Program Notes

Franz Josef Haydn (1732-1809)
String Quartet in C Major, Op. 20, No. 2 (1772)

Notes for: July 19, 2005

In 1772, in the course of his duties as court composer to Prince Esterhazy in Hungary, Haydn wrote six string quartets, later designated as Opus 20. Published as a set, the works became known as “the sun quartets” because of a drawing of a rising sun on the cover. But the term was also appropriate in a figurative sense since the quartets signaled the dawn of a new era in chamber music.

Haydn had completed 22 quartets before Opus 20, but like other chamber music of the day they were designed for entertainment rather than for serious expression. Further, these early quartets were in the so-called galant or courtly style, an import from France in which the first violin was predominant and the other instruments were given subordinate roles. This made life interesting for the first violinist, but boring for the others, and the overall texture was thin and limited in emotional appeal. If Haydn had gone no further with the form, the quartet would probably have died out like its musical parent, the divertimento.

Gradually, Haydn expanded the horizon of the quartet, as he was doing at the same time with the symphony. Then, in Opus 20, Haydn introduced a new quartet style that exploited the resources of all four instruments and blended them into a balanced texture. The cello, in particular, was emancipated from its older role of simply filling in the bass. In these six quartets, moreover, Haydn promoted the idea of thematic development – that is, of presenting pregnant musical ideas and subjecting them to imaginative manipulation and variation.

With these structural innovations, Haydn was able to achieve a range and diversity of emotional content unprecedented in secular instrumental music. He was to develop these new elements further in subsequent compositions, and, following his models, Mozart and Beethoven were to continue the evolution of both the quartet and the symphony into the basic structural forms of instrumental music. But the Opus 20 quartets were the breakthrough.

Haydn’s new style is heard at the outset of the second quartet in the series. In his previous quartets, the first violin stated the main theme of the opening movement. Here the cello sings out the theme in its higher register, while the first violin remains silent for the first six measures and the viola assumes the cello’s customary task of providing the bass. The cello continues in a liberated role, adding to the richness of the texture, and, in the development section, matches the first violin in a duet.

Haydn continues to innovate in the spacious and dramatic Adagio. The four instruments announce the main theme in unison, and the cello repeats it. The theme is then broken into segments for free variation, with the first violin providing elaborate ornamentation. In the contrasting middle section, the first violin reverts to its traditional leadership role, but with an accompaniment of unusual tone colors.

The minuet emerges, hesitant and syncopated, from the Adagio’s closing chords. In the trio middle section, the cello again has a featured part.

Haydn’s objective in the six Opus 20 quartets was to establish the four instruments as equals. What better way to do this than through a fugue, with its four equal instrumental lines? Accordingly, he ends the second, fifth and sixth quartets with fugues. In this case, the fugue has four soggetti or subjects – a main theme and three counter-themes. Haydn marked the fugue to be played sotto voce throughout, although performers usually raise the level to a forte in the concluding measures.

At the end of the fugue, Haydn scribbled, in Latin: “Praise to the Almighty Lord. Thus one friend runs away from the other.” This was another example of Haydn’s sense of humor – sure enough, the themes appear repeatedly in the different voices to be fleeing from one another.

After completing the Opus 20 quartets, Haydn only once again cast a string quartet movement as a formal fugue. However, he now felt free to use counterpoint and fugal textures as the spirit moved him in the 40 string quartets still to come.

Copyright © 2005 by Willard J. Hertz