Opus 2 No 4 - Adagio: The Perfect Storm

Opus 2 No 4 Adagio at 9:37 is, so far, Haydn's longest string quartet movement. The music and melody is inspiring and beautiful. Unlike anything before it, the movement calls for something grand such as this image from the Hubble telescope.

This Hubble photograph captures an area in the Omega or Swan Nebula. The patterns in this image are created by gases that have been illuminated by ultraviolet radiation. The process that created this storm is widely violent and almost incomprehensible. Haydn pulls us back, giving us a reflective space to consider the awe of space.


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Opus 2 No.3: A flower

from Nadine Rippelmeyer from Fayetteville, Arkansas. The adagio Ops 2 No. 3 is a little study in these colors.
more at http://www.nadinerippelmeyerart.com/


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Opus 2 No.2 menuet in Drang and Strum?

This work is by an artist named Tony Barnstone. He titled the work Drang and Strum. Of course, this is the name of the musical movement of 1760s and 1770s that featured often conflicting elements of storm and stress or desire. Was Hyadn experimenting with this form in the late 1750s when he wrote Opus N.2 II Menuet? The movement has two very distinctive segments.


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Opus 2 No.1 - Feb 12 & May 31 1809

I would really like to do two post today, so here is a two for one. Two hundred and one years ago today, Abraham Lincoln was born. On May 31, we will recognize the 201 anniversary of the death of Haydn. Did Lincoln listen to Haydn? Certainly, the two men knew of one another. Two movements in Opus 2 No. 2 got me thinking about Lincoln ( a repeat from my Feb 1 post). The second and fourth movements, a menuet and a menuetto, both open with what was for Haydn were conventional structures, both movements then make dramatic and thoughtful turns. The menuetto is particularly anxious and forward thinking. This section captures the Lincoln presidency by propelling us into a state of concern while holding out promise through harmonic expectations. At the top of the playlist is Op.2 No.3 the fourth movement menuetto; see what you think.

Haydn does so much with this fourth movement, it's a disservice to suggest any single idea. But, here I go. I am drawn to the second major theme in this movement, which is tipped twice with descending scales from the combined four strings. The theme begins at about 1:29 and draws up tension and energy, much like, I suspect, Abraham Lincoln did in his darkest hours. I am most intrigued with 2:20 - 2:45. The hopefulness of 2:45 to the end seems a bit tragic when pushed through this Lincoln lens.


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Opus 1 No.6 - much

Zhang Hongnian' "The Road and the Camp 1973"
http://www.zhangwoolley.com/html/zgalleries/zhang-gallery.html

A rich canvas deep and subtle. Haydn's Opus 1 No 6 is also rich and subtle. With six movements, Haydn has plenty of room to roam, and roam he does. The third movement in adagio might be the most creative movement in all of the 28 works that make up Opus 1.


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Opus 1 No.5 - a little sympony

A symphony in oil - Martin Johnson Heade's "Magnolias on Light Blue Velvet Cloth"

Magnolia ashei, Ash’s Magnolia, is the rarest of the big-leafed Native American magnolias.

The difference between Heade's work of art and a "real" magnolia?

Is it real? Haydn's three movement work, listed by Hoboken as No. III:5 or Opus 1 No. 5, is actually more like Heade's work, a little symphony. But just maybe the string quartet and the symphony in oil are just as real. Haydn's Opus 1 No. 5 has since been identified as Symphony A scored for 2 oboes, bassoon, 2 horns in B-flat alto, strings and continuo.

Here it is played as a string quartet by the Dekany String Quartet


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And, in full, the first movement, alegro as originally conceived here by Philharmonia Hungarica Antal Dorati, conductor

Opus 1 No.4 - patterns

and, in sketch form

Picasso's Guernica, in its "First State" as photographed by Dora Maar



(Additional photos online at http://www.martinries.com/article2007AG.htm)

When I first heard Haydn's opus 1 No.4, I though of patterns. The first movement, a presto, but is has an almost waltz feel to it. The back-and-forth suggested in this first movement stretch across all five movements. The balance is satisfying, almost mathematical. Although at times a melody might runs lose for a few bars, "order" is the order of the day.

Here is another work of art, a quilt from 1885 on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, that carries the sames rhythm, in particular the second movement, menuetto I.

Opus 1 No. 3 in D Major - falling waters

A large degree of compliment is on display in Hadyn's string quartets. What I like most about this complementary work is the tonal movement of the subtle melodies that Haydn composes. In Opus 1 No. 3 in D Major, Haydn weaves a lovely tonal pattern across all five movements, but I am most draw to the first adagio movement and the third presto movement.

( Later in two menuettos and two presto movements, Haydn wiggles around his original theme, but just seems to miss the boat - so to speak).



Here is where my interest lie. First to set the context, I have inserted this original sketch of Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece, Falling Waters.

What I like most in the first movement is a simple melodic build to a two part cascade. here it is.

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In this section, Haydn lets alternating violins fall down the register 10 times while her companion strings hold a note. Each one of these moves in a pattern of water falling off a rock - nature and man come together to express the complimentary qualities.

The first presto No,3 accomplishes a similar feat only in another dimension. Here it is.


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Opus 1 No. 2 E Flat Major - and 2,3

Haydn's String Quartet Opus 1 No. 2 in E Flat Major has two Menuettos, both in 3/4 time. The first of these two menuetos has a well meaning crest in the middle third of the movement. The structure is A, A, B, B, A1, A1, B1, B1, A, B with A being an initial theme, B being a second longer theme and A1 and B1 being variations on the originals.

After two times through the A section (about 14 seconds long each) and two times through the B section (about 24 seconds long each), Haydn offers his variations on these themes. In each variation the second violin delivers a six beat staccato. The effect is to lift up the middle of third. This little pop of energy is unexpected and must have brought listeners just a bit forward in their seats.

Here are these two versions of A, the second one with the staccato


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But, this little jolt is nothing compared to the final presto movement. Opus 2 starts with an Allegro Molto that flat our pedestrian compared to the final presto movement.

Opus 1 No. 1 B flat major - 8 notes, 2 secs, and it's on

It begins with 8 notes in just under two seconds. Hopping up the scale, Haydn's String Quartet, Op. 1 No. 1 in B flat major "la Chasse" is Haydn's first string quartet. Haydn, we must assume, had no idea that he was embarking on a journey that would result in 83 of these compositions for four strings. In fact, he certainly did not know he was basically inventing a form - the string quartet. As I understand it, Haydn improvised these early compositions for four musicians who were available for his employer Baron Carl von Joseph Edler von Fürnberg. The two violins, viola, and cello that make up the string quartet are today one of the most beloved of all musical ensembles.

The project (updated 12/2/10)

An update (12/2/10) - I missed the mark. Nine months have past since my last post. Maybe it's the time of year, but I'm picking this project back up. Suppose, I'll remove the reference to 52 weeks and pick up where I left off at Opus 2 no. 5. I have completed 14 movements with an impressive 69 to go!

For reasons that seem sort of convoluted now (see below), I found myself last year all the sudden very interested in Franz Joseph Haydn. I am not classical music expert, by any measure, but I have always admired the structure and texture of classical sounds. As a child, I studied the great composers in church choir. Little figurines of Beethoven, Brahms, and Haydn decorated my bedroom shelves. I never fully appreciated or understood the what was happening with the music, but something resonated and I have since often found comfort in the classics. At many times in my adult life, I have tried to dig deeper and, at least, build a classical musical vocabulary, but something seems to have always knocked me off track. Perhaps it is the grandness of it all. So much music. So many composers. So many arrangements. I couldn't just listen and enjoy. I had to know it, and be an expert. And, when it quickly became obvious that such knowledge was beyond my immediately grasp, I just retreated.