If the ensemble configurations cited thus far can be said to benefit, as surely they do, from the instruments’ timbral similarity—their ability to blend, or else to balance and complement one another interchangeably—then what can be said about places where Haydn oversteps his own constraints by indulging in special idiomatic devices or unusual coloristic effects? Peculiarities such as pizzicato, con sordino, bariolage, or robust multiple stopping have a natural tendency to call at-tention to themselves, inviting performers and listeners to enjoy the sheer nov-elty of a particular sound, or else pointing toward some topical association. By so doing, they disturb the relative neutrality and transparency on which quartet sonority more commonly relies.
Although such moments are rare on the whole, the earliest quartets display a concentration of choice examples. Their prominence here may be explained in part as a holdover from waning traditions of Baroque extravagance; but they also may be seen as reflections of a certain exploratory zeal, as if Haydn were in-tent on mapping out sonic territory for the new genre, with a particular eye for ways to compensate for its coloristic limitations. Yet even here he confines un-usual sounds mainly to the dance-movement trios and interior slow movements.
Outstanding cases include the second-movement trio of Op. 1/1, in which the fragile timbre of pizzicato violins alternates with bowed viola and cello, and the slow movement of Op. 1/6, whose haunting combination of con sordino first vio-lin and plucked accompaniment wraps this technically simple movement in a state of reverie. (Could the composer of the spurious Op. 3/5 “Serenade” have had this movement in mind?)
Among later opus groups, the idea of enriching a quartet’s character with evocative colors persists as a lurking possibility, and the rarity of such sounds heightens their impact when they do occur: comical glissandos in the Op. 33/2 trio; the nostalgic shimmer of pizzicato accompaniments in the slow movement of Op. 76/2; and the raucous, double-stopped sonorities that imitate bagpipes, most memorably in the first movement of Op. 76/3. Subtle but intriguing are the several instances of a sopra una corda technique in which an entire phrase is en-compassed within the dark sound of the violin’s lowest string, even though the line reaches well into the treble staff, as in Op. 20/6/i, measures 19–24.8
Bariolage, the device by which a single repeating pitch is played alternately on two adjacent strings,9stands out on one spectacular occasion—the finale of the quartet in D, Op. 50/6 (the “Frog”)—as the center of attention. Here, the pungent sonority of fast, string-crossing As (played alternately on the open A string and the adjacent stopped D string) arises immediately as a thematic ele-ment to be explored and developed. The first violin’s opening phrases present the idea in full array by engaging each of the possible string-pairs in turn (see ex. 3.6): A and D in measure 1; E and A in measure 5; and then, with the energy
of an emerging obsession, D and G in measures 9, 11, 13, and 15. Haydn concen-trates the bariolage figure in the top part at the outset, but it proves contagious as the exposition proceeds, with all members of the ensemble succumbing to its bow-jostling spell. The second violin and viola pick it up before the end of the exposition; it eventually passes to the cello in the development section; and all four instruments give voice to its peculiar rasp and bow-arm gesticulations in the course of the recapitulation.
The strident ring of bariolage in Op. 50/6/iv sounds an instructive note on which to end this overview of Haydn’s quartet-ensemble resources. The device itself is clearly peripheral to the composer’s idiom, and the accent on this pun-gent effect doubtless qualifies the “Frog” as one of Haydn’s most unusual-sounding quartet movements. Certainly it is one that cannot fail to make an indelible im-pression on first hearing.
In principle, such a case may pose a special challenge for performers, who face the task of absorbing a patently outsized coloristic device within a convinc-ingly unified narrative. But this movement’s sound effects, like other, inherently less striking sonorities, are no mere distractions. Far from cluttering the musical surface with aimless or unassimilated detail, they prove essential to the overall coherence of the design, working variously as agents of change, goal-directed motion, and structural delineation.
To begin with, the initial statements of the idea help shape the opening theme with particular clarity: first by underscoring the antecedent-consequent rela-tionship of the opening phrase-pair (with the bariolage figure on the dominant, A, then its dominant, E), then by securing the latter part of the theme to the work’s tonal center, D. The eventual migration of the figure to the second violin and viola toward the end of the exposition (mm. 74–75 and 77–78, respectively) helps round out the opening section. Its restoration to the first violin following the double bar highlights a major structural landmark; its long-awaited appear-ance in the cello, on the dominant note (mm. 135–36), signals the impending close to the development section; and the eventual four-way distribution of the
Allegro con spirito
Vn1 4
9 13
e x a m p l e 3 . 6 Op. 50/6/iv, mm. 1–16 (violin 1 only)
figure (beginning with the viola in m. 203) enhances the summarizing character of the form’s last main portion. At the very end, eerie, simultaneous murmurings of the idea in the three upper parts (mm. 240 and 242, shown in ex. 3.7) help ground the tonal and thematic action by packing the instruments’ bariolage within a closely spaced tonic triad.
The interplay of musical form with sonority and ensemble technique often proves subtler or more elaborate than that witnessed in the “Frog.” Yet few cases demonstrate with greater clarity the complementary processes by which a given movement, seemingly designed with the intention to celebrate a peculiar color, texture, or ensemble configuration, will draw on that very element as a principal agent to drive the musical discourse and articulate its structure.
240
e x a m p l e 3 . 7 Op. 50/6/iv, mm. 240–43