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Haydn: Quartet in C Major, op. 33, no. 3, "The Birds" | Carter: Quartet no. 1 | Brahms: Quartet in c minor, op. 51, no. 1

The most prominent type of chamber music, the string quartet is not only a genre, but also a form and an ensemble. The independence and interplay of the parts (two violins, viola, and cello) are essential. Since the early classical era the form has been established as a multi-part work consisting of four movements: fast; slow; minuet/scherzo, fast. Journalist and chamber player Joseph Wechsberg describes this medium as that which "engenders an atmosphere of warmth and a degree of psychological rapport that are unknown to most virtuosos, prima donnas, or members of large orchestras. It is based on give-and take; it is civilized and egalitarian; it is a garden of musical fellowship from which the law of the jungle has been banished." Listeners are invited to partake of the composers' and performers' intimate music-making without excess variety of tone colors, virtuosity, or bombast. In the string quartet one finds the essence of music without the distractions of the larger forms of music.

The three works presented tonight represent turning points in each of their creator’s compositional output. Indeed, Brahms discarded some twenty other works in the genre before he brought the two quartets of Opus 51 to publication. Carter’s first quartet was his stated first effort in writing in a vein that truly interested him instead of what he felt was expected of him. After having written several other sets for string quartet, Haydn declared that his Quartets, Op. 33 “were written in a new a special way.”

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Quartet in C Major, op. 33, no. 3, (The Birds)

Often called the father of the symphony and the string quartet, Joseph Haydn certainly produced works in greater quantity and quality than had previous composers of these most quintessential of classical genres. The earliest of his 68-83 compositions for four stringed instruments without keyboard fall into a larger class of instrumental divertimento. By the time the three groups, Op. 9, 17, and 20, appeared, the four movement form (two outer movements fast, the middle, one slow and one a minuet) had been established. After nearly a decade of the composer’s compositional and administrative attention being consumed by opera and other duties required of the Esterházy Kapellmeister, Haydn’s six quartets, Op. 33 appeared in 1781. Subtitled “Russian,” they were dedicated to the Russian Grand Duke Paul Petrovich and may well have had their first performance at a gala concert featuring works by the “famous Joseph Haydn” organized for the state visit of the Duke and Duchess in November, 1781. While attempting to sell subscriptions to pay for the publication of the Opus, Haydn wrote potential subscribers that these quartets were “written in a new and special way.”

Scholars have argued for over 100 years whether this statement was just an advertising gimmick, or if the compositional style was indeed new and special. A case can be made that at the very least this set exhibits a settling of the genre’s form, a conciseness in use of motives, and use of variation forms rather than contrapuntal ones for the final movement. Above all, this set leads the way in using humor, lightness and wit in the string quartet. It is certainly no mystery as to why Op. 33, No 3 has been nicknamed the Birds. The opening movement exhibits many bird-like trillings and twitterings. The second movement scherzando employs a dignified use of the strings’ lower registers while the trio section brings back bird-like figures. The fourth movement Rondo, seems to sport a finale of fun for our fine feathered friends.

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Elliott Carter (1908-)
Quartet no. 1 (1951)

Elliott Carter is one of the most respected and original of American serious concert composers in the second half of the 20th century. He has been noted for his unique style of blending European and American modernism in his approaches to rhythm, form, dramatic contrasts, and other innovations. Born into a prosperous New York family, Carter spent much of his childhood in Europe speaking French before learning to read English. Except for early piano lessons he had no special encouragement from his family for studying music. He entered the Horace Mann School in 1922 where he explored modern music along with modernism in literature, film and theater. The composer Charles Ives often invited him to concerts, and after-concert soirees. Ives also wrote the young man a letter of support in his application for entrance to Harvard. Being dissatisfied with Harvard’s music program at the time, Carter took an undergraduate degree in English Literature, Greek, and Philosophy while taking music courses at the Longy School in Boston. He stayed on at Harvard for an M.A. in music studying composition with Walter Piston and others, as well as visiting professor, Gustav Holst. Carter’s progress as a composer received its greatest impetus with three years of study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger (1932-36). During this time he became particularly fascinated with polyphony, from the early Renaissance to the cantatas of Bach. Teaching positions and marriage followed while Carter attempted to write music that would interest performers and audiences.

Carter wrote the first of five string quartets in an effort to understand himself as a composer and work out new concepts that were brewing within him. In order devote his full attention to developing these ideas, he left his life and work in New York to spend a year in the peace and quiet of the desert near Tucson where he also spent time exploring nature’s adaptation to heat and limited water supply. As he worked out his musical ideas and applied the lessons learned from desert habitat to his attitude toward performers and audiences, he wondered if they would accept the compositional results. In the end, the String Quartet No. 1 received the 1st prize in the 1953 Liège string quartet competition, and subsequent works for the genre, which continue to follow his own unique compositional path, have received additional prizes. The desert horizens inspired Carter to let musical ideas unfold rather than confine them to specified classical forms. Formally the piece falls into four sections: Fantasia, Allegro scorrevole, Adagio, and Variations, but these sections are not classical divisions with formal beginnings and endings. Aiding the free flow of musical ideas which dissolve into each other, pauses are placed not between formal sections but one occurs in the middle of Allegro scorrevole and the other just as the cello begins the Variations, effectively giving the piece a three part feel. The entire work is “bookended” by a cadenza: the cello at the beginning, and the first violin at the end. While throughout most of the quartet the parts are presented independently thematically and rhythmically, a notable exception occurs in the Adagio where the muted violins evoke a contemplative mood while the lower voices put forth what the composer describes as “an impassioned rough recitative.” Not a typical theme a variation form, Variations consists of a succession of no less than seven main themes presented in a series of accelerating transformations.

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Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Quartet in c minor, op. 51, no. 1

Johannes Brahms was already 40 when the first two of his three string quartets were published. Brahms was a deliberate man and suffered from feeling as if he were under the shadow of Beethoven (“You have no idea how it feels to hear the footsteps of a giant behind you”). This may explain the long delay in the completion and release of Brahms’ first symphony as well as his string quartets. He wished to find a new path in the genres established by Haydn, advanced by Mozart, and developed and revolutionized by Beethoven. While Brahms stated that he had discarded a number of earlier efforts in the medium, these quartets may have been in the works for up to 20 years. At any rate the two quartets of Op. 51 were completed while the composer was on Summer holiday in 1873, and were dedicated to his friend Theodor Billroth a Viennese surgeon and an accomplished amateur violist.

Bold and elaborate, filled with rich harmonic structure and frequent double stopping, the Quartet Op. 51, No. 1 in c minor sounds quite symphonic. The opening Allegro presents a restless arching theme, robust, full of seething energy. The second violin leads the way in the gentle, but strong Romance. The masterful, sensitive accompaniment grows in rhythmic complexity from a mixture of dotted, non-dotted, and triplet rhythms, until all parts are working against each other, but with a restrained feel. Brahms, ever partial to the viola, gives the lead to that instrument in the 3rd movement. In the trio section the second violin is heard in an amusing effect as the bariolage technique is used (alternating stopped/open sounds for the same note) while the viola is given oscillating octaves against pizzicato in the outer voices. The Allegro finale returns to the drive and arch shape of the first movement sporting an impatient athletic pace that increases to the end.

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