String Quartet in E flat major Op.76 No.6 (Hob.III:80) (1797)

Although he would have the strength to complete only two more string quartets, Haydn was far from the end of his powers in Op.76, his last full set of six. Indeed, he was so confident of his continuing mastery over the medium to set himself challenges in each one. In the first movement of Op.76 No.6 he invents the new genre of variations and fugue. In the second he presents an Adagio of such extraordinary harmonic freedom that, unprecedentedly, it bears no key signature. The third movement is not a minuet but a thoroughly modern scherzo and the Finale is a risky experiment in dislocated rhythms.

Although the quartets Haydn dedicated to Count Erdödy in 1797 were not his last – the two Op 77 quartets and the unfinished Op 103 were yet to come – they were the last full set of six he was able to complete. Writing them at the same time as he was working on The Creation, and taking no more than a few months over them even so, he was clearly still at the height of his powers – as Chopin recognised when, according to an entry in the diary of Eugène Delacroix, he observed that “experience has given these works the perfection we so much admire in them.” Haydn himself seems to have been of a similar opinion. Certainly, he was confident enough of his mastery over the medium to to set himself challenges in each one

There is nothing very challenging, one might argue, about an Allegretto first movement in theme-and-varations form – even if the two sections of the theme, each one of which is repeated, are widely disproportionate in length and even if the composer denies himself the easy contrast of a variation in the minor. Progress is fairly straightforward but only until the fourth variation where, instead of preserving the symmetry with a repeat of its second section, Haydn changes the tempo to Allegro and projects his theme into what promises to be a vigorous double fugue. In fact, the fugal texture lasts only half the length of this closing episode – which, however, is long enough to define the essential characteristics of a new form with a distinguished future ahead of it, the variations and fugue.

If the first movement reaches well into the 19th century, the second advances into the 20th. Taking the classical composer’s refuge from academic criticism by calling it a “Fantasia” – which is usually taken to mean that normal rules no longer apply – Haydn presents an Adagio of such extraordinary harmonic freedom that, unprecedentedly, it bears no key signature. It is actually in B major but the theme with which it begins goes through no fewer than 13 modulations in the first half of the movement alone. Although the second, recapitulatory, half carries the B major key signature of five sharps, it is scarcely less adventurous, introducing a new contrapuntal interest and, towards the end, curiously dissonant, apparently modal harmonies.

It is scarcely neccessary to point out that the third movement is not, in spite of its title, a minuet but a thoroughly modern scherzo, including a note-by-note exchange between the four instruments that Beethoven was to find so interesting that he echoed it in his “Harp” Quartet Op.74. Instead of the usual “Trio” the middle section bears an old-fashioned “Alternativo” heading – presumably to draw attention to the baroque-like procedure of treating a downward scale-wise melody in three-part counterpoint and then reversing the melody to treat it in the same way.

After making his formal, harmonic and textural innovations in the first three movements, Haydn turns his attention in the Finale to metre and rhythm. In this case he applies his wit not to charm or tease but deliberately to disorientate. If the dislocated rhythms of main theme itself are not enough to cause confusion, two astonishing passages in the middle section – where jagged staccato lines on cello or violin are punctuated by double-stopped chords falling anywhere but on the beat on which they are expected – should do the trick very nicely.

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