{"id":63,"date":"2014-04-16T19:41:36","date_gmt":"2014-04-16T19:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/musicresearch\/?page_id=63"},"modified":"2015-03-05T17:00:11","modified_gmt":"2015-03-05T17:00:11","slug":"more-than-a-sales-pitch-on-haydns-op-33-quartets","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/musicresearch\/more-than-a-sales-pitch-on-haydns-op-33-quartets\/","title":{"rendered":"More than a Sales Pitch: On the Newness of Haydn\u2019s Op. 33 Quartets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joseph Haydn claimed on various occasions that his Op. 33 string quartets were composed in a \u201cnew and special\u201d manner.\u00a0 Some scholars have dismissed this phrase, which comes from a series of letters Haydn sent to prospective patrons in Dec. 1781, as a mere sales pitch (see the Appendix<\/a> for the texts of these letters.\u00a0 Others contend that this declaration refers to something truly innovative about the style of these quartets.\u00a0 Since composers of the time made few statements about the nature of their own music, such an unusual comment deserves serious attention.\u00a0 The context within which Haydn composed Op. 33 is certainly significant; this piece is one of the first works he composed following the lifting of a contractual ban regarding the marketing of his works.\u00a0 However, we find that Haydn\u2019s claim is best illuminated through exploration of the music itself.\u00a0 Through critical examination of the music, we will identify a number of musical attributes that make Op. 33 new and special in comparison with his previous collection of quartets, Op. 20.<\/p>\n

A particular letter written by Haydn to advertise Op. 33\u2019s quartets includes the \u201cnew and special\u201d declaration, but also contains a phrase that deserves attention: \u201cI have written none for ten years.\u201d[1]<\/a>\u00a0 It should be noted that ten <\/i>years is a slight exaggeration, because only nine had lapsed from Op. 20 (1772) to Op. 33 (1781).\u00a0 However, his mentioning of this suggests that Haydn considered the passage of time an important element, a gap of nearly a decade spent delving into other forms of music. Haydn had started to write operas for Prince Esterh\u00e1zy in 1766, and this trend continued throughout this gap, petering out in the 1780s.\u00a0 Larsen says that \u201cHaydn\u2019s activities as an opera composer are of a considerable influence on his further development, although initially they did not absorb too much of his compositional power.\u201d\u00a0 It seems he was conventional in following established opera buffa<\/i> traditions.[2]<\/a>\u00a0 Although Larsen was speaking of the period 1765-72, prior to Op. 20, there is no reason to suspect that opera had any less effect on Haydn\u2019s development in the nine years after 1772.\u00a0 Rosen states that the quartets in Op. 33 \u201care informed throughout by the pacing of comic opera.\u201d[3]<\/a>\u00a0 Sutcliffe has suggested that further development occurred \u201cIn some of [Haydn\u2019s] symphonic slow movements from the 1770s, [where] we encounter a manner that is not necessarily humorous,\u201d but rather \u201ccharacterized by unusual gestures or oddly timed events.\u201d\u00a0 Such moments \u201cproduce an expressive ambivalence that is in fact one of the strongest attributes of Haydn’s art.\u201d[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

As previously mentioned, stylistic development was not the only evolution that Haydn endured, for there was a dramatic change in his contract under Prince Esterh\u00e1zy, in 1779.\u00a0 A significant alteration was the removal of the following statement: \u201cThe Vice-Kapellmeister will be bound to compose such music as his Serene Highness shall command, and not let such compositions be communicated to any other party, much less be copied, but they shall remain for his use only and his rightful ownership, and he shall not, without knowledge and permission, compose for any other person.\u201d\u00a0 The revised contract allowed Haydn to make money by distributing his own manuscripts to whoever wanted them.\u00a0 For the first time, he could directly reach his audience: the emerging market of middle class musicians who were the \u201cstandard bearers of the Enlightenment.\u201d[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

Existing scholarly views regarding the newness of Op. 33 are contentious.\u00a0 Sandberger was the first to argue that Op. 33 was indeed \u201cnew and special,\u201d and Landon is perhaps his most diehard supporter, or at least the most vehement: \u201c[T]o anyone with a pair of ears it should be obvious that Op. 33 is certainly written in a new and special way.\u201d[6]<\/a>\u00a0 Rosen agrees, adding that \u201c[Haydn\u2019s] last series of Quartets, Op. 20. . . had circulated widely and was well known: he must therefore have thought that his claim had some chance of seeming plausible.\u201d[7]<\/a><\/p>\n

Webster opposes this view, believing \u201cIt is high time we abandoned Sandberger\u2019s tale, crisis, trial, triumph, and all.\u201d\u00a0 He argues that a great deal of Romantic thinking has been projected anachronistically on to the life and works of Joseph Haydn.[8]<\/a>\u00a0 Moe disagrees, although his praise for Op. 33 is far more measured than that of more enthusiastic proponents of its newness.\u00a0 He mentions Op. 33’s \u201clight, popular touch, and the subtle complexities that are hidden behind a false appearance of simplicity.\u201d[9]<\/a>\u00a0 Sutcliffe takes perhaps the most inclusive approach, saying \u201cThere is. . . no problem in accepting both senses of the phrase [\u201cnew and special way\u201d].\u00a0 If Haydn\u2019s musical technique had advanced in the intervening nine years, then so had his business acumen.\u201d[10]<\/a>\u00a0 Regardless, we can see for ourselves within the music.\u00a0 Sutcliffe says it best: \u201cthe claim to a \u2018new and special way\u2019 in the writing of these quartets is argued and won within the context of the works themselves.\u201d[11]<\/a><\/p>\n

next section<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

[1]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The translation of the letters used here was done by Dr. Ben Korstvedt.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[2]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jens Peter Larsen, Handel, Haydn, and the Viennese Classical Style<\/i> (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1988), 112.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[3]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Charles Rosen, The Classical Style<\/i> (New York: Norton, 1971), 119.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[4]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 W. Dean Sutcliffe, \u201cExpressive Ambivalence in Haydn’s Symphonic Slow Movements of the 1770s,\u201d The Journal of Musicology<\/i> 27 (2010): 85.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[5]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 David P. Schroeder, Haydn and the Enlightenment<\/i> (Oxford: Clarendon, 1990), 56.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[6]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 H.C. Robbins Landon, Haydn: Chronicle and Works, vol. 2<\/i> (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1976), 578.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[7]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rosen, Classical Style<\/i>, 116.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[8]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 James Webster, Haydn\u2019s \u2018Farewell\u2019 Symphony and the Idea of Classical Style<\/i> (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 347.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[9]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Orin Moe, \u201cThe Significance of Haydn\u2019s op. 33,\u201d in Haydn Studies: Proceedings of the International Haydn Conference, Washington, D.C.<\/i>, ed. Jens Peter Larson et al. (New York: Norton, 1981), 445, 449.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[10]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 W. Dean Sutcliffe, Haydn: String Quartets, Op. 50<\/i> (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 19.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[11]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ibid., 23.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joseph Haydn claimed on various occasions that his Op. 33 string quartets were composed in a \u201cnew and special\u201d manner.\u00a0 Some scholars have dismissed this phrase, which comes from a series of letters Haydn sent to prospective patrons in Dec. 1781, as a mere sales pitch (see the Appendix for \u2026 Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":64,"parent":0,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-63","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/musicresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/63","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/musicresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/musicresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/musicresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/musicresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/musicresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/63\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/musicresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/musicresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}