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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