String Quartets, Op. 20 (Haydn)
Encyclopedia
The six string quartets opus 20 by Joseph Haydn
are among the works that earned Haydn the sobriquet "the father of the string quartet." The quartets are considered a milestone in the history of composition; in them, Haydn develops compositional techniques that were to define the medium for the next 200 years.
The quartets, written in 1772, were composed at a time of tensions in Haydn's life, and also at a time when Haydn was influenced by new philosophical and political ideas that were sweeping Europe. Some analysts see the impact of these emotions
and ideas in the quartets.
to the Prince Nikolaus Esterházy
, a great lover of music. Haydn presided over the busy musical life of the court, producing opera
s, oratorio
s, and symphonic and chamber concerts, and writing a steady stream of new music for the prince's amusement.
Nikolaus had eight years prior to this date built the Eszterháza
palace southeast of Vienna, where the court resided for most of the year. While the palace itself was one of the most splendid in Austria, and was dubbed the "Hungarian Versailles", it was built over a large swamp; it was humid throughout the year, with a "vexatious, penetrating north wind" from which Haydn and the other musicians in the court suffered. Moreover, it was far from Vienna, and the musicians (Haydn, as Kapellmeister, excepted) had to leave their wives and families behind for many months. Consequently, there was much discontent among the musicians, and Haydn, like the others, suffered from bouts of depression and illness.
This atmosphere found its expression in the opus 20 quartets. "The designation affettuoso found twice in the directions for the tempo of slow movements can be applied to the whole opus," writes Geiringer. Haydn chooses minor keys for two of the quartets, unusual in a time where the minor was rarely used for this ensemble. In particular, the fifth quartet is in the unusual key of F minor, "a key that predisposes even Haydn to sombre thoughts," writes Cobbett.
But the sodden air of Eszterháza was not the only influence on the emotional character of the quartets. It was a time of ferment: new ideas that were to spur the Romantic movement in another 30 years were taking root. Philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau expounded a philosophy of human freedom and a return to nature. Poets Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
and Friedrich Schiller
espoused the new Sturm und Drang
movement, that "exalted nature, feeling, and human individualism and sought to overthrow the Enlightenment
cult of Rationalism." For Haydn, this meant the rejection of the Galante
style, the courtly, simplified, somewhat slender musical style prevalent at the time.
Analysts trace specific musical choices in the opus 20 quartets to these new ideas. For example, the minuet movement of the D major quartet (number 4) is replaced by a frenetic gypsy air titled "alla zingarese", full of offbeat rhythms. "Rousseau's 'back to nature' movement resulted in a general reawakening of interest in national folk music. Haydn showed himself in complete sympathy with this tendency," writes Geiringer. Three of the six quartets have fugue
s as finales. Counterpoint, the densely complex style of the Baroque
, had fallen out of favor with the Galante composers. "To emphasize his rejection of rococo lightness, Haydn reverted to Baroque features," writes Geiringer.
The opus 20 quartets were the third set of quartets Haydn wrote at Eszterháza. His dedication to the string quartet form is something of a mystery; there is no record of a string quartet concert performed at the palace during this period.. The set became known as the "Sun" quartets, because of the picture of a rising sun that graced the cover of an early edition The first known publication of the quartets was in 1774 by Chevardière in Paris and later (undated, probably in the 1780s or 1790s) by Artaria
in Vienna. The most commonly used Urtext edition
is by Eulenberg, published in the 1880s.
, ten years after the opus 20, he wrote that they were composed in "an entirely new and particular manner". But, if the opus 33 was the culmination of a process, opus 20 was the proving ground. In this set of quartets, Haydn defined the nature of the string quartet — the special interplay of instruments that Goethe called "four rational people conversing." Many of the compositional techniques used by composers of string quartets to the present day were tried out and perfected in these works.
"This cannot be overstated," writes Ron Drummond. "The six string quartets of Opus 20 are as important in the history of music, and had as radically a transforming effect on the very field of musical possibility itself, as Beethoven's Third Symphony would 33 years later." And Sir Donald Tovey writes of the quartets, "Every page of the six quartets of op. 20 is of historic and aesthetic importance... there is perhaps no single or sextuple opus in the history of instrumental music which has achieved so much."
Here are some of the innovations of the quartets:
Equality of voices: Prior to opus 20, the first violin, or, sometimes, the two violins, dominated the quartet. The melody was carried by the leader, with the lower voices (viola and cello) accompanying. In opus 20, Haydn gives each instrument, and particularly the cello, its own voice. An outstanding example of this is the second quartet in C major. The quartet opens with a cello solo, accompanied by the viola and second violin. This was virtually unheard of in Haydn's time. Another example is in the slow movement of the fourth quartet, in D major. This movement is a set of variations, written in D minor; the first variation is a duet between viola and second violin, and the third variation is a solo for cello.
Structural innovations: With the opus 20 quartets, Haydn moved forward the development of the Sonata form
. A movement written in sonata form has an exposition, where the themes and motifs of the movement are presented, a development section, where these themes are transformed, and a recapitulation, where the themes are restated. Traditionally, the restatement closely matched the original exposition. But Haydn, in opus 20, uses the restatement to further develop the material of the movement. For example, in the F minor quartet, number 5, Haydn embellishes the original theme, and rearranges the original material, adding to the musical tension as the movement moves to the coda. In the G minor quartet, number 3, the recapitulation is hardly a recapitulation at all; while all the original materials are included, they are rearranged and transformed.
There are other structural innovations in opus 20. Haydn develops the idea of "false reprise". In the fourth quartet, in D major, for example, Haydn sneaks into the recapitulation of the first movement, treating it dramatically as though it is a continuation of the development. Haydn also experiments with cyclical structure: the reuse of thematic and rhythmic materials in different movements, to give an overall unity to the piece.
Depth of expression: Haydn experiments with expressive techniques in the quartets. An example of this is the G minor quartet, number 3, where Haydn defies the standard practice of ending each movement with a cadence played forte. Instead, Haydn ends each movement piano or pianissimo. Another example is the F minor quartet, number 5; this quartet, writes Tovey, "is the most nearly tragic work Haydn ever wrote; its first movement being of astonishing depth of thought."
Length and symmetry of phrases: Haydn experiments with asymmetrical phrases and syncopations. The common practice of the time was to write melodies that divided neatly into four- and eight-measure chunks. But the opening phrase of the third quartet, in G minor, is seven measures long, and the minuet of the same quartet has a melody that is divided into two phrases of five measures each.
Indeed, in opus 20, most of the minuet
movements are minuets in name only. The minuet was a court dance, through-choreographed, built of four groups of four measures in 3/4 time. The minuets of opus 20, with the exception of numbers 1 and 6, would be impossible to dance to, as they do not have this formal structure. The minuet of the second quartet in C major is built of tied suspensions in the first violin, viola and cello, so that the listener loses all sense of downbeat. The fourth quartet has the off-beat alla zingarese movement. The minuet of the fifth quartet has a first section of 18 measures, divided asymmetrically. So far did Haydn stray from the formal minuet dance structure, that in his next set of quartets, opus 33, he did not call them minuets at all, but rather scherzo
s.
Use of counterpoint: The fugal finales
of three of the six quartets are Haydn's statement of rejection of the galante
. Not only has Haydn rejected the freedom of the rococo style, he has emphasized that rejection by adhering to strict formality, and writing comments into the score explaining the fugal structure. "Al rovescio" he writes at one point in the last movement of quartet number two, where the fugal melody is played in inversion. "In canone" he writes in the finale of number 5. The finale of number six is a "Fuga a 3 Soggetti" (a fugue with three fugal subjects).
The fugal finales are not mere formalism, however; Haydn clothes them in a dramatic structure suitable for the Sturm und Drang. All three movements start out sotto voce
; as the fugue develops formally, the tension mounts, but Haydn does not increase the volume, until a sudden, startling burst of Forte. "Haydn has, in the quartets of opus 20, a hint of the emotional and dramatic impulse which became so volcanic in Beethoven's fugues," writes Donald Francis Tovey
Haydn's fugal finales are not the only use of counterpoint in these quartets. Haydn revives Baroque compositional techniques in other movements as well. The opening of the second quartet is essentially contrapuntal, with the viola and the second violins playing countersubjects to the cello's principal melodic line. Haydn also uses more obscure techniques; in the adagio movement of the fifth quartet, for example, he writes at one point "per figuram retardationes", meaning that the melodic line in the first violin lags behind the harmonic changes in the accompaniment. "Enormous importance lies in these fugues", writes Tovey. "Besides achieving in themselves the violent reconquest of the ancient kingdom of polyphony
for the string quartet, they effectively establish fugue texture from henceforth as a normal resource of sonata style."
form, Haydn nonetheless breaks with the standard quartet model of the period. The second theme of the exposition is presented by the cello, rather than the violin, playing in a high register above the viola accompaniment. Haydn also disguises the return to the recapitulation after the development section of the movement: after only three bars of development, Haydn returns to the theme in the tonic, suggesting the beginning of the recapitulation; but instead, deviates into a series of transpositions, finally sneaking back to the main theme when least expected. Haydn uses this trick of a pretended recap in others of the opus 20 quartets.
The second movement is a minuet, one of two from the set that follow all the rules of the traditional dance (the other is the minuet of number 6). The third movement is marked "Affettuoso e sostenuto", written in A flat major as an aria, with the first violin carrying the melody throughout. The finale, marked presto, is built on a six-measure phrase, with extensive use of syncopations in the first violin. In the middle of the movement there is an extended passage where the first violin plays syncopations and the other instruments are playing on the second beat of the 2/4 bar; no one plays on the downbeat, and toward the end of the passage the listener loses track of the meter, until the main theme returns.
The second movement opens with a bold unisono, then the cello states the theme. It is an emotionally charged movement, with dramatic shifts from pianissimo to forte, mixed with cantabile passages with a sextuplet accompaniment in the viola.
The minuet, like others in the set, defies choreography. In the opening section, all the instruments are tied across the barline, so the sense of downbeat dissipates. The effect recalls the sound of a musette de cour
, or other type of bagpipe. This movement, too, is very chromatic, with the melody of the second section built on a descending chromatic scale in the first violin.
The finale is a fugue with four subjects. Haydn marks the opening "sempre sotto voce". The fugue ripples along in an undertone, through various learned fugal maneuvers — a stretto, al rovescio. The texture gradually thins so that only two voices are playing at once, when suddenly the fugue bursts into Forte and cascades of sixteenth notes lead to the close of the quartet. In the autograph edition, Haydn wrote over this passage, "Laus. Omnip. Deo. Sic fugit amicus amicum" (Praise the Lord. Thus one friend flees another friend).
The enigma begins with the opening theme of the first movement: built of two phrases of seven measures each, it defies the galante practice of carefully balanced four- and eight-measure phrases. It is almost as if Haydn was wagging his tongue at his contemporaries, violating accepted shibboleths of composition. "Haydn's compositional freedom seems often defiantly at odds with what textbooks have to say," writes Drabkin. For example, Haydn inserts brief unisono passages in the major key, as a kind of exclamation mark; but, where such passages would normally be played forte, he has marked them piano for a surprisingly different effect.
Haydn continues the odd phrase structure in the minuet, which is built of five-measure units. Aside from its undanceable meter, the minuet is a sombre work, emphatically minor in character. The trio section of the minuet offers a brief respite with a first strain in E flat major; but the second strain returns to the minor, modulating down through several minor keys. The trio ends with a plagal cadence
to G major, for a Baroque-like Picardy third
conclusion; but then the minuet recapitulates in G minor. The move from G major back to G minor is so jolting that Drabkin speculates that the trio might possibly have been borrowed from another piece.
The third movement, marked Poco Adagio, is a long cantabile aria in G major, dominated by the first violin and the cello. After the first violin states the theme, the cello takes over with a long rippling line of sixteenth notes. The movement includes a haunting viola solo, unusual in Haydn's quartets, and in quartet writing from that period in general.
The finale is marked "Allegro molto". Here, too, Haydn continues to defy accepted practice. Here Haydn makes dramatic use of silence; the opening four-bar theme breaks off suddenly for a half-measure pause. Such pauses recur throughout the movement, giving the movement "a mildly disruptive effect", according to Drabkin. In this movement, Haydn also makes a number of surprising harmonic progressions. He ends the piece, surprisingly, with a descent from piano to pianissimo.
The quartet opens with a quiet, almost hymn-like statement of the theme. Suddenly there is a burst of arpeggio in the first violin, lapsing immediately back to the quiet of the first motive. The juxtaposition of calm and vigor continues through the exposition, to the statement of the second theme, and a short codetta leading to the development. In the development section, Haydn repeatedly offers false reprises: After a section of development, he presents a dominant arpeggio leading back to the first theme. But this is not the reprise, the development goes on. Haydn does this again, and yet again, then sneaks back into the real reprise in a way that the listener does not notice. The movement ends, like several others of the opus 20, in pianissimo.
The second movement, a set of variations in D minor, is one of Haydn's most profound, a rejection of the shallowness of the galante. "The poignant second movement Adagio moves the string quartet even farther from the concept of courtly entertainment," writes Miller. "In this wonderful movement, we have something of three centuries: the seventeenth century Baroque, the eighteenth century Classical, and the nineteenth century Romantic. Haydn's genius encompasses it all." The movement is distinguished by the concertante writing for each of the instruments: the second violin and viola in the first variation, the cello in the second variation, and the first violin in the third variation.
In the third movement, the Allegretto alla zingarese, the upper and lower voices play complex, interlocking cross-rhythms, confusing all sense of downbeat. Although the meter is in 3/4, the pulse is in two, with the strong beats of the upper voices alternating with the strong beats of the lower voices. The trio section of the movement is a cello solo, marching in perfectly regular 3/4 time, "the perfect foil to the Menuet alla zingarese."
The fourth movement continues the gypsy style of the third movement. Chromatic melodies, octave leaps, use of the gypsy scale
(a minor scale with raised fourth and raised seventh), and flashy virtuoso embellishments in the first violin make this movement "sheer fun for the listener and likewise for the players," writes Miller. The movement ends in pianissimo, "an ending that simply evaporates."
. The music rolls out almost without interruption; instead of ending each phrase with a cadence before beginning a new phrase, Haydn runs the phrases together, the end of one being the beginning of the next. Throughout the first movement — and, indeed, for almost the entire quartet — the first violin leads with the concertante part. Even so, the texture is not galante, for the other parts play important and independent roles throughout. Haydn in the recapitulation continues developing the melody with new embellishments, and the coda wanders through strange modulations — D flat major, G flat minor — before returning to the plaintive F minor conclusion.
The minuet continues the sombre mood in F minor. The character of the minuet is as far from that of a courtly dance as can be imagined. Again, the structure of the minuet is irregular and undanceable. The trio section, in F major, offers a brief respite from the relentless minor, but even this section is subdued in tone.
The slow movement is a Siciliana
, in F major. The 6/8 theme cycles throughout the movement, constantly transforming itself, while the first violin plays a concertante descant, floating over the theme, sometimes capturing it, then leaving it again.
The finale is a fugue with two subjects. The main subject is a standard fugal motif, used frequently in the Baroque (it appears, among other places, in Handel's Messiah
). While constructing a fugue in the strict, learned style, Haydn imbues the movement with an intense dramatic structure; like other fugues in the set, the entire first two thirds of the fugue is sotto voce. Out of this quiet the first violin suddenly erupts to a Forte, only to fall back into another piano section. The texture thins and the tension descends, until a second burst of Fortissimo, with first violin and cello playing the fugal subject in canon, leading to the dramatic finale.
The second movement, marked Adagio, is a variation on sonata form, modeled after a form developed by Haydn's contemporary, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
. The violins dominate, with the first violin playing the melody over rippling sixteenth notes in the second, or the second carrying the melody, with the first playing embellishments.
The minuet is in strict danceable form. The theme of the minuet is a variation of the first theme of the first movement — one of the most explicit examples of cyclic form
in Haydn's work.
The last movement is a fugue with three subjects. Like the other fugal finales in the set, this proceeds sempre sotto voce until nearly the end, when it breaks into Forte. Unlike the other fugues, however, this has none of the Sturm und Drang drama about it, but is predominantly major and upbeat in character.
Many great composers acknowledged their debt to Haydn and to these quartets. "It was from Haydn that I first learned the true way to write string quartets," wrote Mozart
. Mozart's Haydn Quartets
are his explicit acknowledgement of that debt. The immediate inspiration for the quartets is believed to be the opus 33 quartets, written by Haydn 10 years after opus 20; but the earlier quartets were the model in many cases. For example, the fugal finale of the first of Mozart's set (K. 387 in G major
) takes after the finale fugues of opus 20. The Sturm und Drang character of the second quartet (K. 421 in D minor
) recalls the F minor quartet, number 5, of Haydn's; not only does the first violin line recall the sombreness of Haydn's quartet, the accompaniment figure of the opening is a close copy of Haydn's.
Beethoven
also recognized the importance of Haydn's work. Before embarking on his own first set of string quartets, opus 18, Beethoven studied the scores of the Haydn opus 20 quartets, copying them out and scoring the first for string orchestra. Throughout his life, Beethoven had a love-hate relationship with Haydn: Haydn was one of Beethoven's teachers, and Haydn's criticisms of his early compositions rankled the young composer to the day of the elder composer's death. Yet, in spite of the antagonism, Beethoven spoke of Haydn with reverence. "Do not rob Handel, Haydn and Mozart of their laurel wreaths," he wrote in a letter in 1812, three years after Haydn's death. "They are entitled to theirs, I am not yet entitled to mine."
Brahms
was also a devotee of the opus 20 quartets. Brahms owned the autograph manuscript of the quartets, studied them carefully and annotated them. He bequeathed the manuscript to the Society of Friends of Music
in Vienna, where it is preserved today.
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
are among the works that earned Haydn the sobriquet "the father of the string quartet." The quartets are considered a milestone in the history of composition; in them, Haydn develops compositional techniques that were to define the medium for the next 200 years.
The quartets, written in 1772, were composed at a time of tensions in Haydn's life, and also at a time when Haydn was influenced by new philosophical and political ideas that were sweeping Europe. Some analysts see the impact of these emotions
Sturm und Drang
Sturm und Drang is a proto-Romantic movement in German literature and music taking place from the late 1760s through the early 1780s, in which individual subjectivity and, in particular, extremes of emotion were given free expression in reaction to the perceived constraints of rationalism...
and ideas in the quartets.
The quartets
The set of quartets includes the following (in order of their composition; the numbers assigned by the publisher are not the order of composition): Number 5, in F minor
Number 6, in A Major
Number 2, in C major
|
Number 3, in G minor
Number 4, in D major
Number 1, in E flat major
|
Composition
Haydn was 40 years old when he composed the opus 20 quartets, and was already well-established as one of the leading composers of Europe. He was KapellmeisterKapellmeister
Kapellmeister is a German word designating a person in charge of music-making. The word is a compound, consisting of the roots Kapelle and Meister . The words Kapelle and Meister derive from the Latin: capella and magister...
to the Prince Nikolaus Esterházy
Nikolaus Esterházy
Nikolaus Esterházy was a Hungarian prince, a member of the famous Esterházy family. His building of palaces, extravagant clothing, and taste for opera and other grand musical productions led to his being given the title "the Magnificent"...
, a great lover of music. Haydn presided over the busy musical life of the court, producing opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
s, oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
s, and symphonic and chamber concerts, and writing a steady stream of new music for the prince's amusement.
Nikolaus had eight years prior to this date built the Eszterháza
Eszterháza
Esterháza is a palace in Fertőd, Hungary, built by Prince Nikolaus Esterházy. Sometimes called the "Hungarian Versailles", it is Hungary's grandest Rococo edifice.-History:...
palace southeast of Vienna, where the court resided for most of the year. While the palace itself was one of the most splendid in Austria, and was dubbed the "Hungarian Versailles", it was built over a large swamp; it was humid throughout the year, with a "vexatious, penetrating north wind" from which Haydn and the other musicians in the court suffered. Moreover, it was far from Vienna, and the musicians (Haydn, as Kapellmeister, excepted) had to leave their wives and families behind for many months. Consequently, there was much discontent among the musicians, and Haydn, like the others, suffered from bouts of depression and illness.
This atmosphere found its expression in the opus 20 quartets. "The designation affettuoso found twice in the directions for the tempo of slow movements can be applied to the whole opus," writes Geiringer. Haydn chooses minor keys for two of the quartets, unusual in a time where the minor was rarely used for this ensemble. In particular, the fifth quartet is in the unusual key of F minor, "a key that predisposes even Haydn to sombre thoughts," writes Cobbett.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
and Friedrich Schiller
Friedrich Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life , Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang von Goethe...
espoused the new Sturm und Drang
Sturm und Drang
Sturm und Drang is a proto-Romantic movement in German literature and music taking place from the late 1760s through the early 1780s, in which individual subjectivity and, in particular, extremes of emotion were given free expression in reaction to the perceived constraints of rationalism...
movement, that "exalted nature, feeling, and human individualism and sought to overthrow the Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
cult of Rationalism." For Haydn, this meant the rejection of the Galante
Galante music
A new style of classical music, fashionable from the 1720s to the 1770s, was called Galante music. It consciously simplified contrapuntal texture and intense composing techniques that realized a pattern on the page and substituted a clear leading voice with a transparent accompaniment....
style, the courtly, simplified, somewhat slender musical style prevalent at the time.
Analysts trace specific musical choices in the opus 20 quartets to these new ideas. For example, the minuet movement of the D major quartet (number 4) is replaced by a frenetic gypsy air titled "alla zingarese", full of offbeat rhythms. "Rousseau's 'back to nature' movement resulted in a general reawakening of interest in national folk music. Haydn showed himself in complete sympathy with this tendency," writes Geiringer. Three of the six quartets have fugue
Fugue
In music, a fugue is a compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject that is introduced at the beginning in imitation and recurs frequently in the course of the composition....
s as finales. Counterpoint, the densely complex style of the Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
, had fallen out of favor with the Galante composers. "To emphasize his rejection of rococo lightness, Haydn reverted to Baroque features," writes Geiringer.
The opus 20 quartets were the third set of quartets Haydn wrote at Eszterháza. His dedication to the string quartet form is something of a mystery; there is no record of a string quartet concert performed at the palace during this period.. The set became known as the "Sun" quartets, because of the picture of a rising sun that graced the cover of an early edition The first known publication of the quartets was in 1774 by Chevardière in Paris and later (undated, probably in the 1780s or 1790s) by Artaria
Artaria
Artaria and company was one of the most important music publishing firms of the late 18th and 19th century. Founded in the 18th century in Vienna, the company is associated with many leading names of the classical era.- History :...
in Vienna. The most commonly used Urtext edition
Urtext edition
An urtext edition of a work of classical music is a printed version intended to reproduce the original intention of the composer as exactly as possible, without any added or changed material...
is by Eulenberg, published in the 1880s.
Opus 20 and the development of the string quartet
When Haydn published his opus 33 quartetsString Quartets, Op. 33 (Haydn)
The Op. 33 String Quartets were written by Joseph Haydn in the summer and Autumn of 1781 for the Viennese publisher Artaria. This set of quartets has several nicknames, the most common of which is the "Russian" quartets, because Haydn dedicated the quartets to the Grand Duke Paul of Russia and...
, ten years after the opus 20, he wrote that they were composed in "an entirely new and particular manner". But, if the opus 33 was the culmination of a process, opus 20 was the proving ground. In this set of quartets, Haydn defined the nature of the string quartet — the special interplay of instruments that Goethe called "four rational people conversing." Many of the compositional techniques used by composers of string quartets to the present day were tried out and perfected in these works.
"This cannot be overstated," writes Ron Drummond. "The six string quartets of Opus 20 are as important in the history of music, and had as radically a transforming effect on the very field of musical possibility itself, as Beethoven's Third Symphony would 33 years later." And Sir Donald Tovey writes of the quartets, "Every page of the six quartets of op. 20 is of historic and aesthetic importance... there is perhaps no single or sextuple opus in the history of instrumental music which has achieved so much."
Here are some of the innovations of the quartets:
Equality of voices: Prior to opus 20, the first violin, or, sometimes, the two violins, dominated the quartet. The melody was carried by the leader, with the lower voices (viola and cello) accompanying. In opus 20, Haydn gives each instrument, and particularly the cello, its own voice. An outstanding example of this is the second quartet in C major. The quartet opens with a cello solo, accompanied by the viola and second violin. This was virtually unheard of in Haydn's time. Another example is in the slow movement of the fourth quartet, in D major. This movement is a set of variations, written in D minor; the first variation is a duet between viola and second violin, and the third variation is a solo for cello.
Structural innovations: With the opus 20 quartets, Haydn moved forward the development of the Sonata form
Sonata form
Sonata form is a large-scale musical structure used widely since the middle of the 18th century . While it is typically used in the first movement of multi-movement pieces, it is sometimes used in subsequent movements as well—particularly the final movement...
. A movement written in sonata form has an exposition, where the themes and motifs of the movement are presented, a development section, where these themes are transformed, and a recapitulation, where the themes are restated. Traditionally, the restatement closely matched the original exposition. But Haydn, in opus 20, uses the restatement to further develop the material of the movement. For example, in the F minor quartet, number 5, Haydn embellishes the original theme, and rearranges the original material, adding to the musical tension as the movement moves to the coda. In the G minor quartet, number 3, the recapitulation is hardly a recapitulation at all; while all the original materials are included, they are rearranged and transformed.
There are other structural innovations in opus 20. Haydn develops the idea of "false reprise". In the fourth quartet, in D major, for example, Haydn sneaks into the recapitulation of the first movement, treating it dramatically as though it is a continuation of the development. Haydn also experiments with cyclical structure: the reuse of thematic and rhythmic materials in different movements, to give an overall unity to the piece.
Length and symmetry of phrases: Haydn experiments with asymmetrical phrases and syncopations. The common practice of the time was to write melodies that divided neatly into four- and eight-measure chunks. But the opening phrase of the third quartet, in G minor, is seven measures long, and the minuet of the same quartet has a melody that is divided into two phrases of five measures each.
Indeed, in opus 20, most of the minuet
Minuet
A minuet, also spelled menuet, is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in 3/4 time. The word was adapted from Italian minuetto and French menuet, and may have been from French menu meaning slender, small, referring to the very small steps, or from the early 17th-century popular...
movements are minuets in name only. The minuet was a court dance, through-choreographed, built of four groups of four measures in 3/4 time. The minuets of opus 20, with the exception of numbers 1 and 6, would be impossible to dance to, as they do not have this formal structure. The minuet of the second quartet in C major is built of tied suspensions in the first violin, viola and cello, so that the listener loses all sense of downbeat. The fourth quartet has the off-beat alla zingarese movement. The minuet of the fifth quartet has a first section of 18 measures, divided asymmetrically. So far did Haydn stray from the formal minuet dance structure, that in his next set of quartets, opus 33, he did not call them minuets at all, but rather scherzo
Scherzo
A scherzo is a piece of music, often a movement from a larger piece such as a symphony or a sonata. The scherzo's precise definition has varied over the years, but it often refers to a movement which replaces the minuet as the third movement in a four-movement work, such as a symphony, sonata, or...
s.
Use of counterpoint: The fugal finales
Fugue
In music, a fugue is a compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject that is introduced at the beginning in imitation and recurs frequently in the course of the composition....
of three of the six quartets are Haydn's statement of rejection of the galante
Galante music
A new style of classical music, fashionable from the 1720s to the 1770s, was called Galante music. It consciously simplified contrapuntal texture and intense composing techniques that realized a pattern on the page and substituted a clear leading voice with a transparent accompaniment....
. Not only has Haydn rejected the freedom of the rococo style, he has emphasized that rejection by adhering to strict formality, and writing comments into the score explaining the fugal structure. "Al rovescio" he writes at one point in the last movement of quartet number two, where the fugal melody is played in inversion. "In canone" he writes in the finale of number 5. The finale of number six is a "Fuga a 3 Soggetti" (a fugue with three fugal subjects).
The fugal finales are not mere formalism, however; Haydn clothes them in a dramatic structure suitable for the Sturm und Drang. All three movements start out sotto voce
Sotto voce
Sotto voce means intentionally lowering one's voice for emphasis. The speaker gives the impression of uttering involuntarily a truth which may surprise, shock, or offend...
; as the fugue develops formally, the tension mounts, but Haydn does not increase the volume, until a sudden, startling burst of Forte. "Haydn has, in the quartets of opus 20, a hint of the emotional and dramatic impulse which became so volcanic in Beethoven's fugues," writes Donald Francis Tovey
Donald Francis Tovey
Sir Donald Francis Tovey was a British musical analyst, musicologist, writer on music, composer, conductor and pianist...
Haydn's fugal finales are not the only use of counterpoint in these quartets. Haydn revives Baroque compositional techniques in other movements as well. The opening of the second quartet is essentially contrapuntal, with the viola and the second violins playing countersubjects to the cello's principal melodic line. Haydn also uses more obscure techniques; in the adagio movement of the fifth quartet, for example, he writes at one point "per figuram retardationes", meaning that the melodic line in the first violin lags behind the harmonic changes in the accompaniment. "Enormous importance lies in these fugues", writes Tovey. "Besides achieving in themselves the violent reconquest of the ancient kingdom of polyphony
Polyphony
In music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ....
for the string quartet, they effectively establish fugue texture from henceforth as a normal resource of sonata style."
Number 1, E flat major
While the first movement is in straightforward sonata-allegroSonata form
Sonata form is a large-scale musical structure used widely since the middle of the 18th century . While it is typically used in the first movement of multi-movement pieces, it is sometimes used in subsequent movements as well—particularly the final movement...
form, Haydn nonetheless breaks with the standard quartet model of the period. The second theme of the exposition is presented by the cello, rather than the violin, playing in a high register above the viola accompaniment. Haydn also disguises the return to the recapitulation after the development section of the movement: after only three bars of development, Haydn returns to the theme in the tonic, suggesting the beginning of the recapitulation; but instead, deviates into a series of transpositions, finally sneaking back to the main theme when least expected. Haydn uses this trick of a pretended recap in others of the opus 20 quartets.
The second movement is a minuet, one of two from the set that follow all the rules of the traditional dance (the other is the minuet of number 6). The third movement is marked "Affettuoso e sostenuto", written in A flat major as an aria, with the first violin carrying the melody throughout. The finale, marked presto, is built on a six-measure phrase, with extensive use of syncopations in the first violin. In the middle of the movement there is an extended passage where the first violin plays syncopations and the other instruments are playing on the second beat of the 2/4 bar; no one plays on the downbeat, and toward the end of the passage the listener loses track of the meter, until the main theme returns.
Number 2, C major
In this quartet, Haydn develops the equal interplay between the instruments, the quartet conversation. The first movement opens with a cello solo, playing above the accompanying instruments. In the course of the movement every instrument gets to play the solo — even the viola, who, "besides having a vote in the parliament of four... for once [is heard by Haydn] as he hears the cantabile of the 'cello," writes Tovey. The movement is markedly chromatic; the development ranges from C major, to A major, dipping into D major, A minor, F major, and even A flat major.The minuet, like others in the set, defies choreography. In the opening section, all the instruments are tied across the barline, so the sense of downbeat dissipates. The effect recalls the sound of a musette de cour
Musette de cour
The musette de cour or baroque musette is a musical instrument of the bagpipe family. Visually, the musette is characterised by the short, cylindrical shuttle-drone and the two chalumeaux. Both the chanters and the drones have a cylindrical bore and use a double reed, giving a quiet tone similar to...
, or other type of bagpipe. This movement, too, is very chromatic, with the melody of the second section built on a descending chromatic scale in the first violin.
The finale is a fugue with four subjects. Haydn marks the opening "sempre sotto voce". The fugue ripples along in an undertone, through various learned fugal maneuvers — a stretto, al rovescio. The texture gradually thins so that only two voices are playing at once, when suddenly the fugue bursts into Forte and cascades of sixteenth notes lead to the close of the quartet. In the autograph edition, Haydn wrote over this passage, "Laus. Omnip. Deo. Sic fugit amicus amicum" (Praise the Lord. Thus one friend flees another friend).
Number 3, G minor
"This quartet is among the more enigmatic pieces in the repertory," writes William Drabkin. "Indeed, the work is in so many respects unusual that it seems in places to defy interpretation."The enigma begins with the opening theme of the first movement: built of two phrases of seven measures each, it defies the galante practice of carefully balanced four- and eight-measure phrases. It is almost as if Haydn was wagging his tongue at his contemporaries, violating accepted shibboleths of composition. "Haydn's compositional freedom seems often defiantly at odds with what textbooks have to say," writes Drabkin. For example, Haydn inserts brief unisono passages in the major key, as a kind of exclamation mark; but, where such passages would normally be played forte, he has marked them piano for a surprisingly different effect.
Haydn continues the odd phrase structure in the minuet, which is built of five-measure units. Aside from its undanceable meter, the minuet is a sombre work, emphatically minor in character. The trio section of the minuet offers a brief respite with a first strain in E flat major; but the second strain returns to the minor, modulating down through several minor keys. The trio ends with a plagal cadence
Cadence (music)
In Western musical theory, a cadence is, "a melodic or harmonic configuration that creates a sense of repose or resolution [finality or pause]." A harmonic cadence is a progression of two chords that concludes a phrase, section, or piece of music...
to G major, for a Baroque-like Picardy third
Picardy third
A Picardy third is a harmonic device used in European classical music.It refers to the use of a major chord of the tonic at the end of a musical section which is either modal or in a minor key...
conclusion; but then the minuet recapitulates in G minor. The move from G major back to G minor is so jolting that Drabkin speculates that the trio might possibly have been borrowed from another piece.
The third movement, marked Poco Adagio, is a long cantabile aria in G major, dominated by the first violin and the cello. After the first violin states the theme, the cello takes over with a long rippling line of sixteenth notes. The movement includes a haunting viola solo, unusual in Haydn's quartets, and in quartet writing from that period in general.
The finale is marked "Allegro molto". Here, too, Haydn continues to defy accepted practice. Here Haydn makes dramatic use of silence; the opening four-bar theme breaks off suddenly for a half-measure pause. Such pauses recur throughout the movement, giving the movement "a mildly disruptive effect", according to Drabkin. In this movement, Haydn also makes a number of surprising harmonic progressions. He ends the piece, surprisingly, with a descent from piano to pianissimo.
Number 4, D major
If the third quartet of the set is the most obscure and difficult to understand, the fourth is the most popular. "... The D major quartet, opus 20 number 4, has met with more public recognition than the other five," writes Tovey.The quartet opens with a quiet, almost hymn-like statement of the theme. Suddenly there is a burst of arpeggio in the first violin, lapsing immediately back to the quiet of the first motive. The juxtaposition of calm and vigor continues through the exposition, to the statement of the second theme, and a short codetta leading to the development. In the development section, Haydn repeatedly offers false reprises: After a section of development, he presents a dominant arpeggio leading back to the first theme. But this is not the reprise, the development goes on. Haydn does this again, and yet again, then sneaks back into the real reprise in a way that the listener does not notice. The movement ends, like several others of the opus 20, in pianissimo.
The second movement, a set of variations in D minor, is one of Haydn's most profound, a rejection of the shallowness of the galante. "The poignant second movement Adagio moves the string quartet even farther from the concept of courtly entertainment," writes Miller. "In this wonderful movement, we have something of three centuries: the seventeenth century Baroque, the eighteenth century Classical, and the nineteenth century Romantic. Haydn's genius encompasses it all." The movement is distinguished by the concertante writing for each of the instruments: the second violin and viola in the first variation, the cello in the second variation, and the first violin in the third variation.
In the third movement, the Allegretto alla zingarese, the upper and lower voices play complex, interlocking cross-rhythms, confusing all sense of downbeat. Although the meter is in 3/4, the pulse is in two, with the strong beats of the upper voices alternating with the strong beats of the lower voices. The trio section of the movement is a cello solo, marching in perfectly regular 3/4 time, "the perfect foil to the Menuet alla zingarese."
The fourth movement continues the gypsy style of the third movement. Chromatic melodies, octave leaps, use of the gypsy scale
Gypsy scale
The term Gypsy scale, refers to one of several musical scales named after their association with Gypsy music.-Hungarian Gypsy scale:...
(a minor scale with raised fourth and raised seventh), and flashy virtuoso embellishments in the first violin make this movement "sheer fun for the listener and likewise for the players," writes Miller. The movement ends in pianissimo, "an ending that simply evaporates."
Number 5, F minor
This is the most emotionally intense of the opus 20 quartets. In the opening phrase, the violin sets the tone with a haunting melody. "Haydn, we might imagine, set out to test the limits of what the minor mode could express in this newly serious instrumental combination," writes Roger ParkerRoger Parker
Roger Parker is an English musicologist, and is currently Thurston Dart Professor of Music at King's College London....
. The music rolls out almost without interruption; instead of ending each phrase with a cadence before beginning a new phrase, Haydn runs the phrases together, the end of one being the beginning of the next. Throughout the first movement — and, indeed, for almost the entire quartet — the first violin leads with the concertante part. Even so, the texture is not galante, for the other parts play important and independent roles throughout. Haydn in the recapitulation continues developing the melody with new embellishments, and the coda wanders through strange modulations — D flat major, G flat minor — before returning to the plaintive F minor conclusion.
The minuet continues the sombre mood in F minor. The character of the minuet is as far from that of a courtly dance as can be imagined. Again, the structure of the minuet is irregular and undanceable. The trio section, in F major, offers a brief respite from the relentless minor, but even this section is subdued in tone.
The slow movement is a Siciliana
Siciliana
The siciliana or siciliano is a musical style or genre often included as a movement within larger pieces of music starting in the Baroque period. It is in a slow 6/8 or 12/8 time with lilting rhythms making it somewhat resemble a slow jig, and is usually in a minor key. It was used for arias in...
, in F major. The 6/8 theme cycles throughout the movement, constantly transforming itself, while the first violin plays a concertante descant, floating over the theme, sometimes capturing it, then leaving it again.
The finale is a fugue with two subjects. The main subject is a standard fugal motif, used frequently in the Baroque (it appears, among other places, in Handel's Messiah
Messiah (Handel)
Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742, and received its London premiere nearly a year later...
). While constructing a fugue in the strict, learned style, Haydn imbues the movement with an intense dramatic structure; like other fugues in the set, the entire first two thirds of the fugue is sotto voce. Out of this quiet the first violin suddenly erupts to a Forte, only to fall back into another piano section. The texture thins and the tension descends, until a second burst of Fortissimo, with first violin and cello playing the fugal subject in canon, leading to the dramatic finale.
Number 6, A major
This, the last quartet as published, but the second of the series as Haydn conceived them, is the most conservative of the set; Drabkin notes that it has much in common with the opus 9 quartets, written a year before. The quartet has the bright, optimistic character often associated with Haydn's music. The key is A major, a key that highlights the highest and brightest tones of the lead violin. Haydn has marked the first movement "Allegro di molto e Scherzando". Yet, here, too, Haydn is trying out new ideas. Traditionally, the exposition proceeds from a first theme in the tonic key to a second theme in the dominant. In the first movement, Haydn indeed proceeds to the dominant key of E major, but then shifts to E minor for the second theme. But he stays in that key only half a measure, modulating to C major, then to D major, and on, shifting keys relentlessly until he comes back to the dominant E major.The second movement, marked Adagio, is a variation on sonata form, modeled after a form developed by Haydn's contemporary, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
right|250pxCarl Philipp Emanuel Bach was a German Classical period musician and composer, the fifth child and second son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach...
. The violins dominate, with the first violin playing the melody over rippling sixteenth notes in the second, or the second carrying the melody, with the first playing embellishments.
The minuet is in strict danceable form. The theme of the minuet is a variation of the first theme of the first movement — one of the most explicit examples of cyclic form
Cyclic form
Cyclic form is a technique of musical construction, involving multiple sections or movements, in which a theme, melody, or thematic material occurs in more than one movement as a unifying device. Sometimes a theme may occur at the beginning and end Cyclic form is a technique of musical...
in Haydn's work.
The last movement is a fugue with three subjects. Like the other fugal finales in the set, this proceeds sempre sotto voce until nearly the end, when it breaks into Forte. Unlike the other fugues, however, this has none of the Sturm und Drang drama about it, but is predominantly major and upbeat in character.
Impact of the quartets
The opus 20 quartets changed forever the way composers would write string quartets. "When we consider the poor condition" of string quartet writing prior to Haydn, writes C. Ferdinand Pohl, "... it is impossible to overrate his creative powers."Many great composers acknowledged their debt to Haydn and to these quartets. "It was from Haydn that I first learned the true way to write string quartets," wrote Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
. Mozart's Haydn Quartets
Haydn Quartets (Mozart)
The "Haydn" Quartets by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart are a set of six string quartets published in 1785 in Vienna, dedicated to the composer Joseph Haydn. They are considered to be the pinnacle of Classical string quartet writing, containing some of Mozart's most memorable melodic writing and refined...
are his explicit acknowledgement of that debt. The immediate inspiration for the quartets is believed to be the opus 33 quartets, written by Haydn 10 years after opus 20; but the earlier quartets were the model in many cases. For example, the fugal finale of the first of Mozart's set (K. 387 in G major
String Quartet No. 14 (Mozart)
The String Quartet No. 14 in G major, K. 387, nicknamed the "Spring" quartet, was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1782 while in Vienna. In the composer's inscription on the title page of the autograph score is stated: "li 31 di decembre 1782 in vienna". The work was perhaps edited in 1783...
) takes after the finale fugues of opus 20. The Sturm und Drang character of the second quartet (K. 421 in D minor
String Quartet No. 15 (Mozart)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's String Quartet No. 15 in D minor K. 421/417b, the second of the Quartets dedicated to Haydn and the only one of the set in a minor key, is believed to have been completed in 1783. The quartet is, however, undated in the autograph....
) recalls the F minor quartet, number 5, of Haydn's; not only does the first violin line recall the sombreness of Haydn's quartet, the accompaniment figure of the opening is a close copy of Haydn's.
Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
also recognized the importance of Haydn's work. Before embarking on his own first set of string quartets, opus 18, Beethoven studied the scores of the Haydn opus 20 quartets, copying them out and scoring the first for string orchestra. Throughout his life, Beethoven had a love-hate relationship with Haydn: Haydn was one of Beethoven's teachers, and Haydn's criticisms of his early compositions rankled the young composer to the day of the elder composer's death. Yet, in spite of the antagonism, Beethoven spoke of Haydn with reverence. "Do not rob Handel, Haydn and Mozart of their laurel wreaths," he wrote in a letter in 1812, three years after Haydn's death. "They are entitled to theirs, I am not yet entitled to mine."
Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
was also a devotee of the opus 20 quartets. Brahms owned the autograph manuscript of the quartets, studied them carefully and annotated them. He bequeathed the manuscript to the Society of Friends of Music
Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde
The Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien , was founded in 1812 by Joseph von Sonnleithner, general secretary of the Court Theatre, Vienna, Austria. Its official charter, drafted in 1814, states that the purpose of the Society was to promote music in all its facets...
in Vienna, where it is preserved today.