Which 18th century composer earned the epithets “Father of the Symphony and String Quarter“?

Because of his contributions to musical form, Franz Joesph Haydn (1732-1809), the 18th century Austrian composer, earned the epithets “Father of the Symphony” and “Father of the String Quartet”. He composed during the Classical period, an era between roughly 1730 to 1820. Haydn was instrumental in the development of chamber music including the piano trio (usually three instruments including a violin and a cello).

As a court musician for the wealthy Esterhazy family (a Hungarian noble family that had origins in the Middle Ages), at their remote estate, Haydn was isolated from other contemporary composers and emergent trends in music for the early part of his career. As a result, he was “forced to become original” he once stated. Much of his music during this time period was written to please a prince, and its emotional tone is correspondingly upbeat.

Later in his career he became a friend and mentor to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), a tutor of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), and he was the older brother of composer Michael Haydn (1737-1806).

A musical collector named Anthony van Hoboken (1887- 1983) created the Hoboken catalogue, a standard scholarly catalogue of Haydn’s works.