Haydn – String Quartet in d minor, op. 76 no. 2, “Fifths” (1798)
Haydn’s op. 76 was the last complete set of quartets he published in his life, written around the same time he was working on the Creation, and they show an old master working with the genre he had created and outdoing himself again and again. Here, writing in d minor, the tone isn’t as lighthearted and humorous like many of his other quartets. The nickname “Fifths” refers to the main theme of the opening movement, where the first half is made of two falling fifths. I always thought that was a really dull nickname, but listening to it more I realize that the use of this falling-fifth phrase gives Haydn the opportunity to inject this sonata form movement with a lot of compositional devices you’d hear in fugues, without disrupting the musical flow. It opens with this rocky theme, the fifths emphasized by a pulse in the lower strings, and each time it returns the “filler” with the melody gains more notes and weaves together nicely. There are a lot of cool moments in this densely compact movement, especially with the fifths theme being flipped upside down halfway through, a chorale passage, and a brief moment of uncomfortable harmonies that make you think of the shadowy keys Beethoven loved exploiting. The next movement is a stark contrast; a more simple, lighter and thinner dance with a lovely violin melody played over plucked chords. It’s almost tongue-and-cheek comedic, a “charming” salon work right after a heavy movement of archaic complexity. Especially in the middle where the music slows down over a diminished chord, the violin repeating the same two notes as if trying to think of a place to go. In the second half, the violin carries a flowy variation. The third movement is sometimes called the “witches minuet” because of its mildly sinister character. It is a perfect canon with the melody’s shadow chasing itself. It has a bit of a hypnotic swaying rhythm to it as well. The trio section is taken over by repeating notes scratching away in the major, briefly shifting into the minor, but ending with the violin crawling up into the high notes. The last movement is like the “opposite” of the sophistication that opened the work, another example of Viennese composers nodding at Romani bands in the country. It has a lot of chromatic smears, a repeating note that confuses the rhythm, and large leaps like a braying donkey, and even the drone of a street hurdy gurdy comes and goes. A final shift into the major at the coda helps to end this work off in good fun.
Movements:
1. Allegro
2. Andante o più tosto allegretto
3. Menuetto. Allegro ma non troppo
4. Vivace assai