{"id":6502,"date":"2024-09-23T17:32:26","date_gmt":"2024-09-23T16:32:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mancent.org.uk\/?p=6502"},"modified":"2024-09-25T09:45:43","modified_gmt":"2024-09-25T08:45:43","slug":"mornings-with-a-masterpiece-comparing-notes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mancent.org.uk\/?p=6502","title":{"rendered":"Mornings with a Masterpiece: Comparing Notes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Rosemary Broadbent<\/p>\n

Tracing the relationship between two composers through their compositions is an
\ninteresting study. Sometimes it is a sign of respect and gratitude, such as Britten\u2019s tribute to his
\nteacher, Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge. In the case of William Byrd and his teacher, the
\ntribute was posthumous: the beautiful song Mourn all ye Muses ends with the words Tallis is dead,
\nand Music dies. Brahms made a practice of sending his compositions for comment to his life-long
\nfriend Clara Schumann, although he did not necessarily accept her advice! Other suggestions were
\nmore interventionist, such as the violinist Joseph Joachim\u2019s restructuring of Bruch\u2019s Violin Concerto,
\nand Rimsky-Korsakov\u2019s radical changes to Mussorgsky\u2019s Night on the Bare Mountain, which he
\njudged, perhaps mistakenly, to be unfinished at the composer\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

The relationship between Haydn and Mozart is particularly fascinating as it was reciprocal,
\nand it can best be exemplified in their string quartets: a selection of Haydn\u2019s quartets is the subject
\nof my \u2018Mornings with a Masterpiece\u2019 course later this term. At first glance theirs was an unlikely
\nfriendship. Haydn, a generation older, came of country stock and was neither a prodigy nor a
\nvirtuoso. He learned his trade laboriously. An inadequate training as a choirboy was followed by
\neight years of poverty and self-study before he gained a settled appointment. Mozart was a child
\ngenius, raised at an archbishop\u2019s court and celebrated all over Europe as a composer and performer.
\nOn the other hand, both combined a deep personal faith with a wicked sense of humour. It
\nwas Haydn who presented his orchestra with a puzzling Minuet, which could only be completed by
\nbeing played backwards. It was Mozart who took over the off-stage glockenspiel when his friend
\nSchikaneder was playing \u2018magic bells\u2019 on stage \u2013 with unexpected and embarrassing results for the
\nactor. Both experienced the life of a liveried servant at the beck and call of an aristocrat. Typically,
\nHaydn gained the respect of a sympathetic Prince and remained with the same family for the rest of
\nhis life. Mozart walked out after an explosive interview with his master\u2019s steward, and left to seek
\nhis fortune at the age of twenty-five.
\nIn the forthcoming course on Haydn\u2019s string quartets, we shall begin with the six works
\npublished as Opus 20 in 1772. They are remarkable (among other things) for venturing more than
\nusual into the minor mode, and for the fugues which conclude three of them. A year later came
\nMozart\u2019s first set of six quartets among which K173 in D minor ends with a fugue: a clear response to
\nHaydn\u2019s Opus 20 from the seventeen-year-old composer.
\nIt was ten years before Mozart returned to the string quartet. By then he was resident in
\nVienna, newly married, and was welcoming Haydn into his house as a guest whenever the older man
\nwas allowed to spend time in the city. This set of quartets, published as Opus 10, was explicitly
\ndedicated to Haydn and there are documents describing two occasions when they were played
\nthrough with the composer on the viola and the dedicatee taking a violin part. One can only imagine
\nthe lively conversation and the delight enjoyed on those evenings.<\/p>\n

The minor key quartet in this set (K421) is again in D minor, and this key seems to have had a
\ndeeply expressive meaning for Mozart. It is the key of a stormy piano concerto (1785), of the opera
\nDon Giovanni (1787) and of the Requiem which the composer left unfinished at his death in 1791.
\nHaydn was deeply affected by his young friend\u2019s death. He was visiting London at the time
\nand was reluctant to believe the news until he returned to Vienna and found it to be all too true. It is
\nimpossible to escape the inference that when Haydn resumed string quartet composition later in the
\n1790s he had Mozart\u2019s tribute to him in mind. The D minor quartet of Opus 76, which we shall study
\nin our second session, has particularly close connections with Mozart\u2019s K421, and it seems that the
\nolder master was taking up the challenge of Mozart\u2019s depth of emotion and driving it further.
\nIt says much for Haydn\u2019s generosity of spirit that he continued to learn from other
\ncomposers throughout his life. His meeting with Handel\u2019s music in London spurred him to write two
\ngreat oratorios, and his very personal friendship with Mozart gave us Opus 76 \u2013 perhaps the
\ncrowning glory of his quartet compositions.
\nHaydn also left a work unfinished at his death: we have just two movements of another
\nstring quartet \u2013 in D minor.<\/p>\n

If you are interested in learning more about Haydn and his string Quartets, you can book your place on Rosemary Broadbent’s courses by following this link.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rosemary Broadbent Tracing the relationship between two composers through their compositions is an interesting study. Sometimes it is a sign of respect and gratitude, such as Britten\u2019s tribute to his teacher, Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge. In the case of William Byrd and his teacher, the tribute was posthumous: the beautiful song Mourn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[79,22,78,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adult-education","category-music","category-online-course","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mancent.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mancent.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mancent.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mancent.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mancent.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6502"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/mancent.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6517,"href":"https:\/\/mancent.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6502\/revisions\/6517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mancent.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mancent.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mancent.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}