Renowned music historians Floyd and Margaret Grave present a fresh perspective on a comprehensive survey of the works. This thorough and unique analysis offers new insights into the creation of the quartets, the wealth of musical customs and conventions on which they draw, the scope of their innovations, and their significance as reflections of Haydn's artistic personality. Each set of quartets is characterized in terms of its particular mix of structural conventions and novelties, stylistic allusions, and its special points of connection with other opus groups in the series. Throughout the book, the authors draw attention to the boundless supply of compositional strategies by which Haydn appears to be continually rethinking, reevaluating, and refining the quartet's potentials. They also lucidly describe Haydn's famous penchant for wit, humor, and compositional artifice, illuminating the unexpected connections he draws between seemingly unrelated ideas, his irony, and his lightning bolts of surprise and thwarted expectation. Approaching the quartets from a variety of vantage points, the authors correct many prevailing assumptions about convention, innovation, and developing compositional technique in the music of Haydn and his contemporaries.

The six string quartets dedicated to his friend Joseph Haydn represent a turning point in Mozart's compositional development. In addition to providing a full synopsis of each quartet this book examines the music in relation to Mozart's earlier quartets, considers the genesis of the six 'Haydn' quartets through close examination of the autograph revisions and looks at contemporary eighteenth-century analytical models. John Irving also charts the reception of the quartets, drawing upon a broad range of sources: Mozart's letters and diary entries, early newspaper reports, harmony/compositional textbooks, contemporary criticism and early biographies.

Of the few composers who possessed an intrinsic mastery of the string quartet, Haydn was the first and, Hans Keller argues, the greatest. This seminal study of forty-five quartets by one of the leading music critics of his day provides an extraordinarily deep understanding of Haydn's methods and genius.

This broad spectrum of papers and extensive scholarly debate focuses on a quintessential repertoire of musical works from the classical era. The autograph sketches, drafts, and scores of various kinds are shown to be central sources for our understanding of the genesis and history, as well as for the analysis and performance, of the compositions.

The author tells of his own development as a student, "of how he and his intrepid colleagues were converted to chamber music ... [and of how] four individualists master and then overcome the confining demands of ensemble playing."--Jacket.

Spotlighting the four women of the Lafayette Quartet, a leading Canadian ensemble, Rounds offers both a comprehensive history of the beloved instrumental form and an inside view of the complex world of professional quartet players, revealing the exultation and heatache that are the performing artists' daily fare. A treat for every music lover, whether player, listener or composer.

Discusses the unifying themes and structures of Haydn's major string quartets, offering analyses of 45 of Haydn's 60-odd string quartets with the aim of providing interpretive clues for performers.