Page 162 - ESSENTIAL LISTENING TO MUSIC

1st violin
agile kind of interaction. From the old Baroque model Haydn removed the basso continuo, replacing it with a more melodically active bass played by a nimble cello alone. And he enriched the middle of the texture by adding a viola, playing immedi- ately above the cello. If Baroque music had a “top- and bottom-heavy” texture (see Chapter 5), the newer Classical string quartet style shows a texture covered evenly by four independent instruments, each participating more or less equally in a give and take of theme and motive—musical democracy at its best (Example 9.5).
Example 9.5 > equality within the quartet
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2nd violin
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FiguRe 9.4
Title page of six string quartets by Mozart dedicated to Haydn (1785). Mozart offers them to Haydn as “six children,” asking Haydn to be their “father, guide, and friend.”
The chance to play string quartets together gave rise to a lasting friendship be- tween Haydn and Mozart. During 1784–1785, the two men met in Vienna, some- times at the home of an aristocrat, and other times in Mozart’s own apart- ment. In their quartet, Haydn played first violin, and Mozart viola. As a result of this experience, Mozart was inspired to dedicate a set of his best works in this genre to the older master, which he published in 1785 (Figure 9.4). Yet in this convivial, domestic music-making, Haydn and Mozart merely joined in the fashion of the day. For whether in Vienna, Paris, or London, aristocrats and members of the well-to-do middle class were encouraged to play quar- tets with friends, as well as to engage professional musicians to entertain their
guests.
Haydn: Opus 76, No. 3, The “Emperor”
Quartet (1797)
Haydn’s “Emperor” Quartet, written in Vienna during the summer of 1797, numbers among the best works of the string quartet genre. It is known as the “Emperor” because it makes liberal use of “The Emperor’s Hymn,” a melody that Haydn composed in response to the military and political events of his day.
In 1796, the armies of Napoleon invaded the Austrian Empire, which ig- nited a firestorm of patriotism in Vienna, the Austrian capital. But the Austrians were at a musical disadvantage: the French now had the “Marseillaise,” and the English had their “God Save the King,” but the Austrians had no national an- them. To this end, the ministers of state approached Haydn, who quickly fash- ioned one to the text “Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser” (“God Preserve Franz the Emperor”; Example 9.6), in honor of the reigning Austrian Emperor Franz II
140 chapter nine classical genres
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The Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library of the Harvard College Library
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