Instrumental arias or sonic tableaux: 'Voice' in Haydn's string quartets Opp. 9 and 17. November, N. Music and Letters, 89(3):346–372, 2008.
doi  abstract   bibtex   
The reception of Haydns early string quartets is chequered. Professional performers tend to avoid the quartets before Op. 20 (1772). In scholarship, essential features of 'Classical' string quartets are typically thought to be in place at the earliest with Op. 20, but more usually with Op. 33. This essay contributes to a critique of these assumptions, and offers an alternative view of the earlier works. The slow movements in particular, with their solo 'arias' for first violin, have been considered especially problematic. From a historical perspective, however, these movements can be understood to exemplify a fundamentally new mode of expression that was extolled by mid-eighteenth-century theorists: that of the tableau. This concept was discussed, for example, by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Denis Diderot, and was brought to the stages of Vienna and Eszterhza in the ballets of Jean-Georges Noverre and the operas of Gluck and Haydn, among others. As sonic tableaux, or instrumental 'arias', movements from Haydns early string quartets epitomize a dramatic mode that was of fundamental importance to music of the Classical era.
@Article{          november2008-instrumental,
    author       = {November, Nancy},
    year         = {2008},
    title        = {Instrumental arias or sonic tableaux: 'Voice' in Haydn's
                   string quartets Opp. 9 and 17},
    abstract     = {The reception of Haydns early string quartets is
                   chequered. Professional performers tend to avoid the
                   quartets before Op. 20 (1772). In scholarship, essential
                   features of 'Classical' string quartets are typically
                   thought to be in place at the earliest with Op. 20, but
                   more usually with Op. 33. This essay contributes to a
                   critique of these assumptions, and offers an alternative
                   view of the earlier works. The slow movements in
                   particular, with their solo 'arias' for first violin, have
                   been considered especially problematic. From a historical
                   perspective, however, these movements can be understood to
                   exemplify a fundamentally new mode of expression that was
                   extolled by mid-eighteenth-century theorists: that of the
                   tableau. This concept was discussed, for example, by
                   Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Denis Diderot, and was brought
                   to the stages of Vienna and Eszterhza in the ballets of
                   Jean-Georges Noverre and the operas of Gluck and Haydn,
                   among others. As sonic tableaux, or instrumental 'arias',
                   movements from Haydns early string quartets epitomize a
                   dramatic mode that was of fundamental importance to music
                   of the Classical era.},
    doi          = {10.1093/ml/gcm130},
    issn         = {00274224},
    journal      = {Music and Letters},
    keywords     = {music analysis},
    mendeley-tags= {music analysis},
    number       = {3},
    pages        = {346--372},
    volume       = {89}
}

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