Structure and character of Haydn’s music
A central characteristic of Haydn’s music is the development of larger structures out of very short, simple musical motifs.  This characteristic  was central to the development of what came to be called sonata form.

Perhaps more than any other composer’s, Haydn’s music is known for its humor. The most famous example is the sudden loud chord in the slow movement of his”Surprise” symphony.  Haydn’s early slow movements are  relaxed, and reflective and not too slow. Later on, the emotional range of the slow movements increases, notably in the quartets.  The minuets tend to have a strong beat and a clearly popular character. Over time, Haydn turned some of his minuets into “scherzi” which are much faster, at one beat to the bar.

Much of the music was written to please and delight the prince at Estherhazy.  Its emotional tone is correspondingly cheerful perhaps also  reflecting Haydn’s personality.

Evolution of Haydn’s Style
Haydn’s early work dates from a period in which the compositional style of the High Baroque (seen in Bach and Handel) had gone out of fashion. This was a period of exploration and uncertainty, and Haydn, born 18 years before the death of Bach, was himself one of the musical explorers of this time.  Haydn acknowledged  Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s  important influence.

Tracing Haydn’s work over the six decades in which it was produced (roughly from 1749 to 1802), one finds a gradual but steady increase in complexity and musical sophistication, which developed as Haydn learned from his own experience and that of his colleagues. Several important landmarks have been observed in the evolution of Haydn’s musical style. In the late 1760s and early 1770s, Haydn entered a stylistic period known as “Sturm und Drang” (“storm and stress”). This term is describes music that  is more intensely expressive, especially in the works in minor keys. Works could be described as  “longer, more passionate, and more daring. It was also around this time that Haydn became interested in writing fugues in the Baroque style, and three of the Op. 20 quartets end with a fugue.

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Haydn – Symphony # 100
The most popular of all the twelve London symphonies was the one in G major, which received its premiere performance on March 31, 1794. (It is now known as Haydn’s Symphony # 100.  Despite their disparate sources, all four movements form a remarkably cohesive whole.

 

The work begins in a rich slow introduction.  (0:00-134)  with double-dotted rhythms, trilled notes to add a pervasive air of expectation, stops and rests to introduce the essential element of silence,

First movement  is a well developed sonata form and the longest most important movement of the work  (1:35- 7:20). Listen for its clear phrases and  appealing melodies.  You may not hear all of it  (it is long) but get a sense of its feel and style.

The second movement (7:46-12:35) is a very lyrical  allegretto.   Haydn  assigns  his main melody to a quartet of flutes and oboes straining at the very top of their ranges. There is a military fanfare –  almost an interruption –  in the middle of the movement.

The simple theme of the allegretto – 2nd Movement  Haydn Symphony #100

 

 

A deceptively calm beginning features one of his simplistic, child-like tunes, even though the scoring is darkened by adding a pair of clarinets to the other movements’ complement of strings and pairs of flutes, oboes, bassoons, trumpets and horns.

The third movement : menuetto movement is a modest old-fashioned dance that stands apart from the typical minuets of the time foreshadowing  the deeper undercurrents of Beethoven’s scherzos.. Note the meter in three and other characteristics of the minuet (form, style, tempo) . Also note the emphasis on the first beat of the measures  of the opening ABA

The presto finale   17:30 is a moves quickly with fast groups of notes with quiet stretches and loud outburst

The theme of the presto finale  Haydn – symphony #100

 

 

Janissary Influence in classical music. Janissary music is Turkish band  music with an “exaggerated”  emphasis on symbols and drums It is a   a musical style that was occasionally used by the European composers of the Classical music era. This music is modeled — though often only distantly — on the music of Turkish military bands, specifically the Janissary bands. Due to the  influence of the Turkish or Ottoman domination of Europe  the is an interjection of  this style in various classical works. The sound of the Ottoman military band is characterized by an often shrill sound combining bass drums, horns (boru), bells, the triangle and cymbals (zil), among others. It is still played at state, military and tourist functions in modern Turkey.  Janissary influence may be heard  in the second movement  and also in the 4th movement of this work.  Listen to part of the above selection beginning  at 1:35. Listen again at 5:03.

The String quartet

Introduction

String quartet refers to a musical ensemble of four string players: two violin players, a viola player and a cellist  or a work written for such a group. It is is one of the most prominent chamber ensembles in classical music, with most major composers, from the mid to late eighteenth century onwards, writing string quartets.

Haydn developed the string quartet into its current form. His works in the 1750s establishing the genre. Ever since the string quartet has been considered a prestigious form representing  one of the true tests of the composer’s art. Four performers  gives a  composer enough lines to fashion a full ensemble  but not a lot to spare for variation in texture and  tone colors. The  composer of symphonies commands the means for  much more texture enrichment  with many more tone colors. In addition the concerto medium offers the further resource of personal characterization and drama in the individual-pitted-against-the-mass vein. However a  writer of string quartets  must have  discipline and focus. One could say the  string quartet is one of the most a highly developed genres in the field of chamber music

Quartet composition flourished in the classical era, with Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert following Haydn in each writing a number of quartets. A slight slackening in the pace of quartet composition occurred in the later nineteenth century, in part due to a movement away from classical forms by composers such as Liszt, Wagner and Richard Strauss, though it received a resurgence in the twentieth with the Second Viennese School, Bartók, Shostakovich, and Elliot Carter producing highly regarded examples of the genre. It  currently remains an important and refined musical form.

The standard structure for a string quartet is four movements – similar to the Symphony:

1.  Allegro (in sonata-allegro form)
2. Slow, lyrical movement, often in A-B-A or theme and variations form
3. A moderate dance in minuet and trio form
4. A fast movement in sonata-allegro or rondo formListen: String Quartet

Mozart’s Dissonance Quartet