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Much of Handel’s chamber music is in point of view of form strikingly
in advance of his time. Many of his sonatas contain movements
which, within a comparatively brief compass, follow strictly the
general outlines of the sonata form. The second movements of two
of his solo sonatas, in A and D, and of the sonata in C minor for flute
and violin, are good instances.

In tracing the evolution of modern principles in chamber music we

have mentioned only those composers who were of striking
importance in the development of the genre. It did not seem practical
to divide the field to be covered into periods, since up to Corelli no
works were sufficiently original or individual to establish a new
school or new style. In the works between Gabrieli’s first attempts in
the field of chamber music and those of Corelli, Bach and Handel,
we recognize the elementary principles of modern form, harmony,
thematic development and instrumentation. It is this phase of the
development of chamber music that prepared the way for Haydn,
Mozart and Beethoven, the greatest masters of pure instrumental
music.

E. K.
 FOOTNOTES:
[59] Distinction between church music and chamber music, as far as can be
ascertained, was first made by Nic. Vicentino in 1555 in a work entitled L’antica
musica ridotta alla moderna. The term chamber music had its origin in the practice
of rich citizens and princes who regularly kept in their service musicians to provide
private concerts in their chambers (camera) for the delectation of their friends. The
musicians thus employed were given the title of chamber musicians, or chamber
singers. The official title of chamber musician—suonatore di violino da camera—
was probably used for the first time by Carlo Farina (1627) in the service of the
court at Dresden.

[60] It was G. B. Vitali whom Henry Purcell (1658-1695) ‘faithfully endeavored to

imitate’ in his ‘Sonatas of three parts: two violins and bass: to the Organ or
Harpsichord.’ Purcell’s twelve sonatas show power, originality, and inspiration, and
are not lacking in emotional content of considerable warmth.

[61] Trio sonatas for two oboes and bassoons (1693), Chamber duets (1711), Trio
sonatas for two violins (or two oboes or two flutes) and bassoon (1732), Sonatas
or Trios (1737), four Chamber Duets (1741), two Chamber Duos, Chamber Duets
(1745).
 CHAPTER XV
THE FIRST PERIOD OF THE STRING
QUARTET
The four-part habit of writing in instrumental forms—Pioneers of
the string quartet proper: Richter, Boccherini and Haydn; Haydn’s
early quartets—The Viennese era of the string quartet; Haydn’s
Sonnen quartets; his ‘Russian’ quartets; his later quartets—W. A.
Mozart; Sammartini’s influence; Mozart’s early (Italian) quartets;
Viennese influences; Mozart’s Viennese quartets—His last
quartets and their harmonic innovations.

The greater part of the vocal music of the fifteenth and early
sixteenth centuries was written in four parts, masses and motets as
well as chansons. Only the madrigal was normally in five. After the
middle of the sixteenth century, however, composers inclined to
increase the number of parts, until four-part writing became rare.

During the seventeenth century, while the art of instrumental music

was growing rapidly, composers centred their attention either on
groups of several instruments, which we may call primitive
orchestras, or on one or two solo instruments supported by the
figured bass of the harpsichord. Therefore, about the middle of the
eighteenth century, when sonatas and symphonies took on their
modern form, instrumental compositions were usually for orchestra,
or for a trio, or for a solo instrument with harpsichord
accompaniment. But besides these there were many works of
indistinct form and name; and not a few of these were written in four
parts. Hardly before 1750 can such sonatas or symphonies a quattro
be considered string quartets in the present meaning of the word.
They are planned and executed in an orchestral manner.

I
Franz Xaver Richter (1709-1789), Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809),
and Luigi Boccherini (1743-1804) brought the string quartet into
popular favor. Richter was, next to Johann Stamitz, the most
significant of the composers at one time or another associated with
the orchestra at Mannheim, who may properly be called the founders
of the classical symphony. Six of his string quartets were published
in London between 1767 and 1771. These were probably written
much earlier. One finds in them the now clearly defined sonata-form;
a careful writing for each of the four instruments (two violins, viola,
and 'cello), which, of course, marks the disappearance of the figured
bass from music of this kind; finally an intimacy of sentiment rather
distinct from the hearty music of the young Mannheim symphonies.

Luigi Boccherini, for many years supposed to have created the string
quartet out of his head, is now generally recognized as a disciple of
the Mannheim reformers. He was himself a brilliant 'cellist. In 1768
his performances at the Concerts spirituels brought him and his
compositions into fame. He held court positions at Madrid, later was
chamber-composer to Frederick Wilhelm II, of Prussia; and after the
death of this king in 1797 went back again to Spain, where,
unhappily, in spite of the friendly patronage of Lucien Buonaparte,
the French ambassador, he was overtaken by poverty and misery.

As a composer of chamber music he was unusually prolific. He wrote

no less than one hundred and twenty-five string quintets, one
hundred and thirteen of which are for two violins, viola, and two 'celli;
and there were at least ninety-one string quartets from his easy pen.
The first six of these were composed about 1761, and were
published in Paris in 1768, while Boccherini was in that city. They
appeared as Sei Sinfonie, or Sei Quartetti, for two violins, alto, and
violoncello, dedicated to amateurs and connoisseurs of music.

A sympathetic writer on Boccherini’s life and work[62] said of these

first quartets that in them the composer revealed himself entirely.
‘His taste, his style, his easy touch, his genius show themselves
suddenly with a superiority, an understanding of the art, which leave
similar works by his predecessors far behind. He thus becomes
creator of this genre, of which he fixes the true character forever.
Other great masters who have come since have doubtless modified
and extended the domain of the Trio, the Quartet, and the Quintet,
but following the road which he had the glory first to trace. When one
approaches the works of his immediate predecessors and of his
contemporaries, and compares them with his, one cannot but admire
the complete revolution, ahead of the time and yet sure,
accomplished at the first shot, and without hesitation, by a young
artist of twenty-one years!’

This is extravagant. Boccherini is not now considered the creator of

a new style. Indeed, there is no musician to whom alone the
invention of any musical form may be ascribed. But his writing is
clear and fluent, and intimately adapted to the string instruments for
which it was conceived. These first quartets are said to have been
especially admired by the great violinist Viotti.

It is unhappily true that Boccherini does reveal himself entirely in the

first six of his published works. Subsequent works show little sign of
advance or development. In his work as a whole there is a fatal
sameness. Too much gentle elegance has driven out humor and
genuine vigorous life. For this reason a great part of it has fallen into
oblivion. Yet it does not lack charm, and is, indeed, conspicuous for
excellent treatment of the slender tone-material.
Pioneers of the String Quartet. From top left to bottom right:
Luigi Boccherini, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,
Joseph Haydn, Franz Xaver Richter.
Haydn’s string quartets are immensely more vigorous. Three sets of
six were published in Paris between 1764 and 1769.[63] These first
eighteen of his numerous works in this form had been written some
ten years earlier, while Haydn was at the house of Joseph von
Fürnberg in Weinzirl, near Melk, not far from Vienna. The young
nobleman was an enthusiastic amateur of music and was
accustomed to invite friends to his house to practise and play with
him all sorts of chamber music. He suggested to Haydn, who had in
some way become known to him, possibly by some early trios, that
he write a string quartet. This Haydn did, and his music made such a
favorable impression that the fame of it spread rapidly abroad. There
followed seventeen more quartets, all written for the group of
musicians whom Fürnberg had gathered round him. In this group
were men who played the horn, the oboe, and the flute; and some of
these first eighteen quartets were originally composed for strings and
wind. The wind players were, however, unskillful, and Haydn
contented himself for the most part in writing for only the four strings.

It is interesting to note that Haydn wrote these quartets as

Cassations, Divertimenti, and Notturni;[64] a fact which goes far to
show how loose was the terminology of instrumental music even as
late as 1755. Cassation, divertimento, serenade, notturno, all meant
about the same thing: a piece of music in several movements of light
character, usually arranged for a band of both wind and string
instruments. They differed from the sonata and from the growing
symphony in number of movements. There were usually at least five.
These early quartets of Haydn’s were printed in Paris as
symphonies, symphony still being applicable to any piece of music
written for more than three instruments.

It would seem, then, that Haydn wrote his quartets just to suit the
requirements of a happy circumstance; that he had no idea of
creating a new art form; that he applied to music for four instruments
the principles of form with which he was already familiar through the
works of Emanuel Bach, and which, moreover, were becoming more
and more familiar to the world by reason of the popular fame of the
Mannheim symphonies. But by this happy circumstance he came
upon the special branch of music which to the end remained wholly
fitting to his genius.

As to the special form of these first quartets there is little to say. The
first twelve, with one exception, have five movements apiece. Of
these, two are usually minuets. The first is usually in the sonata-
form. The fifth quartet has three movements. It was undoubtedly not
only originally conceived as a symphony, but was actually so played,
and may, therefore, be called Haydn’s first symphony. Of the last six
quartets four have four movements; the fourteenth has three and the
sixteenth is the only one of Haydn’s quartets with but two
movements. In this very first series, written for the pleasure of a
music-loving young nobleman, Haydn found himself. They show
each after the other a steady progress in the treatment of
instruments, in the management of form; and, finally, seem to show a
decision, henceforth maintained almost without exception, to limit the
number of movements to four.

All are full of that spirit of joy and healthiness which has ever been
associated with Haydn’s music in general. They introduced a new
spirit into the art of music—the spirit of humor, sunny and naïve. On
account of this they were welcomed in all the countries of Europe,
and spread such general delight that before the middle of the ‘sixties
Haydn was among the best known of all musicians. A Parisian
publisher named Vénier included the first six of Haydn’s quartets in a
series of works di varii autori which were published in Paris about
1764 with the motto: Les noms inconnus bons à connaître. In this
series there were forty-six numbers, of which Haydn’s quartets
formed the sixth. Other composers represented were Jomelli,
Stamitz, Christian Bach and Boccherini.[65] By 1765 editions had
appeared in Amsterdam and in London as well.

II
During the years Haydn lived at Esterhazy he composed between
forty and fifty string quartets. These were published usually in groups
of six, after 1781 by Artaria; and the appearance of a fresh set of
Haydn’s quartets was announced in the papers of Vienna and Berlin,
and was occasion for enthusiasm among the amateurs of most of
the great capitals of Europe. It was the age of the string quartet, a
time when amateurs and dilettanti, men of wealth and influence,
often of culture, met at least once a week to play together. Musicians
were everywhere in demand.

Haydn wrote six quartets (opus 9, Nos. 1-6) in the year 1769,
numbers 21-26, inclusive, in Pohl’s index, and six more before 1771,
numbers 27-32. In both these series the treatment of the first violin is
conspicuous, and it is noteworthy that during these years he wrote
most of his concertos for the violin. The first and last movements of
the quartet in C major, No. 21 (opus 9, No. 1), seem to be almost
solo music for the first violin, which not only introduces all the
principal themes, but which in many pages adds brilliant ornament.
In the first movement of No. 24 (opus 9, No. 4), in D minor, again
one is reminded of a violin concerto. Likewise in the first movement
of No. 22 (opus 9, No. 2), in E-flat major; and before the end of the
slow movement in this quartet, which here, as in most of these two
series, is the third movement, following the minuet, an elaborate
cadenza is written out for the first violin. In the quartets Nos. 27-32
(opus 17, Nos. 1-6), such a brilliant treatment of the first violin is
even more conspicuous. The other instruments play for the most part
the rôle of accompaniment. The quartets are all in four movements
and in the majority, as has been said, the minuet is the second
movement and the slow movement is the third.

Over all there is the delightful play of Haydn’s humor. Perhaps the
best known and loved of the series is that in G major, No. 31 (opus
17, No. 5).

The next series of six quartets, Nos. 33-38 (opus 20, Nos. 1-6), were
written about 1774 and were known in Berlin as the Sonnen
quartets. In 1800 they were published by Artaria in Vienna and
dedicated by Haydn to Nicolaus Zmeskall von Domanowecz, one of
the earliest admirers of Beethoven, to whom, by the way, the latter
dedicated his own quartet in F minor, opus 95. The earlier quartets,
for all they were generally hailed with praise and admiration, had not
gone wholly scatheless. There were conservatives, especially in the
north of Germany, who looked askance at the entrance of humor into
music, who felt the art was in danger thereby of degradation, who
regarded Haydn as a musical joke-maker. These quartets, Nos. 33-
38, may have been written by Haydn to prove his command of what
was considered the indisputably serious and dignified art of
composition. All are contrapuntal in style, intricate and serious in
manner if not in mood. In the first movement of the first (opus 20, No.
1), in E-flat major, the style is compact and full of imitations. The
minuet is short; the slow movement, affettuoso et sostenuto, closely
and richly woven, distinctly polyphonic music.

The second of the series in C major (opus 20, No. 2) has for its final
movement a fugue with four subjects, and the last movements of the
fifth and sixth are both fugues, the former on two, the latter on three
subjects. The entire series at once became currently known as the
‘great’ quartets.

In 1781 another series of six (opus 33, Nos. 1-6) was published by
Artaria in Vienna. A female figure on the carefully engraved title-
page gave to the set for some time the name of Jungfern Quartette;
but they are now more generally known as the Russian quartets.
They were dedicated to Archduke Paul of Russia, and had been
played at the apartments of the Archduchess during a visit to Vienna.
They have also gone by the name of Gli Scherzi, for the reason that
in each the place of the minuet is taken by a scherzo.[66] They bear
the numbers 39-44 in Pohl’s index. No. 41 (opus 33, No. 3) is
perhaps the best known; and has often been called the ‘Bird
Quartet.’ The first movement suggests the twitter and song of birds,
partly by the nature of the principal theme, with its four long notes
and their graces, and the descending turning figures which follow
them; and partly by the nature of the accompaniment, which is
staccato or half staccato throughout, now in naïvely repeated thirds
shared by second violin and viola, now in figures that imitate the
chirping of the principal theme. The trio of the second movement
suggests birds again. It is a dialogue between first and second
violins, staccato and chirping throughout, in effective contrast with
the main body of the movement, which is legato, and sotto voce as
well. The Adagio is wonderfully calm and hushed. The last
movement, to quote Pohl, brings the cuckoo with fresh life and all the
forest folk answer him. ‘The merry figures fly from voice to voice,
after each other, against each other, in twos and threes, all with the
“springing” bow.’

In the Musikalisches Kunstmagazin for 1782 there is a criticism of

these quartets and of six symphonies which appeared about the
same time, by J. F. Reichardt, part of which may be quoted. ‘Both
these works are full of the most original humor, the liveliest and
pleasantest wit. No composer has so united individuality and variety
with pleasantness and popularity as Haydn; and few of the
agreeable and favorite composers have such a good command of
form as Haydn shows himself for the most part to have. It is
especially interesting to observe with critical eye the progress of
Haydn’s work. In his very first works, which were well known among
us some twenty years ago, there were signs of his peculiar good-
natured humor; rather for the most part youthful spirits and
unrestrained jollity, with a superficial treatment of harmonies. Then
little by little his humor grew more manly, his work more thoughtful,
until now the mature originality, the firm artist, show in all his work.’
Haydn sent a copy of these quartets to Frederick William II of
Prussia, who acknowledged the gift with pleasure and sent as a
token of his esteem for the now universally admired musician a gold
medal and his picture.

These six quartets published in 1781 show Haydn in full command of

the art of the quartet. They must have served in a way as
foundations for all subsequent writing for a similar group of four
instruments, surely so for Mozart and Beethoven. The earlier
quartets showed now an experimental mood, particularly as regards
the treatment of the first violin, now serious endeavor to disprove the
critics who cried out that he had no genuine skill. In these Russian
quartets there is perfect treatment of each of the instruments, an
even disposition of the music between them all. His mastery shows
in the movement of the two inner voices, whereby a constant and at
the same time varied sonority is procured. The balance of form is
secure, the sequence and length of the movements as well. Only in
one particular does he seem unwilling to decide. This is the place of
the minuet, which even now he most often makes second in the
group. With all this development of skill he has lost nothing of his
prevailing cheerfulness, nothing of his spontaneous humor, nothing
of his gift of melody. The quartets are perfect as the expression of
his own individuality, till now practically uninfluenced by other
musicians.

Immediately after, Mozart settled in Vienna. In 1785 he published the

famous six quartets written as proof of his admiration for Haydn, his
friend even more than his master. Haydn’s excellent opinion, indeed
his unqualified admiration, of Mozart is well known. The two men
acted favorably upon each other and the work of the older man was
hardly less influenced by that of the younger than that of the younger
by the older. However, the individuality of both was strong. To
compare their compositions is always to find in what ways they are
dissimilar rather than in what ways they copied each other. Haydn
never wrote with the inexplicable grace of Mozart; nor did Mozart put
into his music the wholly naïve and spontaneous gaiety of Haydn.
Mozart gained from Haydn in conciseness of form, Haydn from
Mozart in refinement of style.

Such a gain shows in the six quartets (opus 50, Nos. 1-6) published
in 1787 and dedicated by Haydn to the king of Prussia. These are in
Pohl’s index, Nos. 45 to 50. The first movements are all distinctly
Haydn in treatment, though a touch of seriousness in No. 48 (opus
50, No. 4) suggests Mozart. The second movements are all slow;
and in all six quartets the minuet has come back to its regular place
as third in the group. The last movement of No. 48 is in the form of a
fugue. The last movements of Nos. 45, 46, 47, and 49 (opus 50,
Nos. 1, 2, 3, 5), however, are in Haydn’s inimitable manner. In the
last movement of No. 46 (opus 50, No. 2) there is a suggestion of a
theme from Mozart’s ‘Magic Flute.’ No. 50 (opus 50, No. 6) has the
nickname ‘Frog Quartet.’

In 1789 and in 1790, respectively, two more sets appeared, both

dedicated to Monsieur Jean Tost. These are opus 54, Nos. 1-3, and
opus 55, Nos. 1-3; and opus 64, Nos. 1-6. In Pohl’s index they are
Nos. 51-62, inclusive. Johann Tost was a rich merchant in Vienna
who was not only a patron of music but an excellent performer on
the violin himself, and later closely associated with Spohr. As if
wishing to give Tost full chance in these quartets to display his skill
on the first violin, Haydn has consistently given to that instrument an
unusually conspicuous part. He not only writes for it in the highest
registers, as, for instance, in the Trio of opus 55, No. 1; but
frequently allots to the other instruments the rôle of simplest
accompaniment, as in the first movement of opus 54, No. 2. The
favorite of the series is perhaps that in D major, opus 64, No. 5, the
last movement of which is in perpetual, rapid motion, the first violin
being the most active.

Prince Esterhazy, Haydn’s patron, died in September, 1790. Shortly

after, Haydn went upon his first visit to London. His life was full of
occupation with the last symphonies, written for Salomon, the
London manager, and with his two great oratorios, ‘The Creation’
and the ‘Seasons.’ Only a few more quartets are to be mentioned.
Opus 71 and opus 73 both consist of three quartets. Opus 76
contains six, and the whole set was dedicated to Count Erdödy. In
this series two are conspicuous. The first movement of that in D
minor, opus 76, No. 2, is built on a simple, impressive motive of four
notes. The adagio of opus 76, No. 3, is a set of variations on the
hymn, Gott erhalte Franz der Kaiser, which Haydn had composed in
January, 1797, and which has since become, as Haydn hoped it
would, the national hymn of Austria. The variations are justly
admired; and the quartet has been called on account of them the
‘Kaiser quartet.’ Finally there are two quartets, published as opus 77
and dedicated to Prince Lobkowitz. The minuet and andante of the
second are given special mention by Sauzay.[67] The last quartet of
all, published posthumously as opus 103, is unfinished. It consists of
but two movements, the second of which is a minuet. Evidently
without hope of completing it, Haydn wrote at the end of the minuet a
few bars of melody from a vocal quartet, composed a few years
before, called Der Greis. The words are: Hin ist alle meine Kraft, Alt
und schwach bin ich. The same melody and words he had printed on
a visiting card, to be given to those who came to enquire after his
failing health.

There are in all eighty-three quartets. Instrumental music composed

to accompany the recitation in church of the seven last words of
Christ are no longer reckoned among the quartets. To Haydn more
than to any other single man belongs the honor of having
established the string quartet as a work of art and as the vehicle for
noble musical feeling. Over all the eighty-three sparkles the sun of
his peculiar and inimitable humor; yet none the less they show from
start to finish an ever-growing skill in handling the slender materials
of sound, an appreciation of the separate instruments, a knowledge
of how to dispose the parts so as to preserve a rich and varied
sonority. They recommended themselves at once to the affection as
well as the admiration of amateurs and musicians alike, and
indubitably paved the way for the quartets of Mozart and Beethoven.
Through Haydn the delicate beauty of such a combination of
instruments was first made clear to the world, and with it no little of
its power to express the finest ideals which have inspired musicians.

III
Mozart and Haydn are in no regard more different than in their
approaches to mastery of their art. Haydn received almost no
training. He developed his powers unaided and without direction.
The circumstances of his life at Esterhazy cut him off from general
musical intercourse and he was, as he himself said, practically
forced to be original. The string quartet offered him one of the
happiest means of self-expression; and to that end in general he
used it, putting his kindly humor and fun freely into music.

Mozart, on the other hand, was carefully guided, even from infancy,
in the way which custom has approved of as the proper way for a
musician to travel. Surely before he was ten years old he was no
mean master of the science of harmony and counterpoint, thanks to
the strict attentions of his father; and he was hardly out of his
mother’s arms before he was carried about Europe, to display his
marvellous genius before crowned heads of all nations, and, what is
even more significant, before the greatest musicians of his age.

One by one the influences of the men with whom he came in contact
make their appearance in his youthful music. In London there was
Christian Bach, in Paris, Jean Schobert, in Vienna, old Wagenseil;
and at the time he wrote his first string quartet—in March, 1770—he
was almost completely under the influence of Giovanni Battista
Sammartini, organist at Milan, once teacher of Gluck, and always
one of the most gifted of Italian musicians.

Haydn had no appreciation of Sammartini. He seems likewise to

have looked upon Boccherini with a cold regard. But in Italy, where
Mozart stayed from December, 1769, to March, 1771, these were
both names to conjure with; and the music of both was likely to be
heard every day. Sammartini had composed a series of concertinos
a quattro istromenti soli in 1766 and 1767; and, though Mozart was
surely acquainted with the quartets of Michael Haydn, Stamitz, and
Gossec, it is after those of Sammartini that he modelled his own first
quartet. Two external features point to this: the fact that the first
quartet has but three movements,[68] which was the number
customary among the Italians, especially with Sammartini; and the
treatment of the second violin, which plays quite as great a part in
the quartet as the first violin. In addition to this there is a certain
melodic elegance which was not characteristic of German music at
that time, and which seems very closely akin to the charming nature
of the works of Sammartini. The three movements are in the same
key, a fact which we may attribute to the influence of a set of
quartets by Florian Gassmann.[69]

Mozart’s next ventures with this form are the three divertimenti
written at Salzburg early in 1772 (K. 136, 137, 138). In these there
are traces of the influence of Michael Haydn at work on the Italian
style of which Mozart had become master. The first is distinctly in the
style of Haydn. The second is again predominantly Italian, notably in
the equal importance given to the two violins, as in the quartets of
Sammartini. The third, the most effective of the three, seems to
represent a good combination of the two other styles. The final rondo
is especially charming and brilliant. These three quartets were
probably of a set of six. The remaining three have disappeared. In
Köchel’s Index they are numbers 211, 212, and 213, in the appendix.

In the fall of the same year Mozart was again in Italy, and to this
period in his life belong six quartets (K. 155-160, inclusive). The first
seems to have been written, according to a letter from Leopold
Mozart, to pass away a weary time at an inn in Botzen. The very first
quartet of all had been written at Lodi, with much the same purpose,
two years before. This quartet in D major is, on the whole, inferior to
the five others which follow in the same series and which were
probably written within the next few months at Milan. The quartet in
G major, K. 156, was probably written in November or December,
1772. It is strongly Italian in character. Notice in the first movement a
multiplicity of themes or subjects, instead of the development of one
or two, which was the German manner. Notice, also, that among the
thematic subjects the second has the greatest importance; not, as in
German quartets of this time, the first. The second movement, an
adagio in E minor, has a serious and sad beauty.

The two quartets which follow in the series (K. 157, 158) are
masterpieces in pure Italian style. The slow movements of both, like
the slow movement in the preceding quartet, are worthy of the fully
mature Mozart. An enthusiasm for, or even an appreciation of, this
style which lends itself so admirably to the string quartet is now
unhappily rare. These early quartets of Mozart are passed by too
often with little mention, and that in apologetic vein. We may quote a
passage from the ‘Life of Mozart,’ previously referred to. ‘This (K.
157), we say, is the purest, the most perfect, of the series; also the
most Italian, that which is brilliant with a certain intoxication of light
and poetry. Of the influence of Haydn there is but a trace here and
there in the scoring. The coda, with new material, at the end of the
andante may likewise be regarded as an echo of the recent Salzburg
style. But for the rest, for the invention of the ideas and the treatment
of them, there is not a measure in this quartet which does not come
straight from the spirit of Italy (génie italien), such as we see
transformed in the quartets of a Tartini, and yet again in the lighter
and easier works of a Sacchini or a Sammartini. Numerous little,
short, melodious subjects, the second of which is always the most
developed, an extreme care in the melodic design of the ritornelles,
a free counterpoint rarely studied (peu poussé), consisting especially
of rapid imitations of one voice in another; and all this marvellously
young, and at the same time so full of emotion that we seem to hear
the echo of a whole century of noble traditions. * * * Incomparable
blending of gaiety and tears, a poem in music, much less vast and
deep, indeed, than the great quartets of the last period in Vienna, but
perhaps more perfectly revealing the very essence of the genius of
Mozart.’ And of the quartet in F major (K. 158): ‘This quartet is
distinguished from the preceding one by something in the rhythm,
more curt and more marked, which makes us see even more clearly
to what an extent Mozart underwent the influence, not only of Italian
music of his own time, but of older music belonging to the venerable
school issued from Coulli. * * * From the point of view of
workmanship, the later quartets of Mozart will surpass immeasurably
those of this period; but, let it be said once more, we shall never
again find the youthful, ardent, lovely flame, the inspiration purely
Latin but none the less impassioned, of works like the quartet in C
and in F of this period. Let no one be astonished at the warmth of
our praise of these works, the beauty of which no one hitherto seems
to have taken the pains to appreciate. Soon enough, alas! we shall
have to temper our enthusiasm in the study of Mozart’s work, and
regret bitterly that the obligation to follow the “galant” style of the
time led the young master to forget his great sources of inspiration in
years passed.’

The remaining two quartets in the series (K. 159, 160) were written,
one in Milan in February, 1773, the other probably begun in Milan
about this time but finished a few months later in Salzburg.

On the first of July, 1773, Mozart arrived in Vienna. He remained

there three months, and during this time wrote six quartets (K. 168-
173, inclusive), the first four probably in August, the last two in
September. The fact of his writing six quartets in such haste might
suggest that he had received a commission from some nobleman or
rich amateur. There is no document, however, mentioning such a
circumstance; and it may well be that Mozart composed them, as he
had composed quartets in Italy, at once to occupy spare moments
and to satisfy that craving for expression which seems ever to have
seized him when he came in contact with any active and special
musical surroundings. Vienna was full of quartets and of amateurs
and artists who played them often together. Haydn was brilliantly
famous, his quartets were constantly performed. Dr. Burney heard
some of them exquisitely played at the house of the English
emissary, Lord Stormont, in this very September. Michael Kelly, in his
‘Memoirs,’ mentions an evening when, to fill up an hour or two, a
band of musicians played quartets; and among these musicians
Mozart himself was one. Therefore, being so surrounded by
quartets, Mozart probably could not, so to speak, keep his hands off
the form.

Naturally enough, he wrote as nearly as he could in the Viennese

style which now, just on the eve of the style galant, still breathed of
Emanuel Bach and the seriousness of musical learning. Haydn’s
Sonnen Quartette, those in which he replied to the charges of hostile
critics by an exhibition of excellent contrapuntal skill, were probably
already composed, though they were not printed until the following
year. Very likely Mozart had become familiar with some if not all of
them. Gassmann, too, had composed a series of quartets in 1772,
each of which had four movements, two of them fugues. But
probably the fugues which Mozart wrote as finales to the first and
sixth of these quartets owe their place to the influence of Haydn.

Indeed, the entire series shows Mozart in a process of assimilating a

serious style of music to which he had hitherto, through force of
circumstances, remained indifferent. Without question the recent
quartets of Haydn stirred in him a fever of emulation. That the six
quartets were written in the space of a month, or very little more, is
evidence of his impatience to make Haydn’s style his own. Other
influences than Haydn’s are present, but less obvious; such as the
influence of Gluck, at least in spirit, in one or two of the slow
movements. Consequently the series as a whole is not satisfying. It
does not reveal Mozart at ease. He has abandoned for the moment
the pure grace of the Italian style, of which he was consummate
master, in an effort, too sudden and hasty for success, to make his
music all German. He is consistently neither one thing nor the other,
neither graceful nor expressive. The last, in D minor, is naturally the
best. The first movement and the final fugue are proof that he had
already accomplished what he set out to do.

These first Viennese quartets stand alone between Mozart’s Italian

quartets and the great quartets written ten years and more later,
which were dedicated to Joseph Haydn, as the tribute of a son to a
father. Here Mozart has fully expressed his genius. There are six in
all, written at various times; the first three between December, 1782,
and the summer of 1783, the last three in the winter of 1784-85.
Haydn heard them before they were published, and praised them
highly. It was perhaps this warm appreciation which led Mozart to
dedicate the series to his old friend and teacher when he published it
in the autumn of 1785. The dedication is hearty, long, and naïve. In
Köchel’s Index the quartets are listed as Nos. 387, 421, 428, 458,
464, and 465.

IV