The Creation Of A New Medium : The String Quartet

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 at the Berlin Philharmonie, gifted the audience with a masterful rendition of the movements within the symphony. The Symphony divides into three separate parts, in which the movements complement each other's characteristics. The symphony orchestra features a myriad of orchestral instruments featuring the Brass, Woodwinds, Strings, and Percussion families. Furthermore, the various movements throughout the performance utilize various musical concepts that bring the music to life. Albeit, the complexity of Mahler’s symphony, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra performed superbly throughout the performance.

Both Haydn and Beethoven are known as two of the greatest classical/romantic composers in the history of music. Haydn is identified as the father of modern symphony, as well as the father of the string quartet. He has played an essential role in developing the piano trio and the sonata form. Beethoven is also a widely recognized composer in Western music, his style joined the lull between the Classical and Romantic eras. Beethoven traveled to Vienna when he was young to study under Haydn. However, due to disputes and differences between the two composers, lessons only lasted for a little over a year. The teachings, if only for a short period, left a mark on Beethoven, and can be observed in his compositions.

As noted by Robert Hughes, "Beethoven was not only the embodiment of all that was before him, but also of that which was yet to come" (Hughes 486). The truth of this may be seen by comparing Beethoven's 5th Symphony in C Minor to Haydn, the father of Symphony, and his 95th in C Minor. While Haydn's symphony is both playful and dramatic, Beethoven's symphony is grander both in terms of scale and vision. He expands the size of the orchestra to incorporate the sounds swirling around, underlying, and depicting the arrival of Fate in a rhythm-driven, thematic symphony that takes Haydn's form and runs with it as though to the top of a mountain peak. This paper will analyze the symphonies by movement, according to form, size, structure, tonalities, melodies, orchestral sound and overall mood and effect.

Some of the great composers during this time were Franz Josef Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,

Haydn composed his Op. 74 quartets in the later years of his life between 1796 and 1797 and it was the last of his completed string quartets. The set of quartets were dedicated to the Hungarian Count Joseph Erdödy and were published in 1799. It was said that this selection of quartets was one of his “most ambitious chamber works” with his attempt of “emphasizing thematic continuity, seamlessly and continually passing motifs from one instrument to another” 1. The fourth of these quartets is nicknamed “Sunrise”. This is due to the exquisite rising theme heard in the first violin part at the beginning of the first movement from bar one to bar four as seen in Figure

Although Beethoven wrote only nine symphonies, his symphonies were highly abstract and much heavier symphonies than any of Mozart’s and Hayden’s. Beethoven was far from lazy he was great, and he was a perfectionist, his process of creation was just like chiseling the work from a stone into a beautiful piece of art, while Mozart and Hayden could make a symphony quick and be satisfied easily with their work, Beethoven would work constantly to perfect his work. If you look at Beethoven’s fifth symphonies sketches from the earliest beginning point, and compare them to the final product he came up with, you can see how much work he must have put in to the fifth symphony to get it to be the groundbreaking powerful piece of musical art we know today.

The classical music phase broadens from 1740 to 1810, which incorporate the music of Haydn, Mozart, and the first period of Beethoven. The three prominent composers of the classical style of music Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and Joseph Haydn (Franz). Together, the three composers established a trinity that is considered to be responsible for the development of classical music. Across their lives, these three composers had vastly different style and behaviors. Beethoven and Mozart were innately talented and before they commenced to compose, their lives as musicians began with learning instruments, While Haydn at the beginning, he was a singer in a choir.

It was truly a breeding ground for musical excellence and innovation. This orchestra was by far the largest of its kind in the area, and boasted many of the greatest virtuosi of the time. Upon Mozart’s first visit to Mannheim in 1763, the orchestra made a huge impression on him. Besides a large orchestra, symphonies included various specific musical features and techniques, that had become trademarks of the style developed in Manheim. One Manheim composer in particular had a large impact on the orchestra and the symphony. His name is Jan Vaclav Antonin Stamic (1717 - 1757) (Germanized to Johann Wenzel Anton Stamitz). He started writing orchestral works to be independent works in their own right. Orchestras no longer needed to accompany vocal genres to attain any meaning. This paved the way for what was to become known as abstract music. Stamitz wrote 58 symphonies in his lifetime, and numerous conciertos. He expanded the orchestra, with woodwinds starting to play an essential role in the orchestral timbre. The orchestra was no longer made up simply of a haphazard group of instruments, but was starting to take a fixed formal shape. Along with his contributions to the expansion of the orchestra he also adopted the formal structure of four movements for the symphony and started using a distinct development section in the first movements, which became known as sonata form. The opening movement is fast, followed by a slow second movement, the third movement would be a minuet and trio, and the fourth would end the symphony on a final Presto or Prestissimo

Like Mozart, Haydn's talent was also recognized at a young age. According to Schneider, Haydn's cousin who served as a schoolmaster quickly recognized his musical ability and offered to take him to school to further develop his musical skills. After years of hardship and challenges that were thrown at him in life, Haydn's persistence paid off when, according to Schneider, his musical talent became noticed and he was offered the position of Music Director for Count Morzin. This eventually led to being offered and accepting employment with Prince Paul Anton Esterhazy where he became the Vice-Kapellmeister and later Kapellmeister. The Esterhazys, were a family of extremely wealthy Hungarian princes that Haydn would serve for the next thirty-five years. While serving this noble family, Haydn composed eleven operas, sixty symphonies, five masses, thirty sonatas, one concerto, and hundreds of shorter pieces. He later enjoyed more success and praise for what is now known as his London symphonies.

Hayden then gained his popularity outside of palace walls and eventually he started to write music for publication as for the family. Haydn wrote several important works during this time period. Several of his important works were commissions from abroad, like the Paris symphonies and the original orchestra version of “The Seven Last Words of Christ.” During this time Haydn began to feel sequestered, and lonely. He started to miss his friends and family back in Vienna. This is where Haydn began to be known to all of Europe. And was widely considered the greatest living composer. He married Maria Anna Keller in 1760. His marriage was proved to be an unhappy one, both of them took on lovers. And they had no children together. He had a long-term affair with Luigia Polzelli, she was a young Italian mezzo-soprano singer who also worked in the prince’s service. Haydn remind in their employment for 30 years. This is when Haydn wrote many of his instrumental compositions and operas that were performed. Haydn’s Sympathy no. 96 is nicknamed the “Miracle” because during the performance a chandelier fell to the ground but no-one was injured or killed. Haydn’s first opera was called The Limping Devil. Haydn was also known as the “father of the string quartet” because he was the first to compose four-part music for a viola, cello and 2 violins. Audience would flock to Hayden’s concerts. Joseph Haydn was a prolific composer with 104 symphonies, 32 Piano Trios, 90 String Quartets, and 62 Piano Sonatas. One of Haydn’s most famous String Quartets was the “Emperor Quartet”. In 1790, the head of the Esterhazy family, Prince Nikolaus passed away. The new prince Prince Anton had no interest in music and ended up dismissing most of the court musicians. However Haydn retained though he was no longer assigned an important duty. Which then allowed Haydn time to go and pursue his personal musical

The Nashville Symphony held a concert at The Schermerhorn Concert Hall on Friday November 5th, performing Franz Joseph Haydn’s famous work The Creation. This performance featured the Nashville Symphony, and the Nashville Chorus, and was conducted by world-renowned conductor Nicholas McGegan. This performance was very brilliant yet so simple. The symphony was cut down from its normal size to a moderate size, whereas the Chorus seemed to be at full strength and numbers behind the Symphony. There were three soloist singers accompanying this performance. There was one Soprano, one Tenor, and one Bass.

As the only “canonic Viennese composer native to Vienna,” Schubert, 1792-1828, “made seminal contributions” in multiple areas of musical composition, but he “most especially” made contributions to the area of “German lied” (Winter). His distinctive style could be part in due to the fact that he was native to Vienna, unlike other “celebrated musicians of Vienna like Haydn, Mozart, [...] and Beethoven” (Winter). Throughout Schubert’s life, he showed prolific musical ability. At the mere age of seven, he auditioned and impressed Antonia Salieri, a notable composer, and even became a mezzo-soprano in a group of nine in church services. At age nine, Schubert took violin

Throughout the eighteenth century, the symphony underwent a process of sophisticated development - mainly through composers integrating new ideas on structure, form, and instrumentation. The symphony also experienced a phase of unfortunate degradation. However, Joseph Haydn was the predominant figure to revive the symphony and bring it to popularity. As David Wyn Jones states:

Symphony No. 7 in A Major (Op. 92), completed in 1812, might have been one of Ludwig Van Beethoven’s most popular pieces. The seventh of Beethoven’s nine symphonies, its premiere concert (December 1813 in Vienna) was performed at a charity concert in order to benefit the soldiers who had been wounded a few months prior in the battle of Hanau. It was performed three times in ten weeks following its premiere. During the time of the symphony’s premiere, Vienna was still distressed due to being taken over by Napoleon in 1805 and 1809 and yearning for victory; the audience at the premiere seemed to have loved the energy and beauty of the piece. The Seventh Symphony had been dedicated to both Count Moritz von Fries and Russian Empress Elisabeth

Known primarily as the "father of string quartets", Joseph Haydn played an extremely important role in the development of the string quartet. When the composer first arrived on the scene, the usual name given to a "string quartet" composition was actually considered a 'divertimento '. This title was a general term to describe any “one on a part” type instrumental music that was compatible with a variety of different music scorings, styles and character. It wasn 't until about 1780 that modern titles/terms such as the quartet and quintet become common for 'serious ' chamber music in the now standard scoring. (Eisen, Grove, “String Quartet”) This change of terminology that happens during Haydn 's career does not imply that there was nothing 'serious ' being performed on strings prior to terminology change. In fact, examples of 'serious ' works can be found during Haydn 's op.9 (1769-70) early divertimentos, with a cello playing the bass line. This serious work of Haydn also incorporated a new idea within the world of string quartets, a four movement scheme. Throughout the four movements the textures were varied, having moments of a possible elaborated homophonic 'trio sonata style ', paired with a more contrapuntal polyphonic style.