Genre not found
Artist not found
Album not found
Song not found

String Quartet in C Minor Hob.III:28 : 4. Finale. Allegro
Franz Joseph Haydn Lyrics


No lyrics text found for this track.

The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
Most interesting comment from YouTube:

Elaine Blackhurst

@Olav Tryggvason
Some really thoughtful reflections - thank you for an interesting post.

The only thing I would add is that there is some pretty convincing evidence that certain keys were particularly meaningful - possibly may even be described as favourite, or most personal and/or characteristic - for these three composers.

[For composers of this period, it is worth looking at Christian Schubart’s Ideen zu einer Aesthetik der Tonkunst (Characteristics of musical keys) of 1806 which is a fascinating summary of the thinking at the time of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven about the understood characteristics of each tonality at the time.
The list is easily available in English by a Google search]

Beethoven - as you correctly identify - was always special in c minor;

Mozart - g minor;*
Symphonies 25 and 40;
String Quintet (K516);
Et cetera.

Haydn f minor:
Variations in f minor,
Symphony 49,
String Quartet Opus 55 No 2,
Significant parts of the Arianna a Naxos;
Ditto the Scena di Berenice;
The songs Fideity, and The Wanderer;
Orfeo’s aria ‘In un mar d’accerbe pene’, and the chorus ‘Infelice ombre’ from his London opera L’anima del filosofo;
Et cetera.

I think you are correct too that each of these composers viewed a key such as c minor slightly differently, with Beethoven taking lessons from his two great predecessors, and then doing his own thing.

Beethoven’s 3rd piano concerto is clearly modelled on Mozart’s 24th piano concerto, whilst the tonal journey from c minor to C major in third-related keys, found in Beethoven’s 5th symphony, is almost identical across all four movements to Haydn 95th symphony.

PS. I think the issue of Haydn’s views about Beethoven’s c minor trio have become distorted over time, due to an over-reliance on a number of Beethoven-centric sources, some of which are now considered extremely doubtful, unreliable, or downright spurious.

The most obvious example being that Haydn’s supposed advice to Beethoven not to publish the trio - to which Beethoven seems to have taken huge offence - simply does not fit the chronology of events.
In short, when Haydn returned to Vienna from his second eighteen-month long trip to England in August 1795, and Beethoven played the trio to him - IT HAD ALREADY BEEN PUBLISHED.

I have written some extensive notes on this under some performances of the Beethoven trio on YouTube if you are interested in investigating the sources for this more extensively.

* Mozart has some very impressive and rather demonic d minor music as well as in Don Giovanni, and the piano concerto K466.



All comments from YouTube:

Garrett Rowland

Coming back to this quartet once more I am reminded of why I loved it in the first place.

I adore when Haydn writes in C minor, he always gives those pieces such an endearing and passionate character. Really feels like a meaningful story being sung/recited; it's truly captivating.

At 4:35 in the development Haydn gracefully slips into Abm.

Elaine Blackhurst

@Olav Tryggvason
Some really thoughtful reflections - thank you for an interesting post.

The only thing I would add is that there is some pretty convincing evidence that certain keys were particularly meaningful - possibly may even be described as favourite, or most personal and/or characteristic - for these three composers.

[For composers of this period, it is worth looking at Christian Schubart’s Ideen zu einer Aesthetik der Tonkunst (Characteristics of musical keys) of 1806 which is a fascinating summary of the thinking at the time of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven about the understood characteristics of each tonality at the time.
The list is easily available in English by a Google search]

Beethoven - as you correctly identify - was always special in c minor;

Mozart - g minor;*
Symphonies 25 and 40;
String Quintet (K516);
Et cetera.

Haydn f minor:
Variations in f minor,
Symphony 49,
String Quartet Opus 55 No 2,
Significant parts of the Arianna a Naxos;
Ditto the Scena di Berenice;
The songs Fideity, and The Wanderer;
Orfeo’s aria ‘In un mar d’accerbe pene’, and the chorus ‘Infelice ombre’ from his London opera L’anima del filosofo;
Et cetera.

I think you are correct too that each of these composers viewed a key such as c minor slightly differently, with Beethoven taking lessons from his two great predecessors, and then doing his own thing.

Beethoven’s 3rd piano concerto is clearly modelled on Mozart’s 24th piano concerto, whilst the tonal journey from c minor to C major in third-related keys, found in Beethoven’s 5th symphony, is almost identical across all four movements to Haydn 95th symphony.

PS. I think the issue of Haydn’s views about Beethoven’s c minor trio have become distorted over time, due to an over-reliance on a number of Beethoven-centric sources, some of which are now considered extremely doubtful, unreliable, or downright spurious.

The most obvious example being that Haydn’s supposed advice to Beethoven not to publish the trio - to which Beethoven seems to have taken huge offence - simply does not fit the chronology of events.
In short, when Haydn returned to Vienna from his second eighteen-month long trip to England in August 1795, and Beethoven played the trio to him - IT HAD ALREADY BEEN PUBLISHED.

I have written some extensive notes on this under some performances of the Beethoven trio on YouTube if you are interested in investigating the sources for this more extensively.

* Mozart has some very impressive and rather demonic d minor music as well as in Don Giovanni, and the piano concerto K466.

Olav Tryggvason

@Garrett Rowland That's the way Haydn used this key. I played, among others, his piano sonata i C minor. Haydn blamed his student Beethoven when Beethoven used the same key for strong dramatic tensions and gestures and effects in his piano trio op. 1 No. 3. For Haydn it was an intimate key. For Mozart and even more for Beethoven it was the key for big dramatic tensions, for inner conflicts and outer effects. Mozarts piano sonata K 457, his piano concerto K 491 - which sounds more like Beethoven - Mozarts fragment of the Mass in C minor and the initial scene with the dragon in the Magic Flute - all this is the use of the big dramatic C minor, which also Beethoven used whenever he chose this key. And Beethoven used this key very often, compared to other contemporaries.

Garrett Rowland

@Olav Tryggvason That's exactly the reason I love his use of the key. Very intimate and personal singing quality.

Olav Tryggvason

C minor was a special key for all classical composers, but they used it differently. When Mozart (seldom) or Beethoven (often) used this key they used it for dramatic effects. Haydns C minor is more lyrical.

Anthony Blunt

Thanks for posting. I enjoy these minor key classical works.

Timothy Thorne

I'm not very familiar with the Haydn quartets before op. 20, but what I've heard, I really like.

The sombre introductory passage, by the 1st violin, in the 1st movement, is similar in tone and function to the beginning of Beethoven's sublime C# minor quartet op. 131, written about 50 years later.

JP

I bet a few people can really appreciate this kind of art)

Jack

I hear The Magic flute in this.

Wilfried Rades

If you would be so kind to correct: C minor please. Thanks for uploading!

More Comments

More Versions