Mozart & Haydn

Dissonance

I'm constantly inspired by meetings of specific people, in specific places, at specific times, and the incredible art that often comes out of these encounters. Such is the case with Mozart's Dissonance String Quartet. Here is a brief exploration of the six string quartets that Mozart composed and the impact that composer Joseph Haydn had on Mozart’s work.

In 1781, Mozart.became acquainted with Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn and they attended various quartet parties together.

Wolfgang Mozart and Joseph Haydn

In 1784 there was a quartet party hosted by composer Stefan Sorace.This particular event is chronicled in a book published in 1826 by Michael Kelly, entitled Reminiscences. He recounts how wonderful this party was. Imagine this! Haydn and composer Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf playing violin, Mozart playing viola, along with other musicians and composers. What a meeting of minds! I would have loved to have been there and just listened to discussions that were going on.

These quartet parties were something of a tradition. On February 16th, 1785, at a quartet party during a ten week visit to the Mozart household in Vienna, Haydn approached Mozart's father, Leopold, and relayed what has become one of Haydn's most well known quotes, specifically about Wolfgang's composition:

“Before God and as an honest man, I tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to me, either in person or by name. He has taste, and furthermore, the most profound knowledge of composition.”

Joseph Haydn playing quartets – anonymous artist before 1790, Staats Museum, Vienna

The year 1785 was quite productive and pivotal in terms of Mozart's output and the development of the string quartet as the incredible chamber music platform and expressive platform that it is.

Let's get to the six string quartets that Mozart composed between 1782 and 1785 and dedicated to Joseph Haydn. It's notable that they were dedicated to Haydn and not one of Mozart's patrons which would have been very much in keeping and most likely expected during this time period.

I think, to a great extent, they resulted from the influence of Haydn's Opus 33 String Quartets, which were published in 1781, and they seem to have had a significant influence on Mozart's thinking about string quartet composition in particular. What Haydn begins to do is a more in depth and explores the string quartet medium as an opportunity for discourse among the four instruments, continuing to break away from the 18th century Baroque trio sonata mold and into full fledged quartet writing, in particular using counterpoint as a means of intensifying emotions.

During this period of time, in Germany and Austria, the Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) movement in musical composition was significant as well. Sturm und Drang related music and C.P.E. Bach was a big part of the development of this idea of exploring primarily minor keys in order to reach new depths of musical expression, especially like emotional expression prototypical 19th century Romanticism from a certain point and perspective.

Mozart's Vienna home

Mozart being very aware of the confluence of Haydn's exploration and deepening of compositional techniques using the string quartet. Being very interested in exploring some Sturm und Drang related ideals, I would like to focus on the sixth, the final of these Haydn quartets, the first movement, also known as the Dissonance Quartet number 465, which opens with a wonderful adagio in C minor. I can't help but hear the parallels between the opening of the Dissonance Quartet, and the opening of Mozart's C Minor Fantasy Curriculum No. 475.

I'm wondering if perhaps Mozart used the opening of the Dissonance Quartet as something of a study, a precursor to what he was going to do in his C Minor Fantasy, or perhaps he was composing the two simultaneously side by side because we have a similar iconic opening in the C Minor Fantasy. Full of drama, beauty, and foreboding.

C minor is a fairly serious key, and so is a very effective use of this minor, creating a sense of suspended animation. Mozart does a similar thing in the opening of the Dissonance Quartet, where he's simply layering sounds on top of each other, creating dissonances that then marginally resolve, but not really fully resolving, and we finally get to the end of this, and then there's such a tremendous mood shift when we go into the allegro, the body of that first movement.

1785 was a crazy period in the Mozart household. During that year he appeared in twenty concerts, ten of which were actually arranged and facilitated by Mozart himself. In addition, he was present and helping to facilitate three house concerts, two of which were Masonic lodge performances. Let's not neglect the fact that Mozart was a very active Freemason, as was Haydn, as were most of the creative and influential men in Vienna at that time. He also composed a series of operatic scenes for vocal trio and string quartet, three piano concertos, two string quartets, including the K4651 Piano Quartet, a piano sonata and the C Minor Fantasy, as well as K475 Masonic Funeral Music, which is absolutely fabulous.

Mozart also maintained a crazy social calendar at this time. There were often times days where there was so much going on socially that Mozart would go to one event and his wife, Constanza, would go to a different event. Things were hopping! It appears likely that it was around this time that Mozart first came across and read the famous novel by the French writer Beaumarchais, Le Mariage de Figaro (Marriage of Figaro), and then started to work with librettists Lorenzo da Ponte on the opera of the same name. There was a lot musically that stemmed from this period of time.

I would certainly invite you to explore any of these wonderful six Haydn string quartets that Mozart wrote during this period. What a year! And we're all the better for it because it's so inspiring to know what came from these initial meetings between Haydn and Mozart and then how far along both composers really took the string quartet as an art form.

I want to acknowledge a couple of very valuable books that I found to be really helpful in digging around. One is a book entitled Mozart in Vienna, 1781-1791 by Volkmar Braunbehrens. Stanley Sadie's wonderful work in the New Grove Dictionary, Mozart also has some really helpful information and context. The new Grove Dictionaries have all listings of a composer's works which are as accurate as possible at the time of publication.

This video includes Mozart's Dissonant String Quartet, K. 465 performed by my student quartet members. Championing my students and having the opportunity to explore some of this incredible music and then go into a little bit more detail is such a gift.

Please like, subscribe, and comment on the video to let me know what you're interested in!

Rick Ferguson