and Handel) had gone out of fashion. This was a period of exploration and uncertainty, and Haydn, born 18 years before the death of Bach, was himself one of the musical explorers of this time.^[60] An older contemporary whose work Haydn acknowledged as an important influence was Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach.^[22]

Tracing Haydn's work over the six decades in which it was produced (roughly, 1749 to 1802), one finds a gradual but steady increase in complexity and musical sophistication, which developed as Haydn learned from his own experience and that of his colleagues. Several important landmarks have been observed in the evolution of Haydn's musical style.

In the late 1760s and early 1770s Haydn entered a stylistic period known as "Sturm und Drang" (storm and stress). This term is taken from a literary movement of about the same time, though it appears that the musical development actually preceded the literary one by a few years.^[61] The musical language of this period is similar to what went before, but it is deployed in work that is more intensely expressive, especially in the works in minor keys. James Webster describes the works of this period as "longer, more passionate, and more daring."^[62] Some of the most famous compositions of this time are the "Trauer" (Mourning) Symphony No. 44, "Farewell" Symphony No. 45, the piano sonata in C minor (Hob. XVI/20, L. 33), and the six string quartets of Op. 20 (the "Sun" quartets), all from ca. 1771–1772. It was also around this time that Haydn became interested in writing fugues in the Baroque style, and three of the Op. 20 quartets end with such fugues.

Following the climax of the "Sturm und Drang", Haydn returned to a lighter, more overtly entertaining style. There are no quartets from this period, and the symphonies take on new features: the scoring often includes trumpets and timpani. These changes are often related to a major shift in Haydn's professional duties, which moved him away from "pure" music and toward the production of comic operas. Several of the operas were Haydn's own work (see List of operas by Joseph Haydn); these are seldom performed today. Haydn sometimes recycled his opera music in symphonic works,^[63] which helped him continue his career as a symphonist during this hectic decade.

In 1779, an important change in Haydn's contract permitted him to publish his compositions without prior authorization from his employer. This may have encouraged Haydn to rekindle his career as a composer of "pure" music. The change made itself felt most dramatically in 1781, when Haydn published the six string quartets of Opus 33, announcing (in a letter to potential purchasers) that they were written in "a new and completely special way".^[64] Charles Rosen has argued that this assertion on Haydn's part was not just sales talk, but meant quite seriously; and he points out a number of important advances in Haydn's compositional technique that appear in these quartets, advances that mark the advent of the Classical style in full flower. These include a fluid form of phrasing, in which each motif emerges from the previous one without interruption, the practice of letting accompanying material evolve into melodic material, and a kind of "Classical counterpoint" in which each instrumental part maintains its own integrity. These traits continue in the many quartets that Haydn wrote after Opus 33.^[65]

In the 1790s, stimulated by his England journeys, Haydn developed what Rosen calls his "popular style", a method of composition that, with unprecedented success, created music having great popular appeal but retaining a learned and rigorous musical structure.^[66] An important element of the popular style was the frequent use of folk or folk-like material, as discussed in the article Haydn and folk music. Haydn took care to deploy this material in appropriate locations, such as the endings of sonata expositions or the opening themes of finales. In such locations, the folk material serves as an element of stability, helping to anchor the larger structure.^[67] Haydn's popular style can be heard in virtually all of his later work, including the twelve London symphonies, the late quartets and piano trios, and the two late oratorios.

The house in Vienna where Haydn lived in the last years of his life, now a museum

The return to Vienna in 1795 marked the last turning point in Haydn's career. Although his musical style evolved little, his intentions as a composer changed. While he had been a servant, and later a busy entrepreneur, Haydn wrote his works quickly and in profusion, with frequent deadlines. As a rich man, Haydn now felt that he had the privilege of taking his time and writing for posterity. This is reflected in the subject matter of The Creation (1798) and The Seasons (1801), which address such weighty topics as the meaning of life and the purpose of humankind, and represent an attempt to render the sublime in music. Haydn's new intentions also meant that he was willing to spend much time on a single work: both oratorios took him over a year to complete. Haydn once remarked that he had worked on The Creation so long because he wanted it to last.^[68]

The change in Haydn's approach was important in the history of classical music, as other composers were soon following his lead. Notably, Beethoven adopted the practice of taking his time and aiming high.^[69]

Identifying Haydn's works[link]

Haydn's works are listed in a comprehensive catalogue prepared by Anthony van Hoboken. This Hoboken catalogue provides each work with an identifying number, called its Hoboken number (abbreviation: H. or Hob.). The string quartets also have Hoboken numbers, but are usually identified instead by their opus numbers, which have the advantage of indicating the groups of six quartets that Haydn published together; thus for example the string quartet Opus 76, No. 3 is the third of the six quartets published in 1799 as Opus 76.

Media[link]

Symphony No. 101, the Clock Symphony, 2nd movement (Chamber Arrangement) Performed by the Amigos do JPC with Pedro Carlos Silva (piano) Sonata 62, Hoboken XVI:52, 1st movement Performed by Kristian Cvetković Sonata 62, Hoboken XVI:52, 2nd movement Performed by Kristian Cvetković Sonata 54, Hoboken XVI:40, 1st movement MIDI performance by Bernd Krueger Sonata 54, Hoboken XVI:40, 2nd movement MIDI performance by Bernd Krueger Cello Concerto in D, 1st movement Performed by orchestra with cellist John Michel Cello Concerto in D, 3rd movement Performed by orchestra with cellist John Michel

Problems listening to these files? See media help.

See also[link]

Works[link]

• Hoboken catalogue
• List of concertos by Joseph Haydn
• List of masses by Joseph Haydn
• List of operas by Joseph Haydn
• List of piano trios by Joseph Haydn
• List of solo piano compositions by Joseph Haydn
• List of string quartets by Joseph Haydn
• List of symphonies by Joseph Haydn
• Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser (God save Franz, the Emperor; the melody was later used in Das Lied der Deutschen, which is still Germany's national anthem.)
• The Creation
• The Seasons
• Baryton, for the baryton trios Haydn wrote for prince Nikolaus Esterházy

Contemporaries[link]

• Haydn and Mozart
• Beethoven and his contemporaries, i.e., Joseph Haydn
• Marianne von Martinez—as a child one of Haydn's first students; as an adult a friend and an eminent musician in her own right
• Johann Peter Salomon—organizer of the London journeys
• Gottfried van Swieten—the librettist of The Creation and The Seasons
• List of Austrians in music

Other topics[link]

• Haydn and folk music
• Haydn's head—how it was stolen after his death
• Joseph Haydn's ethnicity—an old controversy: was Haydn a Croatian?
• List of residences of Joseph Haydn
• "Papa" Haydn
• Mannersdorf am Leithagebirge—where Haydn visited and built his career during summer 1753

Notes[link]

References[link]

Biographical sources

• Dies, Albert Christoph (1963). "Biographical Accounts of Joseph Haydn". In Gotwals, Vernon, translator and editor. Haydn: Two Contemporary Portraits. Milwaukee: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0-299-02791-0.  A translation from the original German: "Biographische Nachrichten von Joseph Haydn nach mündlichen Erzählungen desselben entworfen und herausgegeben" ("Biographical accounts of Joseph Haydn, written and edited from his own spoken narratives") (1810). Camesinaische Buchhandlung, Vienna. One of the first biographies of Haydn, written on the basis of 30 interviews carried out during the composer's old age.
• Finscher, Ludwig (2000). Joseph Haydn und seine Zeit. Laaber: Laaber-Verlag. ISBN 3-921518-94-6.  Highly detailed discussion of life and work; in German.
• Geiringer, Karl; Geiringer, Irene (1982). Haydn: A Creative Life in Music (3rd ed.). University of California. ISBN 0-520-04316-2.  The first edition was published in 1946 with Karl Geiringer as the sole author.
• Griesinger, Georg August (1963). "Biographical Notes Concerning Joseph Haydn". In Gotwals, Vernon, translator and editor. Haydn: Two Contemporary Portraits. Milwaukee: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0-299-02791-0.  A translation from the original German: "Biographische Notizen über Joseph Haydn" (1810). Leipzig. Like Dies's, a biography produced from interviews with the elderly Haydn.
• Hadden, James Cuthbert (2010). Haydn (Reissue ed.). London: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 1-108-01987-0. http://books.google.com/books?id=0IXbsEBrSK0C&pg=PA106. 
• Hughes, Rosemary (1970). Haydn (Revised ed.). New York: Farrar Strauss and Giroux. ISBN 0-460-02281-4.  Originally published in 1950. Gives a sympathetic and witty account of Haydn's life, along with a survey of the music.
• Jones, David Wyn (2009a) The Life of Haydn. Oxford University Press. Focuses on biography rather than musical works; an up-to-date study benefiting from recent scholarly research on Haydn's life and times.
• Jones, David Wyn (2009b) Oxford Composer Companions: Haydn. Oxford University Press. A one-volume encyclopedia with detailed contributions from many Haydn scholars.
• Landon, H.C. Robbins (1976–1980). Haydn: Chronicle and Works. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-37003-5.  An extensive compilation of original sources in five volumes.
• Landon, H. C. Robbins; Jones, David Wyn (1988). Haydn: His Life and Music. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-37265-9.  Biography chapters by Robbins Landon, excerpted from Robbins Landon (1976–1980) and rich in original source documents. Analysis and appreciation of the works by Jones.
• Larsen, Jens Peter (1980). "Joseph Haydn". New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.  Published separately as The New Grove: Haydn. New York: Norton. 1982. ISBN 0-393-01681-1. 
• Webster, James; Feder, Georg (2001). "Joseph Haydn". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.  Published separately as a book: The New Grove Haydn. New York: Macmillan. 2002. ISBN 0-19-516904-2.  Careful scholarship with little subjective interpretation; covers both life and music, and includes a very detailed list of works.

Criticism and analysis sources

• Brendel, Alfred (2001). "Does classical music have to be entirely serious?". In Margalit, Edna; Margalit, Avishai. Isaiah Berlin: A Celebration. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 193–204. ISBN 0-226-84096-4.  On jokes in Haydn and Beethoven.
• Clark, Caryl, ed. (2005). The Cambridge Companion to Haydn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-83347-7.  Covers each of the genres Haydn composed in as well as stylistic and interpretive contexts and performance and reception.
• Griffiths, Paul (1983). The String Quartet. New York: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0-500-01311-X. 
• Hughes, Rosemary (1966). Haydn String Quartets. London: BBC.  A brief (55 page) introduction to Haydn's string quartets.
• Rosen, Charles (1997). The classical style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven (2nd ed.). New York: Norton. ISBN 0-393-31712-9.  First edition published in 1971. Covers much of Haydn's output and seeks to explicate Haydn's central role in the creation of the classical style. The work has been influential, provoking both positive citation and work (e.g., Webster 1991) written in reaction.
• Sisman, Elaine (1993) Haydn and the classical variation. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-38315-X.
• Sutcliffe, W. Dean (1989). "Haydn's Musical Personality". The Musical Times 130 (1756): 341–344. DOI:10.2307/966030. JSTOR 966030. 
• Sutcliffe, W. Dean (1992). Haydn, string quartets, op. 50. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-39103-2.  Covers not just Op. 50 but also its relevance to Haydn's other output as well as his earlier quartets.
• Webster, James (1991). Haydn’s "Farewell" symphony and the idea of classical style: through-composition and cyclic integration in his instrumental music. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-38520-2.  This book focuses on a single work, but contains many observations and opinions about Haydn in general.

External links[link]

	Book: Joseph Haydn
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Joseph Haydn

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Joseph Haydn

Wikisource has the text of an Encyclopaedia Britannica (9th ed.) article about Joseph Haydn.

• Albert Christoph Dies: (German) Biographische Nachrichten von Joseph Haydn. Wien: Camesinaische Buchhandlung, 1810.
• Haydn's Late Oratorios: The Creation and The Seasons by Brian Robins
• Full text of the biography Haydn by J. Cuthbert Hadden, 1902, from Project Gutenberg. The end of book contains documentary material including a number of Haydn's letters. Alternatively scanned copy Haydn at archive.org.
• Works by or about Joseph Haydn in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• No Royal Directive: Joseph Haydn and the String Quartet by Ron Drummond
• musicologie.org, with biography (French)
• 'Haydn – Quartet in F minor, Op.20 No.5', Lecture by Professor Roger Parker, with the Badke Quartet, Gresham College, 8 April 2008 (available for video, audio and text download).
• Haydn anniversary page on Bachtrack, includes lists of live performances

Scores and recordings[link]

• Free scores by Joseph Haydn at the International Music Score Library Project
• Free scores by Joseph Haydn in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Free scores by Joseph Haydn in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
• www.kreusch-sheet-music.net – Free Scores by Haydn
• Free scores at the Mutopia Project
• Works by Joseph Haydn at Project Gutenberg
• Kunst der Fuge: Franz Joseph Haydn – Hundreds of MIDI files
• Haydn's page at Classical Archives
• Franz Joseph Haydn on Naxos Records
• Haydn Symphonies from the British Library Sound Archive
• Complete recording of Joseph Haydns Pianosonatas on a sampled Walther Pianoforte
• Complete recording of Joseph Haydns Pianosonatas on a sampled Steinwy D

Gabriel Urbain Fauré (pronounced: [ɡabʁiɛl yʁbɛ̃ fɔʁe]; 12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924)^{[n 1]} was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers. Among his best-known works are his Pavane, Requiem, nocturnes for piano, and the songs "Après un rêve" and "Clair de lune". Although his best-known and most accessible compositions are generally his earlier ones, Fauré composed many of his greatest works in his later years, in a harmonically and melodically much more complex style.

Fauré was born into a cultured but not especially musical family. His talent became clear when he was a small boy. At the age of nine he was sent to a music college in Paris, where he was trained to be a church organist and choirmaster. Among his teachers was Camille Saint-Saëns, who became a lifelong friend. After graduating from the college in 1865 Fauré earned a modest living as an organist and teacher, leaving him little time for composition. When he became successful in his middle age, holding the important posts of organist of the Église de la Madeleine and director of the Paris Conservatoire, he still lacked time for composing; he retreated to the countryside in the summer holidays to concentrate on composition. By his last years, Fauré was recognised in France as the leading French composer of his day. An unprecedented national musical tribute was held for him in Paris in 1922, headed by the president of the French Republic. Outside France, Fauré's music took decades to become widely accepted, except in Britain, where he had many admirers during his lifetime.

Fauré's music has been described as linking the end of Romanticism with the modernism of the second quarter of the 20th century. When he was born, Chopin was still composing, and by the time of Fauré's death jazz and the atonal music of the Second Viennese School were being heard. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, which describes him as the most advanced composer of his generation in France, notes that his harmonic and melodic innovations influenced the teaching of harmony for later generations. During the last twenty years of his life, he suffered from increasing deafness. In contrast with the charm of his earlier music, his works from this period are sometimes elusive and withdrawn in character, and at other times turbulent and impassioned.

Biography[link]

Early years[link]

Fauré was born in Pamiers, Ariège, Midi-Pyrénées, in the south of France, the fifth son and youngest of six children of Toussaint-Honoré Fauré (1810–85) and Marie-Antoinette-Hélène Lalène-Laprade (1809–87).^[3] According to the biographer Jean-Michel Nectoux, the Fauré family (pronounced "Faoure" in the local dialect) dates back to the 13th century in that part of France.^[4] The family had at one time been substantial landowners, but by the 19th century its means were reduced. The composer's paternal grandfather, Gabriel, was a butcher whose son became a schoolmaster.^[5] In 1829 Fauré's parents married. His mother was the daughter of a minor member of the nobility. He was the only one of the six children to display musical talent; his four brothers pursued careers in journalism, politics, the army and the civil service, and his sister had a conventional life as the wife of a public servant.^[3]

The young Fauré was sent to live with a foster mother until he was four years old.^[6] When his father was appointed director of the École Normale d'Instituteurs, a teacher training college, at Montgauzy, near Foix, in 1849, Fauré returned to live with his family.^[7] There was a chapel attached to the school, which Fauré recalled in the last year of his life:

I grew up, a rather quiet well-behaved child, in an area of great beauty. ... But the only thing I remember really clearly is the harmonium in that little chapel. Every time I could get away I ran there – and I regaled myself. ... I played atrociously ... no method at all, quite without technique, but I do remember that I was happy; and if that is what it means to have a vocation, then it is a very pleasant thing.^[8]

An old blind woman, who came to listen and give the boy advice, told his father of Fauré's gift for music.^[6] In 1853 Simon-Lucien Dufaur de Saubiac, of the National Assembly,^{[n 2]} heard Fauré play and advised Toussaint-Honoré to send him to the École de Musique Classique et Religieuse (School of Classical and Religious Music), which Louis Niedermeyer was setting up in Paris.^[13] After reflecting for a year, Fauré's father agreed and took the nine-year-old boy to Paris in October 1854.^[14]

Helped by a scholarship from the bishop of his home diocese, Fauré boarded at the school for 11 years.^[15] The régime was austere, the rooms gloomy, the food mediocre, and the required uniform elaborate.^{[9][n 3]} The musical tuition, however, was excellent.^[9] Niedermeyer, whose goal was to produce qualified organists and choirmasters, focused on church music. Fauré's tutors were Clément Loret for organ, Louis Dietsch for harmony, Xavier Wackenthaler for counterpoint and fugue, and Niedermeyer for piano, plainsong and composition.^[14]

When Niedermeyer died in March 1861, Camille Saint-Saëns took charge of piano studies and introduced contemporary music, including that of Schumann, Liszt and Wagner.^[17] Fauré recalled in old age: "After allowing the lessons to run over, he would go to the piano and reveal to us those works of the masters from which the rigorous classical nature of our programme of study kept us at a distance and who, moreover, in those far-off years, were scarcely known. ... At the time I was 15 or 16, and from this time dates the almost filial attachment ... the immense admiration, the unceasing gratitude I [have] had for him, throughout my life."^[18]

Saint-Saëns took great pleasure in his pupil's progress, which he helped whenever he could; Nectoux comments that at each step in Fauré's career "Saint-Saëns's shadow can effectively be taken for granted."^[19] The close friendship between them lasted until Saint-Saëns died sixty years later.^[1] Fauré won many prizes while at the school, including a premier prix in composition for the Cantique de Jean Racine, Op. 11, the earliest of his choral works to enter the regular repertory.^[14] He left the school in July 1865, as a Laureat in organ, piano, harmony and composition, with a Maître de Chapelle diploma.^[20]

Organist and composer[link]

On leaving the École Niedermeyer, Fauré was appointed organist at the Church of Saint-Sauveur, at Rennes in Brittany. He took up the post in January 1866.^[21] During his four years at Rennes he supplemented his income by taking private pupils, giving "countless piano lessons".^[22] At Saint-Saëns's regular prompting he continued to compose, but none of his works from this period survive.^[23] He was bored at Rennes and had an uneasy relationship with the parish priest, who correctly doubted Fauré's religious conviction.^[24] Fauré was regularly seen stealing out during the sermon for a cigarette, and in early 1870, when he turned up to play at Mass one Sunday still in his evening clothes having been out all night at a ball, he was asked to resign.^[24] Almost immediately, with the discreet aid of Saint-Saëns, he secured the post of assistant organist at the church of Notre-Dame de Clignancourt, in the north of Paris.^[25] He remained there for only a few months. On the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 he volunteered for military service. He took part in the action to raise the Siege of Paris, saw action at Le Bourget, Champigny and Créteil,^[26] and was awarded a Croix de Guerre.^[27]

After France's defeat by Prussia there was a brief, bloody conflict within Paris from March to May 1871 during the Commune.^[27] Fauré escaped to Rambouillet where one of his brothers lived, and then travelled to Switzerland, where he took up a teaching post at the École Niedermeyer, which had temporarily relocated there to avoid the violence in Paris.^[27] His first pupil at the school was André Messager, who became a lifelong friend and occasional collaborator.^[28] Fauré's compositions from this period did not overtly reflect the turmoil and bloodshed. Some of his colleagues including Saint-Saëns, Gounod and Franck produced elegies and patriotic odes. Fauré did not, but according to his biographer Jessica Duchen, his music acquired "a new sombreness, a dark-hued sense of tragedy ... evident mainly in his songs of this period including L'Absent, Seule! and La Chanson du pêcheur."^[29]

When Fauré returned to Paris in October 1871 he was appointed choirmaster at the Église Saint-Sulpice under the composer and organist Charles-Marie Widor.^[28] In the course of his duties he wrote several canticles and motets, few of which have survived.^[30] During some services Widor and Fauré improvised simultaneously at the church's two organs, trying to catch each other out with sudden changes of key.^[29] Fauré regularly attended Saint-Saëns's musical salons and those of Pauline Viardot, to whom Saint-Saëns introduced him.^[14] Fauré was a founding member of the Société Nationale de Musique, formed in February 1871 under the joint chairmanship of Romain Bussine and Saint-Saëns, to promote new French music.^[31] Other members included Georges Bizet, Emmanuel Chabrier, Vincent d'Indy, Henri Duparc, César Franck, Édouard Lalo and Jules Massenet.^[32] Fauré became secretary of the society in 1874.^[33] Many of his works were first presented at the society's concerts.^[33]

In 1874 Fauré moved from Saint-Sulpice to the Église de la Madeleine, deputising for the principal organist, Saint-Saëns, during the latter's many absences on tour.^[34] Some admirers of Fauré's music have expressed regret that although he played the organ professionally for four decades, he left no solo compositions for the instrument.^[35] He was renowned for his improvisations,^[36] and Saint-Saëns said of him that he was "a first class organist when he wanted to be".^[37] Nevertheless, Fauré preferred the piano to the organ, which he played only because it gave him a regular income.^[37] Duchen speculates that he positively disliked the organ, possibly because "for a composer of such delicacy of nuance, and such sensuality, the organ was simply not subtle enough."^[38]

The year 1877 was significant for Fauré, both professionally and personally.^[39] In January his first violin sonata was performed at a Société Nationale concert with great success, marking a turning-point in his composing career at the age of 31.^[39] Nectoux counts the work as the composer's first great masterpiece.^[40] In March, Saint-Saëns retired from the Madeleine, succeeded as organist by Théodore Dubois, his choirmaster; Fauré was appointed to take over from Dubois.^[39] In July Fauré became engaged to Pauline Viardot's daughter Marianne, with whom he was deeply in love.^[39] To his great sorrow, she broke off the engagement in November 1877, for reasons that are not clear.^[41] To distract Fauré, Saint-Saëns took him to Weimar and introduced him to Franz Liszt. This visit gave Fauré a liking for foreign travel, which he indulged for the rest of his life.^[41] From 1878, he and Messager made trips abroad to see Wagner operas. They saw Das Rheingold and Die Walküre at Cologne Opera; the complete Ring cycle at the Hofoper in Munich and at Her Majesty's Theatre in London; and Die Meistersinger in Munich and at Bayreuth, where they also saw Parsifal.^[42] They frequently performed as a party piece their joint composition, the irreverent Souvenirs de Bayreuth. This short, up-tempo piano work for four hands sends up themes from The Ring.^[43] Fauré admired Wagner and had a detailed knowledge of his music,^[44] but he was one of the few composers of his generation not to come under Wagner's musical influence.^{[n 4]}

Middle years[link]

In 1883 Fauré married Marie Fremiet, the daughter of a leading sculptor, Emmanuel Fremiet.^{[46][n 5]} The marriage was affectionate, but Marie became resentful of Fauré's frequent absences, his dislike of domestic life – "horreur du domicile" – and his love affairs, while she remained at home.^[46] Though Fauré valued Marie as a friend and confidante, writing to her often – sometimes daily – when away from home, she did not share his passionate nature, which found fulfilment elsewhere.^[47] Contemporary accounts agree that Fauré was extremely attractive to women;^{[n 6]} in Duchen's phrase, "his conquests were legion in the Paris salons."^[49] After a romantic attachment to the singer Emma Bardac from around 1892,^[50] followed by another to the composer Adela Maddison,^[51] in 1900 Fauré met the pianist Marguerite Hasselmans, the daughter of Alphonse Hasselmans. This led to a relationship which lasted for the rest of Fauré's life; he maintained her in a Paris apartment, and she acted openly as his companion.^[52]

Fauré and his wife had two sons. The first, born in 1883, Emmanuel Fauré-Fremiet (Marie insisted on combining her family name with Fauré's), became a biologist of international reputation.^[53] The second son, Philippe, born in 1889, became a writer; his works included histories, plays, and biographies of his father and grandfather.^[54] To support his family, Fauré spent most of his time in running the daily services at the Madeleine and giving piano and harmony lessons.^[55] His compositions earned him a negligible amount, because his publisher bought them outright, paying him an average of 60 francs for a song, and Fauré received no royalties.^[56] During this period, he wrote several large-scale works, in addition to many piano pieces and songs, but he destroyed most of them after a few performances, only retaining a few movements in order to re-use motifs.^[14] Among the works surviving from this period is the Requiem, begun in 1887 and revised and expanded, over the years, until its final version dating from 1901.^[57] After its first performance, in 1888, the priest in charge told the composer, "We don't need these novelties: the Madeleine's repertoire is quite rich enough."^[58]

As a young man Fauré had been very cheerful; a friend wrote of his "youthful, even somewhat child-like, mirth."^[59] From his thirties he suffered bouts of depression, which he described as "spleen", possibly first caused by his broken engagement and his lack of success as a composer.^[14] In 1890 a prestigious and remunerative commission to write an opera with lyrics by Paul Verlaine was aborted by the poet's drunken inability to deliver a libretto. Fauré was plunged into so deep a depression that his friends were seriously concerned about his health.^[60] Winnaretta de Scey-Montbéliard,^{[n 7]} always a good friend to Fauré, invited him to Venice, where she had a palazzo on the Grand Canal.^[61] He recovered his spirits and began to compose again, writing the first of his five Mélodies de Venise, to words by Verlaine, whose poetry he continued to admire despite the operatic debacle.^[62]

About this time, or shortly afterwards, Fauré's liaison with Emma Bardac began; in Duchen's words, "for the first time, in his late forties, he experienced a fulfilling, passionate relationship which extended over several years".^[63] His principal biographers all agree that this affair inspired a burst of creativity and a new originality in his music, exemplified in the song cycle La bonne chanson.^[64] Fauré wrote the Dolly Suite for piano duet between 1894 and 1897 and dedicated it to Bardac's daughter Hélène, known as "Dolly".^{[14][n 8]} Some people suspected that Fauré was Dolly's father, but biographers including Nectoux and Duchen think it unlikely: Fauré's affair with Emma Bardac is thought to have begun after Dolly was born, though there is no conclusive evidence either way.^[65]

During the 1890s Fauré's fortunes improved. When Ernest Guiraud, professor of composition at the Paris Conservatoire, died in 1892, Saint-Saëns encouraged Fauré to apply for the vacant post. The faculty of the Conservatoire regarded Fauré as dangerously modern, and its head, Ambroise Thomas, blocked the appointment, declaring, "Fauré? Never! If he's appointed, I resign."^[66] However, Fauré was appointed to another of Guiraud's posts, inspector of the music conservatories in the French provinces.^[67] He disliked the prolonged travelling around the country that the work entailed, but the post gave him a steady income and enabled him to give up teaching amateur pupils.^[68]

In 1896 Ambroise Thomas died, and Théodore Dubois took over as head of the Conservatoire. Fauré succeeded Dubois as chief organist of the Madeleine. Dubois' move had further repercussions: Jules Massenet, professor of composition at the Conservatoire, had expected to succeed Thomas, but had overplayed his hand by insisting on being appointed for life.^[69] He was turned down, and when Dubois was appointed instead of him, Massenet resigned his professorship in fury.^[70] Fauré was appointed in his place.^[71] He taught many young composers, including Maurice Ravel, Florent Schmitt, Charles Koechlin, Louis Aubert, Jean Roger-Ducasse, George Enescu, Paul Ladmirault, Alfredo Casella and Nadia Boulanger.^[14] In Fauré's view, his students needed a firm grounding in the basic skills, which he was happy to delegate to his capable assistant André Gedalge.^[72] His own part came in helping them make use of these skills in the way that suited each student's talents. Roger-Ducasse later wrote: "Taking up whatever the pupils were working on, he would evoke the rules of the form at hand ... and refer to examples, always drawn from the masters."^[73] Ravel always remembered Fauré's open-mindedness as a teacher. Having received Ravel's string quartet with less than his usual enthusiasm, Fauré asked to see the manuscript again a few days later, saying, "I could have been wrong".^[74] The musicologist Henry Prunières wrote, "What Fauré developed among his pupils was taste, harmonic sensibility, the love of pure lines, of unexpected and colorful modulations; but he never gave them [recipes] for composing according to his style and that is why they all sought and found their own paths in many different, and often opposed, directions."^[75]

Fauré's works of the last years of the century include incidental music for the English premiere of Maurice Maeterlinck's Pelléas et Mélisande (1898) and Prométhée, a lyric tragedy composed for the amphitheatre at Béziers. Having been written for outdoor performance, the work is scored for huge instrumental and vocal forces. Its premiere in August 1900 was a great success, and it was revived at Béziers the following year and in Paris in 1907. A version with orchestration for normal opera house-sized forces was given at the Paris Opéra in May 1917 and received more than forty performances in Paris thereafter.^{[n 9]} From 1903 to 1921, Fauré regularly wrote music criticism for Le Figaro, a role in which he was not at ease. Nectoux writes that Fauré's natural kindness and broad-mindedness predisposed him to emphasise the positive aspects of a work.^[14]

Head of Paris Conservatoire[link]

In 1905 a scandal erupted in French musical circles over the country's top musical prize, the Prix de Rome. Fauré's pupil, Maurice Ravel, had been eliminated prematurely in his sixth attempt for this award and many believed that reactionary elements within the Conservatoire had played a part in it.^[77] Dubois, who became the subject of much censure, announced his retirement and stepped down at once.^[78] Appointed in his place, and with the support of the French government, Fauré radically changed the administration and curriculum. He appointed independent external judges to decide on admissions, examinations and competitions, a move which enraged faculty members who had given preferential treatment to their private pupils; feeling themselves deprived of a considerable extra income, many of them resigned.^[79] Fauré was dubbed "Robespierre" by disaffected members of the old guard as he modernised and broadened the range of music taught at the Conservatoire. As Nectoux puts it, "where Auber, Halévy and especially Meyerbeer had reigned supreme ... it was now possible to sing an aria by Rameau or even some Wagner – up to now a forbidden name within the Conservatoire's walls".^[80] The curriculum now ranged from Renaissance polyphony to the works of Debussy.^[80]

Fauré's new position left him better off financially. However, while he also became much more widely known as a composer, running the Conservatoire left him with no more time for composition than when he was struggling to earn a living as an organist and piano teacher.^[81] As soon as the working year was over, in the last days of July, he would leave Paris and spend the two months until early October in a hotel, usually by one of the Swiss lakes, to concentrate on composition.^[82] His works from this period include his lyric opera, Pénélope (1913), and some of his most characteristic later songs (e.g., the cycle La chanson d'Ève, Op. 95, completed in 1910) and piano pieces (Nocturnes Nos. 9–11; Barcarolles Nos. 7–11, written between 1906 and 1914).^[14]

Fauré was elected to the Institut de France in 1909, after his father-in-law and Saint-Saëns, both long-established members, had canvassed strongly on his behalf. He won the ballot by a narrow margin, with 18 votes against 16 for the other candidate, Widor.^{[83][n 10]} In the same year a group of young composers led by Ravel and Koechlin broke with the Société Nationale de Musique, which under the presidency of Vincent d'Indy had become a reactionary organization, and formed a new group, the Société Musicale Indépendante. While Fauré accepted the presidency of this society, he also remained a member of the older one and continued on the best of terms with d'Indy; his sole concern was the fostering of new music.^[83] In 1911 he oversaw the Conservatoire's move to new premises in the rue de Madrid.^[82] During this time, Fauré developed serious problems with his hearing. Not only did he start to go deaf, but sounds became distorted, so that high and low notes sounded painfully out of tune to him.^[85]

The turn of the 20th century saw an upswing in the popularity of Fauré's music in Britain, and to a lesser extent in Germany, Spain and Russia.^[86] He visited England frequently, and an invitation to play at Buckingham Palace in 1908 opened many other doors in London and beyond.^[87] He attended the London premiere of Elgar's First Symphony, in 1908, and dined with the composer afterwards.^[88] Elgar later wrote to their mutual friend Frank Schuster that Fauré "was such a real gentleman – the highest kind of Frenchman and I admired him greatly."^[89] Elgar tried to get Fauré's Requiem put on at the Three Choirs Festival, but it did not finally have its English premiere until 1937, nearly fifty years after its first performance in France.^[89] Composers from other countries also loved and admired Fauré. In the 1880s Tchaikovsky had thought him "adorable";^[90] Albéniz and Fauré were friends and correspondents until the former's early death in 1909;^[91] Richard Strauss sought his advice;^[92] and in Fauré's last years, the young Aaron Copland was a devoted admirer.^[1]

The outbreak of the First World War almost stranded Fauré in Germany, where he had gone for his annual composing retreat. He managed to get from Germany into Switzerland, and thence to Paris.^[93] He remained in France for the duration of the war. When a group of French musicians led by Saint-Saëns tried to organise a boycott of German music, Fauré and Messager dissociated themselves from the idea, though the disagreement did not affect their friendship with Saint-Saëns.^{[n 11]} Fauré did not recognise nationalism in music, seeing in his art "a language belonging to a country so far above all others that it is dragged down when it has to express feelings or individual traits that belong to any particular nation."^[96] Nevertheless, he was aware that his own music was respected rather than loved in Germany. In January 1905, visiting Frankfurt and Cologne for concerts of his music, he had written: "The criticisms of my music have been that it's a bit cold and too well brought up! There's no question about it, French and German are two different things."^[97]

Last years and legacy[link]

In 1920, at the age of 75, Fauré retired from the Conservatoire because of his increasing deafness and frailty.^[14] In that year he received the Grand-Croix of the Légion d'honneur, an honour rare for a musician. In 1922 the president of the republic, Alexandre Millerand, led a public tribute to Fauré, a national hommage, described in The Musical Times as "a splendid celebration at the Sorbonne, in which the most illustrious French artists participated, [which] brought him great joy. It was a poignant spectacle, indeed: that of a man present at a concert of his own works and able to hear not a single note. He sat gazing before him pensively, and, in spite of everything, grateful and content."^[85]

Fauré suffered from poor health in his later years, brought on in part by heavy smoking. Despite this, he remained available to young composers, including members of Les Six, most of whom were devoted to him.^{[85][n 12]} Nectoux writes: "In old age he attained a kind of serenity, without losing any of his remarkable spiritual vitality, but rather removed from the sensualism and the passion of the works he wrote between 1875 and 1895."^[14]

In his last months Fauré struggled to complete a string quartet. Twenty years earlier he had been the dedicatee of Ravel's String Quartet. Ravel and others urged Fauré to compose one of his own. He refused for many years, on the grounds that it was too difficult. When he finally decided to write it, he did so in trepidation, telling his wife, "I've started a Quartet for strings, without piano. This is a genre which Beethoven in particular made famous, and causes all those who are not Beethoven to be terrified of it."^[99] He worked on the piece for a year, finishing it on 11 September 1924, less than two months before he died, working long hours towards the end to complete it.^[100] The quartet was premiered after his death;^[101] he declined an offer to have it performed privately for him in his last days, as his hearing had deteriorated to the point where musical sounds were horribly distorted in his ear.^[102]

Fauré died in Paris from pneumonia on 4 November 1924 at the age of 79. He was given a state funeral at the Église de la Madeleine and is buried in the Passy Cemetery in Paris.^[103]

After Fauré's death the Conservatoire abandoned his radicalism and became resistant to new trends in music, with Fauré's own harmonic practice being held up as the farthest limit of modernity, beyond which students should not go.^[104] His successor, Henri Rabaud, director of the Conservatoire from 1922 to 1941, declared "modernism is the enemy".^[105] The generation of students born between the wars rejected this outdated premise, turning for inspiration to Bartók, the Second Viennese School and the latest works of Stravinsky.^[104]

In a centenary tribute in 1945 the musicologist Leslie Orrey wrote in The Musical Times: "'More profound than Saint-Saëns, more varied than Lalo, more spontaneous than d'Indy, more classic than Debussy, Gabriel Fauré is the master par excellence of French music, the perfect mirror of our musical genius.' Perhaps, when English musicians get to know his work better, these words of Roger-Ducasse will seem, not over-praise, but no more than his due."^[106]

Music[link]