The Father Of The String Quartet And Symphony Analysis

Why was Haydn the father of the string quartet and symphonies

Haydn from Austria was born in 1732 and was an organist and is known as one of the greatest composers of the eighteenth century. He was employed to write church music, operas and was especially remembered for the string quartets and symphonies which he had written. He is thought to have written approximately 68 string quartets and 104 symphonies. This essay will look at why Haydn is called ‘The Father of the String Quartet and Symphony’ by looking at the contributions he made to it and how he developed it ‘into its current form.’

One thing which made Haydn stand out from other composers at that time was that his ‘instrumentation was remarkable’. In his Op.20 quartets he developed

This was important to keep his works as interesting and different as he was writing such a large number of them. He was also seen as an influence to other composers at that time and they were able to use some of his ideas in their own compositions. In the final movements of four of Haydn's string quartets there is an increase in ‘contrapunctual writing’ ,three of them being in the Op.20 set, which ‘caught the seventeen year old Mozart's eye’ . In the last movement of Op.20 No.6 in A major we can see an example of this. The first violin begins with the first subject in Bar 1 with the second violin entering on the last beat of bar 1 with the second subject. The first subject is then passed onto the second violin in bar 5, with the cello then entering with the second subject on the last beat of bar 5. While the second violin and cello are playing subjects one and two the first violin enters with the third subject in bar 6 and this process continues where the different subjects are passed between the different parts with the cello finally entering with the first subject at bar 13.

Mozart then went on in 1773 to use this idea of Haydn's in some of his own works; K.168 in the key of F major, which was the same key as the finale of Haydn’s Op. 20 no.5 and he also used this idea in his K.173 string quartet. The last fugal finale which Haydn wrote

From when Haydn first started composing symphonies the size of the orchestra are gradually expanding by the time he gets to the London symphonies. Again like in the string quartets Haydn gave some of the accompanying instruments more freedom which was quite unusual at this time; for example trumpets would have usually double with the horns, cellos with the double basses but Haydn started to give them separate parts. In the symphony the strings would have been the main instruments which were given the melody but when he was writing his London symphonies,he gave the woodwind a more independent role and also introduced the clarinet to the woodwind section of the orchestra in all of the London Symphonies except one. This new arrangement of instruments in his London Symphonies ‘achieves a new spaciousness and brilliance.’ Symphony No.100 gives us an insight into his development of instrumentation and how he liked to experiment. In the second movement of this symphony, he created something which was quite out of the ordinary from the ‘Classical tradition’ by introducing percussion instruments which wouldn't have been used at this time such as the triangle, cymbals and bass drum. These ‘turkish instruments’ make there first entrance in bar 57 of the B section, with a contrasting forte chord compared to the lyrical A section which