One of the most productive and renowned composers of his period, also playing violin and keyboard, recognised today as the father of the modern symphony and the string quartet. His music has defined the classical period of music. By one estimate, he composed over 340 hours of music, more than Mozart, Beethoven, Handel or Bach. Two of his most important pieces are "The Creation", composed when he was 56, where he "tested the boundaries of classical music" by escaping existing rules in the classical music world, and "The Seasons". He also wrote the tune for the German and Austrian national anthems.
Born to a financially modest family in an Austrian village, his father realised the young boy's early talent and sent him, when he was 6, to live with relatives with musical ties and the ability to provide him musical education. When he was 15, he became a freelancer musician. As his skills increased, he began to acquire public reputation and acquired aristocratic sponsoring.
Haydn's most well known student was Beethoven (although Beethoven is believed to have said that "I learned nothing from Haydn") and his music style has influenced the music of his current and subsequent composers, including Mozart, with whom there was a musical esteem and strong friendship. But unlike Mozart, Haydn made a lot of money from his work and lived for a very long time.
Haydn was a hard worker and a humble man, but apart from his music, he was also well known for his pranks. In one of his pranks, when he was 16 and had been told that he was to leave the choir, as his voice was beginning to break, he decided to cut the pigtail off from the boy in front of him.
His success in music did not match success in his personal life. As he didn't marry the woman he loved, he married her sister and they were never happy together.
In 1791, he accepted an invitation to England to conduct new symphonies. London became an influential for him place, where he also became highly appreciated by the public through his public appearances.
