IV Menuetto

File:
haydn1-2-4.nwcSeptember 20031.59 kB00:03:27
Composer:Haydn, Franz Joseph (1732-1809), Austrian
Genre:Chamber music.
Instruments:Two violins, viola and 'cello.
Submitter:White, John H
Email:jalbis127 (e-mail)
Zipname:haydn1-2
Ziptitle:String quartet in E flat, Op 1, No 2 (1757)
This is almost certainly one of the earliest known string quartets. The story goes that Haydn, in 1757 at the age of 25, was asked by an Austrian nobleman to compose some divertimenti for an amateur group consisting of 2 violins, a viola and a 'cello. Two sets of six, Op 1 and Op 2, were written and published a few years later.
As string quartets go, they appear to be somewhat rudimentary, this one in particular being in five movements, with two minuets separated by a central adagio which, like the two outer movements, is in what Prout refers to as "old sonata form", as used extensively by Domenico Scarlatti in his keyboard works.i.e. the form is A, A, B, B., where section "B" is a sort of elaboration of section "A".
Later, of course, Haydn dropped one of the minuets and tended to speed up the remaining one until, in his last two complete quartets Op 77 Nos 1 and 2, written forty years after this one, he had basically "invented" the scherzo. Other changes in his later quartets include, of course, the adoption of "modern" sonata form, as promoted by C. P. E. Bach.
The file creator once again wishes to acknowledge the help and advice given to him by Grant Hicks in getting the thing right.
Any remaining faults with this transcription will be entirely my responsiblity.