As a member of a string quartet, I hereby pledge to refer to this quartet only as the "Jack-in-the-box" Quartet in the future, with complete nonchalance, and act surprised when someone around me hasn't heard that name before.
You know, I'm not against people having fun. But you had way too much fun going through the Jack-in-the-Box ending. But I'm convinced, Jack-in-the-Box it is. Great video.
Hey Richard, the nickname is a wonderful idea! I love it! But we cannot do it without a German equivalent for a Haydn composition. I would propose "Springteufel-Quartett" which is an appropriate word for Jack-in-the-box in German. Together we will rock Haydn !
@@Richard.Atkinsontw, regarding your video on the 4th movement of the Eroica Symphony, you questioned why Beethoven had to alter the melody when it was played by the horns (measure 303). The valve horn had not yet been invented, and as such to play the unaltered melody would have required the written B♮ to be played as a stopped note. Now, Berlioz does say in his treatise that both notes there sound good when stopped. Therefore, my best guess is the fact that the horn line is exposed, coupled with that note being stressed by its longer relative duration, means that the difference in timbre would be significantly more noticeable than if it were in a more thickly orchestrated passage. (The durations aspect, I think, is key here, as it also explains why he permitted the written F♮ in the third horn in measure 305.) I’m curious to know what you think, but in any case, I’m looking forward to enjoying this video!
Haydn used Italian on his scores probably more than any other language, so an alternative to Der Springteufel for the Jack-in-the-box quartet would be the quartetto *Il pupazzo a molla* (The puppet on a spring).
it's absolutely remarkable how each and every one of your videos is both entertaining and educational, giving me a much deeper appreciation for the music i previously would've considered "boring" or "generic". love this channel.
This really is very good indeed, even judged by the consistent high-quality of your other Haydn videos; I watched and enjoyed this with great appreciation, and offer sincere thanks for all the work that went into making it.
What a great video! This is really beautifully done. I will prepare this quartet for our next amateur meeting, and I promise to call it the Jack-in-a-Box quartet. By the way, as an amateur composer of string chamber music I find your videos absolutely illuminating and inspiring, as Haydn’s quartets are a model to which I (hopelessly) aspire.
Just like Haydn's sense of humor matured over the years in his pieces, it's great to see your sense of humor maturing over the years in these videos. The part about the jack-in-the-box absolutely cracked me up!
Wow just another great video with SO much depth into its subject...I especially liked the way you took the time towards the beginning to actually show all of the thematic transformations he achieves with the 3 ideas on the opening page; that helps you realize the unity involved in his craft and really helps it sink in later...also loved the jack in the box approach to demonstrate by the way
Fabulous analysis. You've convinced me on the nickname; I've updated all the relevant Wikipedia pages accordingly (at least, the ones that weren't already updated by other viewers!)
I, as a member of the United Grand Lodge of Haydn Fanatics, previously appointed by the Grand Master Himself for knowing the 68th Symphony by Haydn, hereby swear oath to spread among the People the new nickname for the string quartet op. 76 no. 1.
@@Richard.Atkinson I'm afraid they got lost across the atlantic, but my profile picture on social media is Haydn's portrait and I have the integral Henle Urtext edition of his string quartets beside my bed, to replace a bible so to speak.
Well, I looked on Wikipedia, and there the entry says:- Quartet No. 60 in G major ("Jack-in-the-box"), Op. 76, No. 1, FHE No. 40, Hoboken No. III:75 Quick work by someone then!😁
You do realise that Opus 71 and Opus 74 is one complete set of six like Opus 76, and the split is entirely arbitrary on the part of the original publishers in London, Paris, and Vienna.
YES! New Richard Atkinson dropped. This, along with Classical Nerd's recent video essay about the history of the Sonata, has slaked my beginning of week thirst for musical enlightenment.
I wish music lessons in the public school in the 90s in the Germany that I attended had been that interesting! I always loved music, but like art lessons, it would have been absolutely awesome if teachers would have talked about the music, the musicians, art styles, and of course jokes in music and paintings. Thank you, Richard!
I'd never heard this piece before. I'm not fully through watching the video, but the thematic resemblance to the closing movement of Schubert's Symphony No. 9, "the Great," is striking to me.
Yes, that 4-note triplet motif is everywhere in both movements. I almost mentioned the finale of Schubert's C major string quintet, since it's another rare example of a work in the major mode with a finale that begins in the minor mode. It also relies on that same folksy orange accented syncopation.
Thank You for (as usual) great video! Great analyse of great movement! It's fun to invent new nicknames. I think they are allowed to be anachronistic (For example "Elvira Madigan" ;) ;) ;) - I don't like it, but it is as it is. ) I heard the diminution of secondary subject of Your speech at about 5:00 ;) Thank You also for mentioning Rossini! He was a great composer, showing sometimes great skills in counterpoint. He is very important for me for personal reasons - all my interest in classical music begin with him. Talking about nicknames. The "Timpani blow" comes from this jack-in-the-box or surprise in second movement of 94th symphony. But there is another remarkable timpani blow in this piece, or rather a series of timpani blows, near the end of the finale. I was wondering, why the nickname doesn't come from them. Timpani plays solo there, not just a note in a loud chord of whole orchestra, as it usual does. But I understand, that using this instrument in slow movement was also unusual at the time. From spooky music I recommend the third movement of Brahms Violin Sonata in D-minor (You probably know it) Thank You for great work!
By interesting coincidence Dave Hurwitz just put out a video on his YT channel about humor in music, also focusing on Haydn, specifically the Symphonies # 60, 93 and 94.
9:14 We can't have it all, and I love the way you stretch the diversions into other compositions. But I must mention for anyone who likes when Haydn gets "spooky..." The Trio in Haydn's Symphony 58 in F Major has to be the bleakest and most startling "spooky" moment he ever did.
Just a couple trivial additions to all the excellent points you made in the video: 1. As you correctly state about three minutes in, standard practice during the compositional lifetimes of Haydn and Mozart was indeed for sonata form movements in minor keys to modulate to the relative major rather than, as with comparable major key ones, to the dominant. An "exception that proves the rule" is the first movement of Hob. I:45, the "Farewell" symphony. There the F-sharp minor tonic music only feints toward the relative major key of A Major during the exposition, before swerving off and finally establishing the dominant key, C-sharp minor. 2. Besides the two string quartets with major key tonics you mention that have tonic minor fourth movements (although both eventually end in the tonic major), there are two symphonies that do the same. No. 70 starts and ends in D Major. However, in between the key of D minor takes it own strong turns at center stage, both beginning and ending the second movement, as well as starting/dominating most of the fourth movement/finale. The fourth movement of No 60, "Il Distratto," (roughly, "The Absent-minded Gentleman," with the entire symphony derived from the overture to and incidental music for a play of that name) also begins in C minor, despite the tonic of the symphony being C Major. Like the final movements of No. 70 and the two Op. 76 string quartets you mentioned, this one too eventually ends in the tonic major. Except...the fourth movement of No. 60 is, unlike those other works, not the finale for the symphony, but instead there are two more movements to go. The symphony as a whole has many, many examples of musical "absent-mindedness." Two of them are demonstrated via that fourth and succeeding pair of movements. The players have apparently "forgotten'" that the fourth movement of a symphony is "supposed" to be the last one, and that no other major composer would write a 6-movement symphony for many, many years to come (cf. Mahler's 3rd). And, more pertinent to this discussion, the fourth movement of a symphony in a major key was "supposed" to be in that key and not the tonic minor. Since this symphony predates the other three works in question, it actually represents Haydn's first use of that latter technique.
Yes, I should’ve mentioned that first example from Symphony 45 as an exception (this became commonplace in the next century, like in Brahms symphonies 1 and 4). I’ve mentioned both symphonies 70 and 60 in prior videos (I played the fugue from the finale of 70 in one of my Bach cantata videos). Symphony No. 60 was originally incidental music for a play, so that’s probably another reason for 6 movements (it’s more akin to a suite like Peer Gynt).
@@Richard.Atkinson 1. Excellent point about the two Brahms minor key symphonies and what became 19th century practice. 2. I remembered and enjoyed your previous videos involving Nos. 70 and 60, but I made those points here for anyone reading these comments who might not be familiar with those works and/or your videos. 3. I had never thought of the connection you make between No. 60 and Peer Gynt, but that is a very apt comparison!
While your evidence for Haydn intentionally evoking an existing machine in that section may be inconclusive, I think it's clear that he was keenly interested in machinery and how music could both function and dysfunction as machinery. From his palindromic minuet in Symphony #47 to the machine-like continuous pulse of #61/i, he constantly found ways to evoke the advantages and disadvantages of machines in his work -- a fixation he shared, IMO, with the later comic genius Buster Keaton. The "clock" symphony that you cite (and that symphony has several passages in other movements that make this case) is another example, as are the final bars of the fifth movement of #61 where a self-contained repeating pattern speeds up "on its own" as though a machine has gone haywire. Probably the most poignant example is #65/iii, where Haydn invents the "broken record" effect (deployed by Spike Jones many times) before there were records. So it's certainly believable that he would have consciously evoked another "problematic" machine, a jack-in-the-box, for this passage.
A minor key finale to a major key piece in Haydn? Okay, that's new to me. I've seen minor key finales to major key pieces before, but it's always been in Romantic composers like Brahms where I see it.
What a creative, entertaining, and insightful musical analysis! The preceding sentence applies to all your videos, but this one IMHO exceeds even your own typical high standard. A point you correctly stress is that, no matter how simple or complex his music sounds at a given time within a particular piece, in all but perhaps his very earliest works Haydn meticulously fashions his compositions so that everything hangs together superbly. The great musicologist H.C. Robbins Landon repeatedly called the composer “music’s greatest craftsman.” While a few other composers might possibly challenge him for that title (Bach and Beethoven come most immediately to mind), at best they could only be peers, sharing it with him, and not superiors. To cite one excellent source, James Webster’s “Haydn’s ‘Farewell Symphony’ and the Idea of Classical Style” gives a thorough discussion of how Haydn uses strategically placed notes, chords, motifs, themes, etc. as building blocks to create both individual movements (such as the one you analyzed), and how he integrates them into the work overall. A present-day analogy is that the composer makes his own custom set of musical Legos. Using a large number of total blocks but a deliberately limited set of sizes and colors, Haydn then locks them together in myriad combinations and orders, one way, then another, until finally he winds up with a monumental sonic structure forming a complete and impressive whole. But a more classic comparison for individual movements such as the one you spotlight is to an old-fashioned mechanical watch or clock. The inner workings of such devices seem at first sight to be a bewildering assortment of moving gears, powered by a wound spring or other energy source. Your breakdown of how Haydn uses his musical materials is analogous to taking apart such a mechanical clock, pointing out each of its different-sized gears and other components, then putting everything back together and showing how each individual part relates to and works with the others to make the clock keep time. And you make a convincing case for applying the nickname of “Jack-in-the-Box” to Op. 76 No. 1, based on its finale. An alternative might have the “Alarm Clock” string quartet, with the specific type of clock I am thinking of being the old mechanical wind-up nightstand variety fitted with a loud, clanging bell. With that kind, the comparison would be that Haydn sporadically startles his listeners unpredictably, like the clock’s alarm going off to suddenly awaken an early-morning sleeper (and as he may have literally done for the late-evening type in the second movement of Hob. I:94 at its premiere...). Or, as a modern update, and with appropriate (financial?) support by a certain technology company headquartered in Cupertino CA, this work could be (somewhat awkwardly) called instead the “iPhone Clock App Alarm Function” string quartet. However, any potential new nickname for this string quartet with the word “Clock” in it is doomed to failure. Hob. I:101 already has a lock (or is that tick-tock…) on that particular term. Thus, both on its own merits and a default concession by its most worthy competitors as a nickname, I support your christening of Op. 76 No. 1 as the “Jack-in-the-Box” string quartet. And, although the failure of the last potential nickname I mentioned in the prior paragraph meant losing the possible support of one major corporation, the alternative you originated might win it from a particular fast-food chain based in San Diego…
But yes, I agree that a few composers have almost supernatural powers of craftsmanship, and you can tell which ones I think they are by the number of videos I've done on each of them.
@@Richard.Atkinson Another excellent (and whimsical) suggestion for a nickname! While there are a number of Haydn compositions with nicknames that allude to living things, e.g. "The Bear" and "The Hen" among the (Paris) symphonies, and "The Frog" and "The Lark" among the string quartets, I know of none by him or any other composer that already reference a verotoxin-producing, pathogenic serotype of a common intestinal bacterium associated with food poisoning. However, now that I think of it, I am not sure many composers would really want their creations to be associated with anything that causes significant gastrointestinal distress...
@@Richard.Atkinson I have definitely noticed that about your composer selection, and I appreciate your analyses! Passively listening to music can be analogous to just driving a car; actively listening to it after acquiring some knowledge of the forms and techniques used to create the composition, like looking under the hood; but your videos are the musical equivalent of getting detailed lessons on the internal combustion engine and inner workings of myriad other systems in the vehicle. Sharing that latter kind of professional-level knowledge greatly expands one's enjoyment and appreciation of the music, and it is clear from all the enthusiastically positive comments posted here by others than I am not the only one who is grateful for the time and effort you put into these videos.
Bit busy and very behind at the moment, but like yourself I’ve appreciated this tour-de-force by Richard very much, and second absolutely the very positive sentiments and comments you have added to this thread.
Do you know the Panocha quartet recording of this work ? Listening to it a week after watching your video, I am suddenly reminded of your analysis: their interpretation of the 3rd movement, the Menuetto, sounds very Jack-in-the-boxish. The Panocha quartet takes it really slow, it's almost boring, but by contract it makes the sforzando bits really stand out, very much like jumpscare.
I love your videos, i have learned a lot from them. I am needing a program for the analyses required in my school and I would like to know what program do you use to highlight the lines and motives in the sheet music
The way the silly quasi-mechanical major-key theme caps off what was a restless, urgent minor-key movement is reminiscent of one of Haydn's greatest symphony movements, the opening of #80, where again, a cutesy coda theme enters that is completely out of step with the highly serious and important minor-key music that has dominated up to that point. The further joke is that throughout the development and rest of the movement, Haydn keeps replaying this silly theme without developing it all (other than changing instrumentation) and the "important" music can barely get a word in edgewise!
Not sure this is entirely helpful in two respects. Firstly that the jack-in-the-box moment at the end of Opus 76 No 1 grows organically out of the earlier music as was brilliantly explained by RA, whilst the trivial little ländler tune at the end of the first movement of Haydn 80 is jarringly un-related - so no I don’t think one is reminiscent of the other, they are fundamentally different. The treatment and role of the major key theme is entirely different in the two works. (Though on one level - tagging on a major key idea on the end of a minor key movement - I get your point). Secondly, there *is* development of the ländler theme in the symphony, but it is almost entirely tonal as it visits several remote keys, usually separated by disconcerting silences, plus the initial odd 4 plus 3 bars theme is regularised by the end into 4 plus 4. The reappearance the more serious music in the development is limited to a sort of extension of it, but you’re right that Haydn lets the trivial theme take over, but he’s very clever in so doing, and I think the movement does hang together surprising well given its very odd construction.
@@elaineblackhurst1509 Thanks for your well-considered reply. You may not find mine "helpful" but I think it was, if only to generate yours! Granted, any musical gesture occurring near the beginning of a symphony will be "fundamentally different" from that which closes a string quartet in many ways. But when an analogy is made between two things, obviously there will be differences between the two things, or else they would be one thing; only the basis of the analogy itself must be the same. Here that is the case, the comic effect of an unexpectedly lighthearted, almost inane-sounding major-key tune showing up after a considerable amount of serious minor-key drama. You had your own phrasing for how this aspect matches, and got my point, so I won't go any further there. The development issue is a separate issue and perhaps more interesting, since this development section is almost entirely unique among Haydn's symphonies in his *refusal* to truly develop the tune, instead merely restating it either in whole or in part. Playing a tune on a different instrument from the one on which it was introduced is not considered development. Neither is playing it in a different key, or else in all of Haydn's "monothematic" movements, the Development would be starting as soon as the tune is restated in the dominant. And calling the "4 plus 4" changeover "development" is something of a reach, given that a) this does not occur in the development but in the penultimate measure of the movement, and b) it's not really 4+4, but 4+3+1, where the 1 is simply an echo of the cadence that happened in exactly the same spot it had happened every time. Again, verbatim echoes are usually not considered to be "development." Now I admit that I never thought of that added echo as "regularising" the odd phrase length by pushing it to 8 bars, and if that's what Haydn was going for, it's another comical instance of his obeying the letter of the law while violating the spirit. But come on, we're talking about a closing gesture for the movement, a simple 1-bar echo of a cadence, so using this one bar to say the tune is "developed" is, as I say, a reach. Interestingly -- and this is where that "fundamental difference" comes into play -- there is one subtle change in the instrumental accompaniment WITHIN the development section that points forward (complement of backward for the quartet music) through the symphony and helps integrate the whole work. But we've probably gone on enough about #80 on a video for op.76/1, so if you want to discuss that, just let me know and we can follow up elsewhere.
@@vancelehmkuhl Many thanks for troubling to write such a thoughtful reply which I appreciated, and read with interest. The only sense in which I thought your original comment ‘unhelpful’ (probably poorly expressed) was that the basic point was too much of a simplification, though between us we have fixed that by some considered further explanation. I agree that the regularising of the ländler theme is not really development and if you re-read my first reply, the ‘plus…’ was supposed to be a separate point, but again, that’s my fault for not expressing myself clearly. In short, I think we pretty much agree on just about everything here.
I can’t help noticing they are not playing the bowing as written in “The Rossini Moment”! They’re continuing to slur the triplets. I think their overall tempo is a bit too fast. (I seem to think this about almost all the recordings you choose to illustrate these otherwise excellent analysis videos. I agree with all the other positive comments!)
I noticed that too. A possible explanation is that different editions of Haydn’s works have numerous little inconsistencies, but I’m not sure if that’s the reason in this case.
Haha, I also tend to find almost all youtube performances of Haydn works I love to be too fast. The one Richard chose for The Clock is an example, more TikTok than Tick-Tock.
@@Richard.Atkinson any idea on which work you may choose? There are incredible fugues in both the Mozart and the Hiller variations, as well as in the Serenade. Additionally, the finale of the 2nd piano quintet is incredibly polyphonic
@@Richard.Atkinson if I dare suggest, the hiller Variations, op 100, have a stunningly complex fugue, with motifs from at least 2 variations sprinkled into it
Haydn es siempre sorprendente, es uno de los grandes intelectos de la humanidad!! El tema final de la coda me recuerda también a la danza del glockenspiel de monostatos y sus esclavos en la Flauta Mágica de su amigo Mozart…
Don't sell yourself short on nicknaming authority. You've appointed yourself Grandmaster of the United Grand Lodge of Haydn Fanatics. I happen to be the president of the International Society of Haydn Symphony Nicknames and have generated appropriate nicknames for all 104 symphonies. None have yet taken hold in the broader culture just yet, but these things take time. So go ahead and use whatever title you bestow on yourself to set Jack In The Box in stone as the requisite nickname for Op. 76 no. 1 - at least I will never call it anything else!
this coda is a common moment of grace in the classicism. Your interpretation is valid, but the composition there is nothing extraordinary, just a very good solution for the ending. Contrast is the main subject of classicism, and here he does this statement. Very minor, very major.... The analogy is valid, although i find not apropriated. But the classification as joke I find not apropriated and not valid. And the idea of giving a name to his quartet i find interesting for next attempts, if it done properly. Observe why and how the other symphonies got these names. Maybe atopic for a next of these very dedicated videos you do
@@Richard.Atkinson haha really?! Against my will i have to confirm it. I composed a piece called Vangelis entering the paradise 1 week before his death. To stop here... The french tradition goes for naming everything abstract, maybe here a good hint, maybe this has french roots? Goood luck on video, and visit my channel!
The development section must've influenced and inspired the Charlotte's web theme song from the classic movie! Fantastic vid on a fantastic work! Jack quartet it is! 🤣💖🎊🎉🎶🎶
Academic paper? Why set your sights so low Rich, oh Grand Master?I’ll be impressed when “Schachtelteufel” appears in the next printing of the Norton Anthology. 😆
I’ll add, I’m sure you mentioned your RUclips channel way back when we met but I must have really not been paying attention because not only did I not realize you were a Grand Master but I also did not know you had a BA in music… 🙇♀️ 👏 🎉
@@Richard.Atkinson Yes that would be great - they are wonderful (and devastating). I also love the 24 Preludes and Fugues a masterpiece of invention and musicality.
The analysis is very good, but personally I prefer analysis of a piece 'as a whole' than analysis of excerpts here and there. Fragments of deep knowledge is good but understanding of great works as a whole would be much better and that is what I am searching for.
Yeah, the funniest jokes are those that require at least half an hour long explanations. Really, the thubnail of this video is just something if you take the perspective of a regular person
Thank you x1000 for sending me to that piece, which I hadn't heard before. Decided to listen to the whole thing in order to properly contextualize the promised joke at the end -- best decision I made all week! My first impression brings to mind Douglas Adams' description of the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster, the best drink in the universe: drinking it is like "having your brains smashed in by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick."
As a member of a string quartet, I hereby pledge to refer to this quartet only as the "Jack-in-the-box" Quartet in the future, with complete nonchalance, and act surprised when someone around me hasn't heard that name before.
You know, I'm not against people having fun. But you had way too much fun going through the Jack-in-the-Box ending. But I'm convinced, Jack-in-the-Box it is. Great video.
Yes, that nonsense took almost as much time as the rest of the video - but I had fun doing it!
HES BACK AT IT WITH ANOTHER BANGER
Hey Richard, the nickname is a wonderful idea! I love it! But we cannot do it without a German equivalent for a Haydn composition. I would propose "Springteufel-Quartett" which is an appropriate word for Jack-in-the-box in German. Together we will rock Haydn !
Another brilliant video that shows off Haydn's ingenuity and ways to have fun!
Also yes, I will refer to this quartet now as "Der Springteufel"!
Ha! You taught me a new word. I had no idea it was called a "spring devil!"
From now on, it's "Der Springteufel" quartet. I'll always refer to it that way.
@@Richard.Atkinsontw, regarding your video on the 4th movement of the Eroica Symphony, you questioned why Beethoven had to alter the melody when it was played by the horns (measure 303). The valve horn had not yet been invented, and as such to play the unaltered melody would have required the written B♮ to be played as a stopped note.
Now, Berlioz does say in his treatise that both notes there sound good when stopped.
Therefore, my best guess is the fact that the horn line is exposed, coupled with that note being stressed by its longer relative duration, means that the difference in timbre would be significantly more noticeable than if it were in a more thickly orchestrated passage.
(The durations aspect, I think, is key here, as it also explains why he permitted the written F♮ in the third horn in measure 305.)
I’m curious to know what you think, but in any case, I’m looking forward to enjoying this video!
Haydn used Italian on his scores probably more than any other language, so an alternative to Der Springteufel for the Jack-in-the-box quartet would be the quartetto *Il pupazzo a molla* (The puppet on a spring).
@
You might find my little contribution above of interest.
it's absolutely remarkable how each and every one of your videos is both entertaining and educational, giving me a much deeper appreciation for the music i previously would've considered "boring" or "generic". love this channel.
We’ve missed you Richard! Happy New Year and also, I like the new “Call to Action” feature! 😅
This really is very good indeed, even judged by the consistent high-quality of your other Haydn videos; I watched and enjoyed this with great appreciation, and offer sincere thanks for all the work that went into making it.
more impressive than any of the musical material in the entire movement is that he managed to finish it on exactly the 200th measure
What a great video! This is really beautifully done. I will prepare this quartet for our next amateur meeting, and I promise to call it the Jack-in-a-Box quartet. By the way, as an amateur composer of string chamber music I find your videos absolutely illuminating and inspiring, as Haydn’s quartets are a model to which I (hopelessly) aspire.
Which part do you play at these meetings?
When I looked on Wikipedia, someone had edited the op 76 page to include Jack in the Box - hopefully it stays!
Ha! I guess that’s some early success! But whoever did it didn’t leave a footnote to explain the change, so it might not survive an audit.
@@Richard.Atkinson Happy to report that I have added a citation to the page.
Just like Haydn's sense of humor matured over the years in his pieces, it's great to see your sense of humor maturing over the years in these videos. The part about the jack-in-the-box absolutely cracked me up!
Wow just another great video with SO much depth into its subject...I especially liked the way you took the time towards the beginning to actually show all of the thematic transformations he achieves with the 3 ideas on the opening page; that helps you realize the unity involved in his craft and really helps it sink in later...also loved the jack in the box approach to demonstrate by the way
Fabulous analysis. You've convinced me on the nickname; I've updated all the relevant Wikipedia pages accordingly (at least, the ones that weren't already updated by other viewers!)
I, as a member of the United Grand Lodge of Haydn Fanatics, previously appointed by the Grand Master Himself for knowing the 68th Symphony by Haydn, hereby swear oath to spread among the People the new nickname for the string quartet op. 76 no. 1.
Did you ever get your official items in the mail? You must wear them day and night.
@@Richard.Atkinson I'm afraid they got lost across the atlantic, but my profile picture on social media is Haydn's portrait and I have the integral Henle Urtext edition of his string quartets beside my bed, to replace a bible so to speak.
I also know Symphony 68 by haydn@@Richard.Atkinson
Well, I looked on Wikipedia, and there the entry says:- Quartet No. 60 in G major ("Jack-in-the-box"), Op. 76, No. 1, FHE No. 40, Hoboken No. III:75 Quick work by someone then!😁
Should also have siad ... Great post Richard; many thanks indeed
I saw it too! I wish the person would comment here to let me know who it was.
thank you for your amazing work your videos have taught me a lot and often inspired me to compose by myself
A Haydn video!
You do realise that Opus 71 and Opus 74 is one complete set of six like Opus 76, and the split is entirely arbitrary on the part of the original publishers in London, Paris, and Vienna.
YES! New Richard Atkinson dropped. This, along with Classical Nerd's recent video essay about the history of the Sonata, has slaked my beginning of week thirst for musical enlightenment.
I watched that video yesterday too!
Happy and musical 2023 and thanks for another fine video.
Love seeing a new video from you in my feed
I see a Haydn video by Richard Atkinson, I click.
8:14 That's a great chord, did not expect that from a Haydn quartet
Why not ?
I wish music lessons in the public school in the 90s in the Germany that I attended had been that interesting! I always loved music, but like art lessons, it would have been absolutely awesome if teachers would have talked about the music, the musicians, art styles, and of course jokes in music and paintings. Thank you, Richard!
Why was the jack-in-the-box feeling down?
Because he was stuck in a rut.
I'd never heard this piece before. I'm not fully through watching the video, but the thematic resemblance to the closing movement of Schubert's Symphony No. 9, "the Great," is striking to me.
Yes, that 4-note triplet motif is everywhere in both movements. I almost mentioned the finale of Schubert's C major string quintet, since it's another rare example of a work in the major mode with a finale that begins in the minor mode. It also relies on that same folksy orange accented syncopation.
Thank You for (as usual) great video! Great analyse of great movement! It's fun to invent new nicknames. I think they are allowed to be anachronistic (For example "Elvira Madigan" ;) ;) ;) - I don't like it, but it is as it is. )
I heard the diminution of secondary subject of Your speech at about 5:00 ;)
Thank You also for mentioning Rossini! He was a great composer, showing sometimes great skills in counterpoint. He is very important for me for personal reasons - all my interest in classical music begin with him.
Talking about nicknames. The "Timpani blow" comes from this jack-in-the-box or surprise in second movement of 94th symphony. But there is another remarkable timpani blow in this piece, or rather a series of timpani blows, near the end of the finale. I was wondering, why the nickname doesn't come from them. Timpani plays solo there, not just a note in a loud chord of whole orchestra, as it usual does. But I understand, that using this instrument in slow movement was also unusual at the time.
From spooky music I recommend the third movement of Brahms Violin Sonata in D-minor (You probably know it)
Thank You for great work!
you are amazing!!!! I love your videos and happy new year!
great as usual
By interesting coincidence Dave Hurwitz just put out a video on his YT channel about humor in music, also focusing on Haydn, specifically the Symphonies # 60, 93 and 94.
He seems to be a huge Haydn fan as well. Maybe he'll help me out with the call to action?
I played this very quartet last semester! If only...
great video!!
9:14 We can't have it all, and I love the way you stretch the diversions into other compositions. But I must mention for anyone who likes when Haydn gets "spooky..." The Trio in Haydn's Symphony 58 in F Major has to be the bleakest and most startling "spooky" moment he ever did.
Just a couple trivial additions to all the excellent points you made in the video:
1. As you correctly state about three minutes in, standard practice during the compositional lifetimes of Haydn and Mozart was indeed for sonata form movements in minor keys to modulate to the relative major rather than, as with comparable major key ones, to the dominant. An "exception that proves the rule" is the first movement of Hob. I:45, the "Farewell" symphony. There the F-sharp minor tonic music only feints toward the relative major key of A Major during the exposition, before swerving off and finally establishing the dominant key, C-sharp minor.
2. Besides the two string quartets with major key tonics you mention that have tonic minor fourth movements (although both eventually end in the tonic major), there are two symphonies that do the same. No. 70 starts and ends in D Major. However, in between the key of D minor takes it own strong turns at center stage, both beginning and ending the second movement, as well as starting/dominating most of the fourth movement/finale.
The fourth movement of No 60, "Il Distratto," (roughly, "The Absent-minded Gentleman," with the entire symphony derived from the overture to and incidental music for a play of that name) also begins in C minor, despite the tonic of the symphony being C Major. Like the final movements of No. 70 and the two Op. 76 string quartets you mentioned, this one too eventually ends in the tonic major.
Except...the fourth movement of No. 60 is, unlike those other works, not the finale for the symphony, but instead there are two more movements to go. The symphony as a whole has many, many examples of musical "absent-mindedness." Two of them are demonstrated via that fourth and succeeding pair of movements. The players have apparently "forgotten'" that the fourth movement of a symphony is "supposed" to be the last one, and that no other major composer would write a 6-movement symphony for many, many years to come (cf. Mahler's 3rd). And, more pertinent to this discussion, the fourth movement of a symphony in a major key was "supposed" to be in that key and not the tonic minor. Since this symphony predates the other three works in question, it actually represents Haydn's first use of that latter technique.
Yes, I should’ve mentioned that first example from Symphony 45 as an exception (this became commonplace in the next century, like in Brahms symphonies 1 and 4). I’ve mentioned both symphonies 70 and 60 in prior videos (I played the fugue from the finale of 70 in one of my Bach cantata videos). Symphony No. 60 was originally incidental music for a play, so that’s probably another reason for 6 movements (it’s more akin to a suite like Peer Gynt).
@@Richard.Atkinson
1. Excellent point about the two Brahms minor key symphonies and what became 19th century practice.
2. I remembered and enjoyed your previous videos involving Nos. 70 and 60, but I made those points here for anyone reading these comments who might not be familiar with those works and/or your videos.
3. I had never thought of the connection you make between No. 60 and Peer Gynt, but that is a very apt comparison!
Haydn’s “Jack in the box” String Quartet.
Sounds great.
While your evidence for Haydn intentionally evoking an existing machine in that section may be inconclusive, I think it's clear that he was keenly interested in machinery and how music could both function and dysfunction as machinery. From his palindromic minuet in Symphony #47 to the machine-like continuous pulse of #61/i, he constantly found ways to evoke the advantages and disadvantages of machines in his work -- a fixation he shared, IMO, with the later comic genius Buster Keaton. The "clock" symphony that you cite (and that symphony has several passages in other movements that make this case) is another example, as are the final bars of the fifth movement of #61 where a self-contained repeating pattern speeds up "on its own" as though a machine has gone haywire. Probably the most poignant example is #65/iii, where Haydn invents the "broken record" effect (deployed by Spike Jones many times) before there were records. So it's certainly believable that he would have consciously evoked another "problematic" machine, a jack-in-the-box, for this passage.
Symphony 61 is a great symphony, but I think you're talking about 60.
@@Richard.Atkinson D'oh! Of course. I have 61 on the brain this year. I blame my age: 61.
Happy new year full of scherzandi
A minor key finale to a major key piece in Haydn? Okay, that's new to me. I've seen minor key finales to major key pieces before, but it's always been in Romantic composers like Brahms where I see it.
This also happens in Haydn's Op. 76 No. 3. Also in Schubert's C major string quintet.
What a creative, entertaining, and insightful musical analysis! The preceding sentence applies to all your videos, but this one IMHO exceeds even your own typical high standard.
A point you correctly stress is that, no matter how simple or complex his music sounds at a given time within a particular piece, in all but perhaps his very earliest works Haydn meticulously fashions his compositions so that everything hangs together superbly. The great musicologist H.C. Robbins Landon repeatedly called the composer “music’s greatest craftsman.”
While a few other composers might possibly challenge him for that title (Bach and Beethoven come most immediately to mind), at best they could only be peers, sharing it with him, and not superiors. To cite one excellent source, James Webster’s “Haydn’s ‘Farewell Symphony’ and the Idea of Classical Style” gives a thorough discussion of how Haydn uses strategically placed notes, chords, motifs, themes, etc. as building blocks to create both individual movements (such as the one you analyzed), and how he integrates them into the work overall.
A present-day analogy is that the composer makes his own custom set of musical Legos. Using a large number of total blocks but a deliberately limited set of sizes and colors, Haydn then locks them together in myriad combinations and orders, one way, then another, until finally he winds up with a monumental sonic structure forming a complete and impressive whole.
But a more classic comparison for individual movements such as the one you spotlight is to an old-fashioned mechanical watch or clock. The inner workings of such devices seem at first sight to be a bewildering assortment of moving gears, powered by a wound spring or other energy source. Your breakdown of how Haydn uses his musical materials is analogous to taking apart such a mechanical clock, pointing out each of its different-sized gears and other components, then putting everything back together and showing how each individual part relates to and works with the others to make the clock keep time.
And you make a convincing case for applying the nickname of “Jack-in-the-Box” to Op. 76 No. 1, based on its finale. An alternative might have the “Alarm Clock” string quartet, with the specific type of clock I am thinking of being the old mechanical wind-up nightstand variety fitted with a loud, clanging bell. With that kind, the comparison would be that Haydn sporadically startles his listeners unpredictably, like the clock’s alarm going off to suddenly awaken an early-morning sleeper (and as he may have literally done for the late-evening type in the second movement of Hob. I:94 at its premiere...). Or, as a modern update, and with appropriate (financial?) support by a certain technology company headquartered in Cupertino CA, this work could be (somewhat awkwardly) called instead the “iPhone Clock App Alarm Function” string quartet.
However, any potential new nickname for this string quartet with the word “Clock” in it is doomed to failure. Hob. I:101 already has a lock (or is that tick-tock…) on that particular term. Thus, both on its own merits and a default concession by its most worthy competitors as a nickname, I support your christening of Op. 76 No. 1 as the “Jack-in-the-Box” string quartet. And, although the failure of the last potential nickname I mentioned in the prior paragraph meant losing the possible support of one major corporation, the alternative you originated might win it from a particular fast-food chain based in San Diego…
I wasn't even thinking about the fast-food chain - maybe we should change the nickname to "the E. coli Quartet."
But yes, I agree that a few composers have almost supernatural powers of craftsmanship, and you can tell which ones I think they are by the number of videos I've done on each of them.
@@Richard.Atkinson
Another excellent (and whimsical) suggestion for a nickname! While there are a number of Haydn compositions with nicknames that allude to living things, e.g. "The Bear" and "The Hen" among the (Paris) symphonies, and "The Frog" and "The Lark" among the string quartets, I know of none by him or any other composer that already reference a verotoxin-producing, pathogenic serotype of a common intestinal bacterium associated with food poisoning. However, now that I think of it, I am not sure many composers would really want their creations to be associated with anything that causes significant gastrointestinal distress...
@@Richard.Atkinson
I have definitely noticed that about your composer selection, and I appreciate your analyses! Passively listening to music can be analogous to just driving a car; actively listening to it after acquiring some knowledge of the forms and techniques used to create the composition, like looking under the hood; but your videos are the musical equivalent of getting detailed lessons on the internal combustion engine and inner workings of myriad other systems in the vehicle. Sharing that latter kind of professional-level knowledge greatly expands one's enjoyment and appreciation of the music, and it is clear from all the enthusiastically positive comments posted here by others than I am not the only one who is grateful for the time and effort you put into these videos.
Bit busy and very behind at the moment, but like yourself I’ve appreciated this tour-de-force by Richard very much, and second absolutely the very positive sentiments and comments you have added to this thread.
Do you know the Panocha quartet recording of this work ?
Listening to it a week after watching your video, I am suddenly reminded of your analysis: their interpretation of the 3rd movement, the Menuetto, sounds very Jack-in-the-boxish. The Panocha quartet takes it really slow, it's almost boring, but by contract it makes the sforzando bits really stand out, very much like jumpscare.
I love your videos, i have learned a lot from them. I am needing a program for the analyses required in my school and I would like to know what program do you use to highlight the lines and motives in the sheet music
These days I'm just using a cheap drawing program called "Artboard," for Mac.
Thank you! I haven't been using my musical -analytic brain for awhile, and how better to get back into the groove than with Maestro "Papa" Haydn?
Better to just stick with Joseph Haydn.
18:08 the ending of op. 33 no. 2 is the funniest in my opinion
The way the silly quasi-mechanical major-key theme caps off what was a restless, urgent minor-key movement is reminiscent of one of Haydn's greatest symphony movements, the opening of #80, where again, a cutesy coda theme enters that is completely out of step with the highly serious and important minor-key music that has dominated up to that point. The further joke is that throughout the development and rest of the movement, Haydn keeps replaying this silly theme without developing it all (other than changing instrumentation) and the "important" music can barely get a word in edgewise!
Not sure this is entirely helpful in two respects.
Firstly that the jack-in-the-box moment at the end of Opus 76 No 1 grows organically out of the earlier music as was brilliantly explained by RA, whilst the trivial little ländler tune at the end of the first movement of Haydn 80 is jarringly un-related - so no I don’t think one is reminiscent of the other, they are fundamentally different.
The treatment and role of the major key theme is entirely different in the two works.
(Though on one level - tagging on a major key idea on the end of a minor key movement - I get your point).
Secondly, there *is* development of the ländler theme in the symphony, but it is almost entirely tonal as it visits several remote keys, usually separated by disconcerting silences, plus the initial odd 4 plus 3 bars theme is regularised by the end into 4 plus 4.
The reappearance the more serious music in the development is limited to a sort of extension of it, but you’re right that Haydn lets the trivial theme take over, but he’s very clever in so doing, and I think the movement does hang together surprising well given its very odd construction.
@@elaineblackhurst1509 Thanks for your well-considered reply. You may not find mine "helpful" but I think it was, if only to generate yours!
Granted, any musical gesture occurring near the beginning of a symphony will be "fundamentally different" from that which closes a string quartet in many ways. But when an analogy is made between two things, obviously there will be differences between the two things, or else they would be one thing; only the basis of the analogy itself must be the same. Here that is the case, the comic effect of an unexpectedly lighthearted, almost inane-sounding major-key tune showing up after a considerable amount of serious minor-key drama. You had your own phrasing for how this aspect matches, and got my point, so I won't go any further there.
The development issue is a separate issue and perhaps more interesting, since this development section is almost entirely unique among Haydn's symphonies in his *refusal* to truly develop the tune, instead merely restating it either in whole or in part. Playing a tune on a different instrument from the one on which it was introduced is not considered development. Neither is playing it in a different key, or else in all of Haydn's "monothematic" movements, the Development would be starting as soon as the tune is restated in the dominant.
And calling the "4 plus 4" changeover "development" is something of a reach, given that a) this does not occur in the development but in the penultimate measure of the movement, and b) it's not really 4+4, but 4+3+1, where the 1 is simply an echo of the cadence that happened in exactly the same spot it had happened every time. Again, verbatim echoes are usually not considered to be "development."
Now I admit that I never thought of that added echo as "regularising" the odd phrase length by pushing it to 8 bars, and if that's what Haydn was going for, it's another comical instance of his obeying the letter of the law while violating the spirit. But come on, we're talking about a closing gesture for the movement, a simple 1-bar echo of a cadence, so using this one bar to say the tune is "developed" is, as I say, a reach.
Interestingly -- and this is where that "fundamental difference" comes into play -- there is one subtle change in the instrumental accompaniment WITHIN the development section that points forward (complement of backward for the quartet music) through the symphony and helps integrate the whole work. But we've probably gone on enough about #80 on a video for op.76/1, so if you want to discuss that, just let me know and we can follow up elsewhere.
@@vancelehmkuhl
Many thanks for troubling to write such a thoughtful reply which I appreciated, and read with interest.
The only sense in which I thought your original comment ‘unhelpful’ (probably poorly expressed) was that the basic point was too much of a simplification, though between us we have fixed that by some considered further explanation.
I agree that the regularising of the ländler theme is not really development and if you re-read my first reply, the ‘plus…’ was supposed to be a separate point, but again, that’s my fault for not expressing myself clearly.
In short, I think we pretty much agree on just about everything here.
Ждём анализы симфоний Брукнера.
I can’t help noticing they are not playing the bowing as written in “The Rossini Moment”! They’re continuing to slur the triplets. I think their overall tempo is a bit too fast. (I seem to think this about almost all the recordings you choose to illustrate these otherwise excellent analysis videos. I agree with all the other positive comments!)
I noticed that too. A possible explanation is that different editions of Haydn’s works have numerous little inconsistencies, but I’m not sure if that’s the reason in this case.
Haha, I also tend to find almost all youtube performances of Haydn works I love to be too fast. The one Richard chose for The Clock is an example, more TikTok than Tick-Tock.
Do you have any videos planned on Reger’s works? I find them the pinnacle of German form and counterpoint, which you cover so well
Someday I will. But currently no plan.
@@Richard.Atkinson any idea on which work you may choose? There are incredible fugues in both the Mozart and the Hiller variations, as well as in the Serenade. Additionally, the finale of the 2nd piano quintet is incredibly polyphonic
@@Richard.Atkinson if I dare suggest, the hiller Variations, op 100, have a stunningly complex fugue, with motifs from at least 2 variations sprinkled into it
Haydn es siempre sorprendente, es uno de los grandes intelectos de la humanidad!!
El tema final de la coda me recuerda también a la danza del glockenspiel de monostatos y sus esclavos en la Flauta Mágica de su amigo Mozart…
Don't sell yourself short on nicknaming authority. You've appointed yourself Grandmaster of the United Grand Lodge of Haydn Fanatics. I happen to be the president of the International Society of Haydn Symphony Nicknames and have generated appropriate nicknames for all 104 symphonies. None have yet taken hold in the broader culture just yet, but these things take time. So go ahead and use whatever title you bestow on yourself to set Jack In The Box in stone as the requisite nickname for Op. 76 no. 1 - at least I will never call it anything else!
this coda is a common moment of grace in the classicism. Your interpretation is valid, but the composition there is nothing extraordinary, just a very good solution for the ending. Contrast is the main subject of classicism, and here he does this statement. Very minor, very major.... The analogy is valid, although i find not apropriated. But the classification as joke I find not apropriated and not valid. And the idea of giving a name to his quartet i find interesting for next attempts, if it done properly. Observe why and how the other symphonies got these names. Maybe atopic for a next of these very dedicated videos you do
I've already started the new video on this very topic. You have psychic powers.
@@Richard.Atkinson haha really?! Against my will i have to confirm it. I composed a piece called Vangelis entering the paradise 1 week before his death. To stop here...
The french tradition goes for naming everything abstract, maybe here a good hint, maybe this has french roots? Goood luck on video, and visit my channel!
The development section must've influenced and inspired the Charlotte's web theme song from the classic movie!
Fantastic vid on a fantastic work!
Jack quartet it is!
🤣💖🎊🎉🎶🎶
Ha, you mean the slow eerie part with falling arpeggios?
Academic paper? Why set your sights so low Rich, oh Grand Master?I’ll be impressed when “Schachtelteufel” appears in the next printing of the Norton Anthology. 😆
😂😂 I’m hoping that a famous quartet named after an Italian city will play this quartet someday and use the nickname in their program notes!
@@Richard.Atkinson I doubt the Quartetto di Napoli are getting together to tour Haydn any time soon but I’ll keep my eyes peeled. 👀🤪
@@abbagel779 I was talking about the Cremona Quartet! 😁
Ah, naturally 🙃🎶
I’ll add, I’m sure you mentioned your RUclips channel way back when we met but I must have really not been paying attention because not only did I not realize you were a Grand Master but I also did not know you had a BA in music… 🙇♀️ 👏 🎉
Jack-in-the-Box it is maestro - I love Haydn sort of Shostakovich if he'd been happy.
Very good comparison. Maybe this is why I love them both so much. Also, another reminder that I need to do videos on the Shostakovich quartets soon!
@@Richard.Atkinson Yes that would be great - they are wonderful (and devastating). I also love the 24 Preludes and Fugues a masterpiece of invention and musicality.
the name of this quartett has, of cours, to be "Springteufel-quartett"
Haydn used Italian as much as anything, so it therefore could also be the quartetto il pupazzo a molla.
@@elaineblackhurst1509 you are right, elaine : pupazzo a molla must be the proper name!
The analysis is very good, but personally I prefer analysis of a piece 'as a whole' than analysis of excerpts here and there. Fragments of deep knowledge is good but understanding of great works as a whole would be much better and that is what I am searching for.
Where are the toy experts
I'm waiting for them to weigh in...
@@Richard.Atkinson ... or to spring up, as it were ...
It seems you are a music surgeon as well
This was actually my least favourite of Haydn‘s op. 76. Looks like it has to be changed after watching this great video!
Actual LOL
Yeah, the funniest jokes are those that require at least half an hour long explanations. Really, the thubnail of this video is just something if you take the perspective of a regular person
No, his funniest joke is the bassoon going for the fart.
Haydn's silly, idiotic ending. And what about Bartok' as silly and idiotic transformation of the main theme at the end of his Fifth Quartet?
Another great moment of indifference!
Thank you x1000 for sending me to that piece, which I hadn't heard before. Decided to listen to the whole thing in order to properly contextualize the promised joke at the end -- best decision I made all week! My first impression brings to mind Douglas Adams' description of the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster, the best drink in the universe: drinking it is like "having your brains smashed in by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick."
(New nickname suggestion: Béla Bartók - String Quartet No. 5, Sz. 102, "The Gargle Blaster")
@@elleboman8465
🍺 Do 🍺 you 🍺 fancy a 🍺 gargle? 🍺
i will be Bach
It’s really not that funny. God what a waste of everyone’s time, particularly your own.
😂
It’s the 27-minute, dry, academic, unenthusiastic explanation for one loud chord in a quiet passage for me