Joseph Haydn died on 31 May 1809 in Vienna, aged 77. An Austrian composer, Haydn spent nearly three decades in the service of the Esterházy princes, working at their remote palaces and writing music for their court. His isolation, he later said, forced him to be original. He is called the father of the symphony and the string quartet because he did so much to establish these forms. His works include more than one hundred symphonies, notably the London symphonies written for visits to England in the 1790s, and the oratorios The Creation and The Seasons. He was a friend of Mozart and briefly taught Beethoven. His tune for the Emperor's Hymn later became the melody of the German national anthem.
Before and after
- 12 February 1809Birth of Abraham Lincoln
- 31 March 1809Birth of Nikolai Gogol
- from 10 April 1809 to 14 October 1809War of the Fifth Coalition
- 8 May 1809Battle of Piave River
- 31 May 1809Death of Joseph Haydn
- 14 June 1809Battle of Raab
- from 27 July 1809 to 28 July 1809Battle of Talavera
- 16 August 1809Founding of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
- from 1 October 1809 to 5 December 1917Grand Duchy of Finland
More in Art, literature & culture
- 1792Publication of Dream of the Red Chamber
- 5 May 1821Founding of The Guardian
- 7 April 1837Publication of The Little Mermaid
- 21 February 1848Publication of The Communist Manifesto
- 18 September 1851Founding of The New York Times
- c. 1860sImpressionism
The era
This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 19th century.