Which enormously influential classical composer spent much of his career as a court musician for the wealthy Hungarian aristocratic Esterházy family?
"Joseph Haydn (Franz) Joseph Haydn (; ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the piano trio. His contributions to musical form have earned him the epithets ""Father of the Symphony"" and ""Father of the String Quartet"". Haydn spent much of his career as a court musician for the wealthy Esterházy family at their remote estate. Until the later part of his life, this isolated him from other composers and trends in music so that he was, as he put it, ""forced to"
"Nikolaus I, Prince Esterházy Nikolaus I, Prince Esterházy (, ; 18 December 1714 – 28 September 1790) was a Hungarian prince, a member of the famous Esterházy family. His building of palaces, extravagant clothing, and taste for opera and other grand musical productions led to his being given the title ""the Magnificent"". He is remembered as the principal employer of the composer Joseph Haydn. Nikolaus Esterházy was the son of Prince Joseph (József Simon Antal, 1688–1721), and the younger brother of Prince Paul Anton (Pál Antal, 1711–1762). He took the title of Prince on his brother's death. His name is"
"few months that he survived her. Haydn was touchingly loyal to his prince, but probably felt a certain sense of relief when Nikolaus finally died, on 28 September 1790. Nikolaus I, Prince Esterházy Nikolaus I, Prince Esterházy (, ; 18 December 1714 – 28 September 1790) was a Hungarian prince, a member of the famous Esterházy family. His building of palaces, extravagant clothing, and taste for opera and other grand musical productions led to his being given the title ""the Magnificent"". He is remembered as the principal employer of the composer Joseph Haydn. Nikolaus Esterházy was the son of Prince"
"and Miklós József was the same person as Nikolaus Josef. In discussions written in English, the Esterházy princes are occasionally given English versions of their names, as in ""Nicholas"". The family name is also rendered variously: Eszterházy (Hungarian spelling), Esterházy (German), and Esterhazy (typographic convenience). The full family name since the 16th century was Eszterházy de Galántha (later also styled ""von/of Galanta""). The Latinised form of the family name, Estoras, in 2009 is used to label fine Esterházy wines. The Esterházy family is known for its association with the composer Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), who served as their Kapellmeister. Haydn was"
"to loneliness and tedium among the musicians. This is seen in some of Haydn's letters, as well as in the famous tale of the Farewell Symphony. <br> Eszterháza Esterháza is a palace in Fertőd, Hungary, built by Prince Nikolaus Esterházy. Sometimes called the ""Hungarian Versailles"", it is Hungary's grandest Rococo edifice. Esterháza was not the primary or ancestral home of the Esterházy family; that was Schloss Esterházy, a palace nearby (), in Eisenstadt. Miklós Esterházy began his plans for a new palace not long after he became reigning prince in 1762 on the death of his brother Paul Anton. Before"
"Nikolaus II, Prince Esterházy Nicholas II, Prince Esterházy (, ; 12 December 1765 – 1833) was a wealthy Hungarian prince. He served the Austrian Empire and was a member of the famous Esterházy family. He is especially remembered for his art collection and for his role as the last patron of Joseph Haydn. Nikolaus was born in Vienna on 12 December 1765, the son of Prince Anton Esterházy and his first wife, Maria Theresia, Countess Erdödy de Monyorokerek et Monoszlo (1745–1782). His father Anton was the son of Nikolaus I, whom he succeeded as reigning prince on the latter's death"
"itself in the Schloss Esterházy. With its size and ornate splendor, it reflects the political, economic and cultural dominance of the Esterházy family. Today it ranks among the most beautiful and acoustically perfect concert halls of the world. Its name goes back to the famous composer Joseph Haydn, who worked for nearly forty years in the service of the Esterházy family. Many of his works were composed and premiered in Eisenstadt and the Schloss Esterházy. The Haydnsaal was established under Paul Esterházy the first, in the course of the baroque building phase (1663–72). It was part of plans made by"
"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 Esterháza, 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, the job was in artistic terms a superb opportunity for Haydn. The Esterházy princes (Paul Anton, then from 1762–1790 Nikolaus I) were musical connoisseurs who appreciated his work and gave him"
"hold wreaths of flowers in the shape of an 'E'. From 1766 to 1790, the estate was the home of the celebrated composer Joseph Haydn, where he lived in a four-room flat in a large two-storey building housing servants' quarters, separate from the palace. Haydn wrote the majority of his symphonies for the Prince's orchestra. Eszterháza also had two opera houses, the main theatre seating 400 (destroyed by fire in 1779) and a marionette theatre; Haydn conducted his own and others' operas, often with more than a hundred performances per year. The palace was geographically isolated, a factor which led"
"fiddlers Csaba Ökrös and Balázs Vizeli, cimbalomist Kálmán Balogh, violinist Félix Lajkó (from Subotica in Serbia) and multi-instrumentalist Mihály Dresch. Hungary's most important contribution to the worldwide field of European classical music is probably Franz Liszt, a renowned pianist in his own time and a well-regarded composer of 19 ""Hungarian Rhapsodies"" and a number of symphonic poems such as ""Les préludes"". Liszt was among the major composers during the late 19th century, a time when modern Hungarian classical music was in its formative stage. Along with Liszt and his French Romantic tendencies, Ferenc Erkel's Italian and French-style operas, with Hungarian"
"steady stream of new music for the prince's amusement. Nikolaus had eight years prior to this date built the Eszterháza palace southeast of Vienna (in Hungary), where the court resided for most of the year. While the palace itself was one of the most splendid in Austria, and was dubbed the ""Hungarian Versailles"", it was built over a large swamp; it was humid throughout the year, with a ""vexatious, penetrating north wind"" from which Haydn and the other musicians in the court suffered. Moreover, it was far from Vienna, and the musicians (Haydn, as Kapellmeister, excepted) had to leave their"
"19th century saw dramatic changes in society and in music technology which had far-reaching effects on the way chamber music was composed and played. Throughout the 18th century, the composer was normally an employee of an aristocrat, and the chamber music he or she composed was for the pleasure of aristocratic players and listeners. Haydn, for example, was an employee of Nikolaus I, Prince Esterházy, a music lover and amateur baryton player, for whom Haydn wrote many of his string trios. Mozart wrote three string quartets for the King of Prussia, Frederick William II, a cellist. Many of Beethoven's quartets"
"and ultimately the law intervened, subjecting him to a sequestration order (1832). Mraz describes the end of his life as ""ignominious"". He died in 1833 in Como, Italy. Haydn biographer Karl Geiringer describes Nikolaus II thus: ""He was as complete an autocrat as his grandfather had been, but lacked the latter's charm, kindliness, and genuine understanding of music . . . contemporaries described the prince's nature as 'worthy of an Asiatic despot'"". Nikolaus II, Prince Esterházy Nicholas II, Prince Esterházy (, ; 12 December 1765 – 1833) was a wealthy Hungarian prince. He served the Austrian Empire and was a"
"a complex rhythmic structure. Italian religious music played an important role in this development, which was documented in an ""unparalleled example of ancient Hungarian music"", the ""Harmonia Caelestis"" of Prince Pál Eszterházy, who tried to create a distinctively Hungarian style of church music using influences from opera, oratio literature, the German music of Johann Kaspar von Kerll and Johann Schmeltzer, and the oratorio and cantata styles. Eszterházy's efforts did not last, as the following century saw an influx of muic from Western Europe under the Habsburgs. Around the start of the 18th century, however, the last national uprising of the"
"Op. 10 (1902) and ""Variations on a Nursery Tune"" for piano and orchestra, Op. 25 (1914). Ernst von Dohnányi Ernő Dohnányi (; 27 July 18779 February 1960) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and conductor. He used a German form of his name, Ernst von Dohnányi, on most of his published compositions. The ""von"" implies nobility, and, according to the biography by his third wife, his family was ennobled in 1697 and given a family crest, which she describes in some detail. Dohnányi was born in Pozsony, Kingdom of Hungary, Austria-Hungary (today Bratislava, capital of Slovakia). He first studied music with"
"duos, and many baryton trios (written for Prince Nikolaus I, a baryton player). Luigi Tomasini Luigi Tomasini (or Alois Luigi Tomasini, 22 June 1741 – 25 April 1808) was an Italian violinist and composer. He was leader of Prince Esterházy's court orchestra, which was directed by Joseph Haydn. Tomasini was born in Pesaro, Italy, in 1741. Discovered by Paul II Anton, Prince Esterházy, who was interested in music, he was engaged in 1757 as a servant; he was given musical training, and became a violinist in the prince's orchestra at his court in Eisenstadt. Joseph Haydn became the director of"
"the Esterházy musical ensemble performed Haydn's opera Acide as part of a lavish three-day celebration. Before Anton became reigning prince in 1790, his father had spent a great deal on music, particular the opera company. Anton was not particularly interested in music and wanted to cut back on expenditures. Thus when he became prince he dismissed most of the Esterházy musical establishment. He retained a small Harmonie (wind band), a few musicians for church music, and also allocated small salaries (400 florins) to retain the services of Haydn and of the first violinist Luigi Tomasini; neither was expected to work"
"new recordings of never-before-recorded early piano and vocal works. However, none of the composer's own performances are included in this 32-disc set . Béla Bartók Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Liszt are regarded as Hungary's greatest composers . Through his collection and analytical study of folk music, he was one of the founders of comparative musicology, which later became ethnomusicology. Bartók was born in the Banatian town of Nagyszentmiklós in"
"due to the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt, who in 1846 began composing 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies for piano, five of which were later orchestrated, thus being the first pieces of music by a major composer to incorporate sources from so-called “peasant music”. These works, which broke free from classical tradition, were often viewed by the elite as brash and unrefined, yet they deeply influenced others, like Johannes Brahms, and later Zoltán Kodály and Béla Bartók, even having an influence on American jazz. During the 20th century, Hungarian composers were influenced by the traditional music of their nation which may be considered"
"Rahier. The position was restored at Joseph Haydn's intervention. Johann was again unemployed from 1790 (when Prince Anton Esterházy succeeded Nikolaus and abolished most of the family's musical establishment) until 1795 (when Anton's successor Nikolaus II revived it). Nothing is known about what Johann did during this time. Following his reinstatement, he continued in the service of the Esterházy family for the remainder of his life, dying in Eisenstadt at the age of 63. Johann Evangelist Haydn Johann Evangelist Haydn (December 23, 1743 – May 10, 1805) was a tenor singer of the classical era; the younger brother of the"
"Forchtenstein Castle, Paul founded the Esterházy family's treasure house and created an extensive portrait gallery of Esterházy family ancestors. Paul was an accomplished musical amateur, composer, and patron of the arts. He composed numerous cantatas, the most notable of which are ""Harmonia Caelestis"". ""Harmonia Caelestis"" is a cycle of 55 sacred cantatas composed in the Baroque style published in Vienna in 1711. Paul was one of the chief compilers of the ""Trophaeum Domus Inclytae Estorationae"". Paul used his great wealth in the liberal patronage of art and literature. He founded the Esterházy private chapel, famous for its solo singers, chorus,"
"of the Age of Enlightenment. Freemasonry became also popular, especially among the magnates. Cultural differences between the magnates and lesser noblemen increased. The magnates adopted the lifestyle of the imperial aristocracy, moving between their summer palaces in Vienna and their newly built splendid residences in Hungary. Prince Miklós Esterházy employed Joseph Haydn; Count János Fekete, a fierce protector of noble privileges, bombarded Voltaire with letters and dilettante poems; Count Miklós Pálffy proposed to tax the nobles to finance a standing army. However, most noblemen was unwilling to renounces their privileges. Lesser noblemen also insisted on their traditional way of life"
"Haydn appear to have been friendly. The prince lent Haydn 450 gulden to cover his travel expenses on the first London journey. When in 1791 Anton wrote Haydn asking him to return to compose and direct an opera celebrating Anton's installation as Lord Lieutenant of Oedenberg, Haydn refused, as he had entered into contractual obligations. The composer feared for his job, but Anton did not fire him. Anton I, Prince Esterházy Anton (Antal), Prince Esterházy de Galántha (11 April 1738 – 22 January 1794) was a prince of Hungary, a member of the wealthy Esterházy family. At the time of"
"Luigi Tomasini Luigi Tomasini (or Alois Luigi Tomasini, 22 June 1741 – 25 April 1808) was an Italian violinist and composer. He was leader of Prince Esterházy's court orchestra, which was directed by Joseph Haydn. Tomasini was born in Pesaro, Italy, in 1741. Discovered by Paul II Anton, Prince Esterházy, who was interested in music, he was engaged in 1757 as a servant; he was given musical training, and became a violinist in the prince's orchestra at his court in Eisenstadt. Joseph Haydn became the director of the prince's orchestra in 1761, and Tomasini became konzertmeister. The orchestra continued under"
"at the court; previously, there had been seven years of relative inactivity following the death of Prince Joseph in 1721; his widow Maria Octavia, serving as co-regent for her young son Paul Anton, had instituted economies in the musical establishment. Robbins Landon and Jones suggest that Werner was hired at the then 17-year-old prince's instigation. Werner set to work, bringing new music to the court from Vienna and composing prolifically. He remained in full charge of the Esterházy musical establishment until 1761, when he entered a period of semi-retirement, his responsibilities limited to church music. Throughout this time he worked"
"Paul I, Prince Esterházy Paul I, Prince Esterházy of Galántha (full German name: ""Paul Fürst Esterházy von Galantha""; full Hungarian name: ""galánthai herceg Esterházy Pál"") (8 September 1635 – 26 March 1713) was the first Prince Esterházy of Galántha from 1687 to 1713, Palatine of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1681 to 1713, and an Imperial Field Marshal. Paul was also an accomplished poet, harpsichordist, and composer. He actively participated in various battles against the Ottoman Turks during the Fourth Austro-Turkish War (1663–1664) and the Great Turkish War (1662–1669). Paul is credited with establishing the wealth, power, and influence of"
"Ernst von Dohnányi Ernő Dohnányi (; 27 July 18779 February 1960) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and conductor. He used a German form of his name, Ernst von Dohnányi, on most of his published compositions. The ""von"" implies nobility, and, according to the biography by his third wife, his family was ennobled in 1697 and given a family crest, which she describes in some detail. Dohnányi was born in Pozsony, Kingdom of Hungary, Austria-Hungary (today Bratislava, capital of Slovakia). He first studied music with his father, a professor of mathematics and an amateur cellist, and then, when he was eight"
"Béla Bartók Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Liszt are regarded as Hungary's greatest composers . Through his collection and analytical study of folk music, he was one of the founders of comparative musicology, which later became ethnomusicology. Bartók was born in the Banatian town of Nagyszentmiklós in the Kingdom of Hungary, Austria-Hungary (since 1920 Sânnicolau Mare, Romania) on 25 March 1881. Bartók had a diverse ancestry. On his father's side,"
"Nikolaus, Count Esterházy Baron, later Count Nikolaus Esterházy de Galántha () (Galanta, April 8, 1583 – Großhöflein, September 11, 1645) was the founder of the West-Hungarian noble House of Esterházy which became one of the grandest and most influential aristocratic families of the Kingdom of Hungary. The Habsburg noted Baron Nikolaus because he was one of the few members of the Hungarian nobility to convert to Catholicism, and also because of his zeal in fighting the Turks. His first marriage with Orsolya Dersffy made him immensely rich and brought him also the lordships of Munkács (today: ""Mukachevo, Ukraine"") and Lánzsér-Lakompak"
"baryton's role as the primary melody instrument in this music. Prince Esterházy's instrument was kept in the family's collections after his death. Much later (1949), it became the property of the (then-communist) Hungarian government when, on coming to power, it confiscated the Esterházy estates and installed the instrument in the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest, where it may be viewed today. A relatively negative assessment of the baryton trios is offered by David Wyn Jones, who writes that they ""could be written on automatic pilot (though one prone to creative computer error)."" Referring to Prince Esterházy's command to compose the"
"children, Nikolaus inherited the title of Prince. In 1766, Nikolaus began the construction of a magnificent new palace constructed at Eszterháza (now Fertőd), in rural Hungary on the site of his old hunting lodge. This is the most admired of the various Esterházy homes, is often called the ""Hungarian Versailles,"" and is a tourist attraction today. The Prince at first spent only summers there, but gradually came to spend ten months of the year—much to the distress of his musicians; see the tale of the ""Farewell"" Symphony. Nikolaus evidently did not enjoy Vienna (where most of the Empire's landed aristocrats"
"girls. Like many cultivated women of the time, she was an amateur musician and could play the piano. She continued her piano studies in adulthood (see below). The friendship with Haydn began in 1789. At this time, the composer was 57 years old, and was nearing the end of his nearly 30 years of full-time service with Esterhazy princes, the latter half spent mostly at the remote palace of Esterháza in Hungary. Although he was the most celebrated of all composers at the time, he still was bound by loyalty and economic considerations to his Prince. Haydn frequently sought to"
"Eighty-four compositions of his remain . Bihari was an accomplished violinist during his lifetime, and he played in the court in Vienna during the entire Congress of Vienna in 1814. Another composer of verbunkos was József Kossovits (d. c. 1819). Already with the establishment in 1837 of the Hungarian National Theatre in Pest the verbunkos style had begun to change under the influence of the first director of the theatre and Hungary's most important operatic composer, Ferenc Erkel, whose most successful operas were Hunyadi László (1844) and Bánk bán (1861) . Béla Bartók's ""Contrasts"" (1938), a trio for clarinet, piano"