Rohrau was a small village situated on a small river, Leitha, less than 30 miles southeast of Vienna. For more than three decades, Haydn's world would be a relatively small world bordered by Hainburg in the east, and by Vienna in the west and north. The southern point was the Esterazy Castle at Eisenstadt and was extended a few more miles to the south at Esterháza when that facility was ready in 1768. Joseph went to live with his uncle in Hainburg at the age of six. Hainburg was a small village on the Danube less than 30 miles directly east of Vienna. It was from his older cousin in Hainburg (town school master and parish choir director) that he received his first studies in music. Haydn had a beautiful voice, and it was upon his being heard singing in Hainburg that he was sent to Vienna at the age of eight to become a choirboy, but he received no theoretical training in music while in that service. He was dismissed from the choir when his voice changed (he was replaced by his younger brother Michael), and Haydn was forced to find odd jobs and some occasional teaching to sustain himself. During this time he studied Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum and acquired counterpoint through his own efforts. But he later admitted that he was not well trained musically, and although he composed a great deal, it was not always "correct." During these adolescent years, Haydn was often on the verge of starvation. This is in great contrast to his later career where he became well-known, highly revered, and of considerable means.

Haydn gradually became known to influential people and he managed to study composition briefly with the Italian opera composer Nicola Porpora. The elderly Porpora was looking for a young professional to assist him in his teaching. Haydn accompanied the voice lessons of Porpora, and it was in this context that Haydn learned the Italian vocal style and the role of accompaniment. In fact, Haydn's earliest works reveal him as an aspiring opera composer, and much of his early life was involved in music for the stage, along with his rising instrumental prowess. We focus so much attention on Haydn's instrumental music that we sometimes lose sight of the fact that writing and producing operas were among his primary duties for the Esterhazy family. At times he was so engulfed in preparing operas that he scarecly had time for his other compositional work.

Haydn's reputation had begun to attract attention. Sometime around 1756-57, Haydn wrote his first string quartet at Wenzierl Castle, the home of the Fürnberg family which appears to have been Haydn's first patron. By his mid-twenties, Haydn secured the post of music director for the chapel of Count von Morzinn where he composed his first symphony for that Bohemian nobleman's orchestra. His symphonies, divertimenti, and string quartets were becoming known among the nobility who supported music as part of their domestic activity and rivalry. From 1757-60s, Haydn's first string quartets revealed a master of musical imagination and ingenuity. The string quartets (actually divertimenti) were establishing parameters for the medium, even as Haydn experimented with the formal design of the movements, favoring a five movement arch form in which the outer movements were allegros in the emerging sonata form, movements II and IV were minuets, and the middle movement was a slow ABA form or fantasia. The early symphonies also revealed Haydn as a master of musical ideas and structure. Present in these early works was the mid-Century style in which facets of Baroque style and practice (concerto grosso style, continuo, etc.) were synthesized in emerging classical aesthetic ideals of clarity and balance. The Baroque affect now lingered in Stürm und Drang and Empfindsamkeit, which lent a highly personal stamp to a universal style that was beginning to appear through a synthesis of national practices.

Haydn's successes as a composer and musician were winning the public's attention and affection. The availability of Count von Morzinn's excellent chamber orchestra, which included superb french hornists, gave Haydn a laboratory to explore his musical ideas. It was during this time that Haydn married Maria Anna Aloysia Appollonia Keller in Vienna's St. Stephens's Cathedral (November 26, 1760). This was the same cathedral where Haydn had sung as a choirboy. The marriage was obviously not compatible and his wife remained in the shadows throughout his life. An artist who painted a portrait of Haydn around 1770, Ludwig Guttenbrunn, became Frau Haydn's lover while at Eszterhaza. Haydn had many affairs throughout his life and remarked that he always seemed to have the attention of beautiful ladies, even though he couldn't understand why they were attracted to him.. His wife died of arthritis in Baden in 1780, naming Haydn in her Last Will and Testament to be her residuary legatee.

It was not long after Haydn's marriage, that in 1761 Count Morzinn closed his music Capelle for lack of funds, and Haydn was forced again to look for employment. Haydn's growing reputation attracted the attention of the Esterhazy court, and by March of 1761, Haydn was beginning to reorganize the Capelle of the Esterhazy Court. Several new musicians were hired, including Haydn as Vice-Kapellmeister under Gregor Werner.

The Kapellmeister, Gregor Werner, was elderly and was essentially continuing to serve as the head of the Esterhazy Capelle, even though he was too infirm to actually perform his duties. This reflected the loyalty of the Esterhazy family, a loyalty that Haydn was also to enjoy throughout his long association with the family. The Esterhazy family had an enormous appetite for music, and Haydn was thrust into the center of music activity within the court. Three of his eartly symphonies (Nos. 6-8) "Le Matin, Le Midi," and "Le Soir" were composed during this time and likely performed in the Great Hall of the Esterhazy Palace in Vienna for Prince Paul Anton. He was extremely productive during this time as the Vice Kapellmeister, composing numerous symphonies, divertimenti and operas for special occasions.

Among his final works as Vice Kapellmeister in 1765, were at least four symphonies and numerous other works which are difficult to precisely date. The symphonies (though not necessarily in this order) were: Symphonies 28, 29, 30 (Alleluja), and 31. Haydn's relations with Werner were not amicable. Werner, an old man without much real authority seemed increasingly embittered at the success and renown of his Vice Kapellmeister. In October of 1765, Werner wrote to Prince Nicolaus of Haydn's "gross negligence, high expenses," and the "lazy idleness" of the musicians. Werner died on March 6th, 1766, and Haydn assumed his duties as the Kappelmeister.

The arena of activity of the Esterhazy family included the Esterhazy Palace in Wallnerstrasse, Vienna and the Castle at Eisenstadt which was located about 35 miles south of Vienna between the Leitha River and the Neuseidler See. The diagram of the Castle at Eisenstadt shows the castle at the left and the hunting grounds of the Esterhazy family that Haydn knew very well as he had a passion for hunting. Later, when Nicolaus I inherited the Esterhazy title in March 1762, the plans for the largest secular construction project within the Monarchy, Eszterháza , were drawn, and construction began in earnest in 1766. This enormous complex of concert and opera halls was essentially complete enough for Haydn and his musicians to take residence in 1768 although all of the details of the buildings and gardens in this enormous complex were not completed until 1784.

The Esterhazy court had succeeded in acquiring the genius of perhaps the most gifted composer in the world at that time, although his reputation as such would not emerge until a number of years later. Nevertheless, the magnificent Court and estate of the Esterhazy family set the stage for some of the most remarkable development of music over three decades, developments that altered the course of Western music.