A
Reader's Guide to Haydn's Early String Quartets by William Drabkin
Book Description: The six string quartets comprising Joseph Haydn's
Opus 20 (composed in 1772) are the first works in the genre to have received
consistent critical attention from writers on music. The quartets Haydn
wrote before this date, though rarely discussed by historians and theorists
and seldom performed in public, are nevertheless fundamental to the development
of the quartet and thus inseparable from Opus 20 itself. This thoughtful
discussion provides a basis upon which to study the quartet by showing
how the relationship among the four players can be be understood as a musical
dialogue. A methodology is developed for analyzing these quartets by focusing
on the characteristics of string instruments that inform not only the style
of the music, but also the materials of the composition. The changing relationships
among the instruments reveal the level of sophistication evident in Haydn's
earlier works and attest to the affinity these works have with his later
masterpieces. Music scholars and educators will appreciate the generous
musical examples and clear prose that illuminate the more detailed analysis
of the Opus 20 set.
Hardcover from Greenwood Publishing Group
Book Published: 30 October, 1999
Symphony
No. 104 by Joseph Haydn
Paperback from Dover Pubns
Book Published: October, 1997
