Tuesday, February 22, 2005

haydn string quartet ok....GOSH

i'm sure eveyone who took music history last semester knows this piece very well--it's "the joke" movement from haydn's string quartet op. 33 no. 2. it's such a light, cute melody in rondo form, like most of haydns final string quartet movements. it is incredibly playful, usually uts a smily on my face. anyway, the music lays with the listeners expectations throughout the piece. the initial melody several times and repeats it over new chords (like the dominant seventh, which for a while remains unresolved). the piece modulatesto a flat major in measure 36, but then back to e flat major again by measure 99. there are several very clear PACs and half cadences--pretty darn tonal if you ask me. the ending is definitely the coolest part of this string quartet--because the listener thinks it has ended, but surprise! it hasn't, and then you feel just a little bit silly.

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