Page 127 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained

CLASSICAL 1750–1820 125

See also: Corelli’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 156–161

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 the Austrian Carl Ditters von At the Esterházy Palace, shown
sudden bursts of forte (loud). Dittersdorf on first violin, and the here in an 18th-century image, Haydn
Czech Johann Baptist Vanhal on had a secure but onerous post—not
European acclaim cello, the four composers would only composing, but also managing
musicians, manuscripts, and events.
Haydn is thought to have first met often play quartets together and
Mozart in the early 1780s, and they experiment with each other’s
became close friends. With Haydn compositions. This led Mozart to quartets. He experimented with
on second violin, Mozart on viola, dedicate his first six mature string almost all possible tonalities
quartets to Haydn. (changes in pitch, and major and
As the demand for Haydn’s minor modes), as well as Classical
music spread through Europe, his forms (sonata, fugue, variations,
quartets were performed in concert minuet, scherzo, and rondo).
halls as well as in private salons, There are quartets that are more
When we invoke the name and he adjusted their style consistently virtuosic and more
Haydn, we mean one of accordingly. By making the first brilliantly projected, and there
our greatest men … Every violin parts ever more brilliant, are also earlier compositions,
harmonic artifice is at with higher notes and displays of such as the slow movement of
virtuosity, he naturally made the
his Op. 20, No. 1, that perhaps
his command.
Ernst Ludwig Gerber lower three voices more athletic, better convey the perfect intimate
sound of a quartet, but the extreme
too. The performers also had to
Organist and composer learn to project their sound. contrasts between the movements
(1746–1819)
of Op. 54, No. 2, as well as Haydn’s
A memorable, daring work inspired and brave decision to
Haydn’s Op. 54, No. 2 in C major, end with a slow movement, single
composed in 1788, is one of his this out as a truly memorable
many exceptionally inventive piece of music. ❯❯

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