FATHERS OF THE FORM

The myth of “Papa” Haydn was one of the most persistent clichés in the history of music, obscuring a clear view until the middle of the 20th century of one of the most versatile composers ever. Haydn had been firmly stamped as old-fashioned, boring and conservative. It took pioneering efforts in the field of musicology and new interpretative approaches to put paid to that cliché once and for all. And yet, in one respect, Haydn really was a “Papa”, and a careful and caring one at that: when it comes to the form of the string quartet, of whom Haydn is undoubtedly the artistic father. In his epoch-making “Geschichte des Streichquartetts” (History of the String Quartet) published in 2005, Friedhelm Krummacher describes the contribution Haydn’s early experiments made to the foundation of the genre, as well as the difficulties he encountered in doing so. The chapter entitled “Arbeit am Modell” (Working on the model) covers Op. 9 to Op. 33, while Haydn’s mature quartets stretch from Op. 42 to 103. Under the title “Norm und Individuation”, Krummacher explains with conviction how Haydn not only created the basis for the genre but also how he kept on working at stretching the limits of the genre’s compositional possibilities. Haydn’s quartets Op. 76, also known as the “Erdödy Quartets”, were succeeded only by the two “Lobkowitz Quartets”, and the last, incomplete quartet, consisting of two movements. Op. 76 was thus the last instrumental cycle in Haydn’s oeuvre. At the end of his exceptionally creative life, the composer returned to the genre that had fascinated him since early in his career. Op. 76 came about largely in the years 1796/97. Only the two last quartets appear to have been created later. The quartet in C major owes its nickname “Kaiserquartett” (“Emperor quartet”) to the famous variations on the hymn entitled “Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser” (God save Franz the Emperor), which later became the melody of the German National anthem. The first movement follows the sonata form, with the underlying fifth as harmonic cadence. In the slow movement, “Gott erhalte” is used as a cantus firmus, commented on by the counter-voices. The finale, too, is a sonata movement, commencing in C minor. The movement builds up to a monumental effect before the main theme finally carries through in the coda. A contrasting effect unfolds in the B major quartet. In this opening movement, the static predominates over the dynamic, with an exceptional spatiality of sound. Now the theme is reduced to the extreme, now it fills up again. An interaction thus comes about between congestion and hastening along. The slow movement is almost hymnal, a balance reigns between harmonic and playful figurative intonations. In the finale, Haydn combines formal elements of sonata movement and rondo, with the main motif and refrain closely interwoven. After Haydn’s magnificent Op. 76 and Mozart’s ten “great” quartets, Beethoven now had a serious problem regarding the representative genre of the string quartet: he was confronted with milestones. How was he going to not only come into this inheritance but also surmount it? As he had already done in the field of the symphony, Beethoven took compositional detours with the string quartet, carefully exploring related genres such as string trios and quintets before reaching the crowning glory of chamber music, which he first raised to a new plane with his Opus 18. The six quartets Op. 18, which Beethoven had devoted to prince Franz Josef Lobkowitz, were composed between 1798 and 1800. Beethoven thus stayed true to the baroque tradition of six works of a different nature combined in a single work cycle. The order in which they came about, incidentally, was different from the order of publication, namely No. 3, 1, 2, 5, 4, 6. With Op. 18, Beethoven proved himself a representative of Viennese Classical Music on a par with Haydn und Mozart, giving the already highly developed classical style new impetus regarding form and intensity of expression. Quartet No. 5 in A major unfolds as a unified whole – formal, thematic, rhythmic and metrical. As in Mozart’s quartet KV 464 of the same tonality, which served Beethoven as a model here, the minuet again takes second place and the variation movement third in the grand formal structure. In the first movement, we encounter a dance-like main theme arising from a gradually expanding scale over the cello’s triadic arpeggiations and a homophonic side movement in E-minor; a classic example of the “two principles” which Beethoven wanted to see in every sonata movement. The minuet only suggested a dance movement. In the variation movement, a theme awaits with two times eight bars, which Beethoven, in five variations geared to the solo effects of the separate instruments, not only plays with and imitates but also reworks to a considerable degree. The fourth and fifth variations in particular show - with a harmonious, choral-like handling or burlesque sound design - exceptional qualities which exceed Mozart’s example by far. As with Mozart, the finale is written alla breve with a three-tone upbeat motif as thematic point of departure, contrasted with the chorale-like second theme, which, however, only seemingly and temporarily brings quietude before the figurative element prevails again.

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