Franz Joseph Haydn
1732 - 1809
Austrian composer. Intended for the priesthood, at the age of eight he was appointed to the choir of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, where he learned the violin and keyboard instruments.
After leaving the choir, he began to earn a living by teaching and playing the violin, while intensively studying counterpoint and harmony. Pietro Metastasio became aware of him and through him became the factotum of the composer Nicola Porpora in exchange for lessons.
After he was inducted into high society, he became head of the music house in the great palace of the Esterházy family in 1761, which was to support him for most of his career. In this position of artistic isolation, but with excellent means, Haydn felt free to experiment and was forced to become original.
In his later years he was recognized internationally as the greatest living composer. He composed important works in almost every genre, and his elegant and flattering works balance wit and seriousness, custom and innovation.
As the first great symphony orchestra, he composed 106 symphonies, including the popular last 12 "London Symphonies" (1791-95). He practically invented the string quartet, and his 68 quartets remain the foundation of the quartet literature.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
1756 - 1791
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one of the heavyweights of classical music and, alongside Beethoven and Bach, is generally classified in the top group of composers.
Many consider Mozart to be the greatest composer of all time. He was a child prodigy who wrote his first symphony at the age of eight and then grew into a productive adult who wrote over 600 pieces of music.
His best-known works include Eine kleine Nachtmusik (1787) as well as the operas Don Giovanni (1787) and Die Zauberflöte (Die Zauberflöte 1791). Mozart died of a mysterious fever at the age of 35.
Over the years, various people have speculated that Mozart may have been murdered by rival composer Antonio Salieri, but there is no evidence to support this theory. Mozart married the former Constanze Weber in 1782. She was the younger sister of Aloysia Weber, who a few years earlier had rejected Mozart's marriage proposal.
Ludwig van Beethoven
1770 - 1827
Mozart aside, Ludwig van Beethoven is the most famous classical composer in the western world. Beethoven is known for his powerful and stormy compositions and for continuing to compose and conduct even after he became deaf at the age of 28.
The ominous four-note beginning of his Fifth Symphony is one of the most famous moments in all of music. (Beethoven allegedly wrote in his notes as "Fate is knocking on the door.") He wrote a total of nine numbered symphonies:
His Third Symphony ("Eroica") and Sixth Symphony ("Pastoral") are particularly famous. Beethoven also wrote the popular "Mondschein" sonata (1801).
Beethoven never married. After his death, his friends found letters to a lover named "Immortal Lover" whose identity was never discovered.
Beethoven's exact date of birth is unknown; he was baptized on December 17, 1770 and probably born on December 16.
Carl Stamnitz
1745 - 1801
Carl Stamitz German composer was trained in Mannheim by his father and others and entered the court orchestra in 1762.
In 1770 he went to Paris, where he gave concerts as a violinist, viola player and viola d′amore player with his brother Anton and was at times composer and conductor for the Duke of Noailles.
From the 1770s he traveled as a virtuoso and performed in cities such as Vienna, London and The Hague. He was briefly concert director in Kassel (1789-90).
Lately his fame has been declining; In 1795 he became conductor and teacher at the University of Jena.
Stamitz was one of the most productive orchestral composers in Mannheim and wrote more than 50 symphonies, 38 concertante symphonies and 60 concerts. He also composed a lot of chamber music, two-stage works, and other vocal pieces.
Notable for its leisurely lyricism, his music combines Mannheim conventions with foreign features such as an Italian three-movement pattern in symphonies and the frequent use of rondos (popular in France) in finals.