125
At the Esterházy Palace, shown
here in an 18th-century image, Haydn
had a secure but onerous post—not
only composing, but also managing
musicians, manuscripts, and events.Op. 20, in which the gradual
liberation of the four parts into
solo voices within the quartet
framework marked a new
development of the genre.
Op. 20, No. 2 is particularly
interesting, as it reverses the more
usual form of a quartet, in which
the first violin dominates, by
casting the cello as top voice, the
second violin and viola below it,
while the first violin is initially
silent. The minuet third movement
of Op. 20, No. 4, is also innovative.
The standard pulse for minuets is
three, but here accents make it
sound as though it is in the rhythm
of two. Likewise, in three of the
finales (Op. 20, Nos. 2, 5, and 6),
Haydn uses a well-established
form, a fugue, to develop new ideas,
such as interrupting long stretches
of sotto voce (very soft) playing by
sudden bursts of forte (loud).European acclaim
Haydn is thought to have first met
Mozart in the early 1780s, and they
became close friends. With Haydn
on second violin, Mozart on viola,the Austrian Carl Ditters von
Dittersdorf on first violin, and the
Czech Johann Baptist Vanhal on
cello, the four composers would
often play quartets together and
experiment with each other’s
compositions. This led Mozart to
dedicate his first six mature string
quartets to Haydn.
As the demand for Haydn’s
music spread through Europe, his
quartets were performed in concert
halls as well as in private salons,
and he adjusted their style
accordingly. By making the first
violin parts ever more brilliant,
with higher notes and displays of
virtuosity, he naturally made the
lower three voices more athletic,
too. The performers also had to
learn to project their sound.A memorable, daring work
Haydn’s Op. 54, No. 2 in C major,
composed in 1788, is one of his
many exceptionally inventivequartets. He experimented with
almost all possible tonalities
(changes in pitch, and major and
minor modes), as well as Classical
forms (sonata, fugue, variations,
minuet, scherzo, and rondo).
There are quartets that are more
consistently virtuosic and more
brilliantly projected, and there
are also earlier compositions,
such as the slow movement of
his Op. 20, No. 1, that perhaps
better convey the perfect intimate
sound of a quartet, but the extreme
contrasts between the movements
of Op. 54, No. 2, as well as Haydn’s
inspired and brave decision to
end with a slow movement, single
this out as a truly memorable
piece of music. ❯❯See also: Corel li’s Concerti Grossi 80–81 ■ C.P.E. Bach’s Flute Concerto in A major 120–121 ■ Clementi’s Piano Sonata
in F-sharp minor 132–133 ■ Die schöne Müllerin 150 –155 ■ Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor 156–161CL ASSICAL 1750 –1820
When we invoke the name
Haydn, we mean one of
our greatest men ... Every
harmonic artifice is at
his command.
Ernst Ludwig Gerber
Organist and composer
(1746–1819)US_122-127_Haydn.indd 125 26/03/18 1:00 PM