Franz Joseph Haydn

Haydn, Franz Joseph (1732–1809), Austrian composer who established the accepted classical forms of the symphony, string quartet, and piano sonata. He was court musician to the Esterházy family from 1761 to 1790 and was a close friend of Mozart. His huge output includes 107 symphonies, hundreds of chamber works and violin and piano concertos, some 25 operatic works, several great masses (notably the Nelson mass), and various religious works, including two oratorios The Creation (1798) and The Seasons (1801).