Viennese Classic

Joseph Haydn (1732 Rohrau/Lower Austria - 1809 Vienna) added the following remark to his String Quartets op. 33 (1781) they are in a completely new style, since it has been 10 years since I wrote any: auf eine gantz neu Besondere Art, denn seit 10 Jahren habe keine geschrieben. The novelty of these works can be seen in Haydn's exceptional creativity and his surprising harmonic and melodic ingenuity. In the musical example, Quartet No. 3 , for instance, he "builds" the main theme from a short bird's cry (characterized by the short appoggiaturas) which is why the quartet is known as The Bird . Such new effects seem to have had a good effect on his contemporaries, since the String Quartets, op. 33 became the best-selling musical publication of the 18th c within just 2 years. (E. Stadler)