DAILY DOSE of BEETHOVEN (October 22, 2020)
Mozart moved to Vienna in 1781, the same year that Haydn stated that he found an entirely new way of composing String Quartets, with his Six String Quartets, Op. 33. Part of that new way of composing was what is known as the "Motivfuhrung" or motif-leading. A “motif” is a short phrase of only a few notes. Haydn evolved the science of developing an entire movement out of the kernel of such motifs. This gave the movement much more unity and inner cohesion.
Here is Op. 33 No. 2 in Eb. If you listen to the very opening, you will hear that after the theme is first stated, the short motifs which make it up, are isolated and developed without a full statement of the theme.
The quartet is called "The Joke", and the joke is in the last movement which starts at 15:13 in this recording. The movement is a Rondo, where the main theme keeps returning (although in Haydn's hands, it is never predictable.) Towards the end, long pauses are introduced, as if the players had lost their place.
MOZART'S RESPONSE
Mozart studied these quartets of Haydn, and between 1782-85, wrote his own set of six, which he dedicated to Haydn. His dedication page for these quartets is quite touching:
“To my dear friend Haydn.
“A father who had decided to send out his sons into the great world, thought it his duty to entrust them to the protection and guidance of a man who was very celebrated at the time and who, moreover, happened to be his best friend.
“In like manner I send my six sons to you, most celebrated and very dear friend. They are, indeed, the fruit of a long and laborious study; but the hope which many friends have given me that this toil will be in some degree rewarded, encourages me and flatters me with the thought that these children may one day prove a source of consolation to me.
“During your last stay in this capital you yourself, my very dear friend, expressed to me your approval of these compositions. Your good opinion encourages me to offer them to you and leads me to hope that you will not consider them wholly unworthy of your favour. Please then receive them kindly and be to them a father, guide and friend! From this moment I surrender to you all my rights over them. I entreat you, however, to be indulgent to these faults which may have escaped a father’s partial eye, and, in spite of them, to continue your generous friendship towards one who so highly appreciates it. Meanwhile, I remain with all my heart, dearest friend, your most sincere friend.
W.A. Mozart”
After hearing all six of them performed, Haydn remarked to Mozart's father Leopold:
“I tell you before God, and as an honest man, your son is the greatest composer known to me by person and repute, he has taste and what is more the greatest skill in composition.”
Here is Mozart's Quartet No. 16, the fourth of the set dedicated to Haydn, also in Eb major. You can hear both what Mozart owes to Haydn, but also how different and advanced it is. For one thing, it is twice as long.
https://youtu.be/bkNWCx-2AbU
After Mozart's death at the young age of 35 in 1791, one could not mention his name to Haydn without the older man bursting into tears at the loss of such a dear friend and great artist.
Tomorrow Beethoven picks up the baton.
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