Haydn and Mendelssohn

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions to musical form have led him to be called “Father of the Symphony” and “Father of the String quartet”. Haydn spent much of his career as a court musician for the wealthy Esterházy family at their Eszterháza Castle. Until the later part of his life, this isolated him from other composers and trends in music so that he was, as he put it, “forced to become original”.[c] Yet his music circulated widely, and for much of his career he was the most celebrated composer in Europe. He was a friend and mentor of Mozart, a tutor of Beethoven, and the elder brother of composer Michael Haydn.

The six string quartets Op. 20 are among the works that earned Haydn the sobriquet “the father of the string quartet”. The quartets are considered a milestone in the history of composition; in them, Haydn develops compositional techniques that were to define the medium for the next 200 years. The quartets were composed in 1772 at a time of tensions in Haydn’s life, and also when Haydn was influenced by new philosophical and political ideas sweeping Europe. Some analysts see the impact of these emotions and ideas on the quartets.

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. His compositions include symphonies, concertos, piano music, organ music and chamber music. Though Mendelssohn was still a teenager when he wrote this quartet, he was already an experienced composer of chamber music. He wrote the quartet a few months after the death of Ludwig van Beethoven, and the influence of Beethoven’s late string quartets is evident in this work.

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