HAYDN LIFE AND WORKS – PREPARATION 5

(S-10)

 

 

For Friday, 14 October

 

Please listen to the following string quartets:

Op 50/5 in F major

Op 50/6 in D Major (“The Frog”)

Op 71/3 in Eb major

Op 74/1 in C major

Op 76/2 in D minor ('Fifths')

You'll find scores to all these quartets at IMSLP and there are multiple recordings on Naxos.

 

Please read the following:

Charles Rosen, The Classical Style, 111-142 (You can skim a bit, but read closely the discussion of the assigned quartets.)

W. Dean Sutcliffe, Haydn: Strings Quartets, Op. 50 (1992), 37-47 ("The story of the autographs")

Mary Hunter, "The quartets," in The Cambridge Companion to Haydn, ed Caryl Clark (2005), 112-125

I've posted these excerpts online and put the books on reserve in the library.

 

Write short answers to the following questions:

1) Charles Rosen (p.129) says that Haydn “found ways of making us hear the dynamic force implicit in a musical idea,” and he discusses sequences and modulations as examples of such “ways.” Find an example in the assigned string quartets of a musical idea with such dynamic force and briefly explain how Haydn “makes us hear” this.

2)  Mary Hunter (119-122) discusses “conversation” as a metaphor for the string quartet as a genre. Find and briefly discuss an example in the assigned quartets of a movement or passage to which this metaphor can successfully be applied.

 

Type your answers and bring them to class.  We'll use them as the basis of our discussion.  If you have any questions, send me an Email.