Theme and variations (4)
Theme (Partial Quote)
Notes
This lovely adagio sings like a hymn, and indeed, it is derived from a song that Haydn wrote for another occasion. I quote a succint comment from Annette Oppermann's liner notes for Sony:
"During his visits to London, Haydn had attended numerous festive and cultural events, in the course of which he had got to know the English national anthem God Save the King, for which he conceived an instant enthusiam. On his return to Vienna he immediately set about finding a way of offering the Austrian people a similarly effective means of paying public tribute to their imperial ruler. His plan was laid before the court, and the poet Lorenz Haschka invited to draft the poem, and thus it came about that on February 12, 1997, the emperor's birthday, Haydn's "Volkslied", Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser, was heard for the first time in Vienna's Burgtheatre. This popular hymn, which was later to become the Austrian and, subsequently, the German national anthem, was also used by Hadyn as the theme of a set of variations in the Adagio of his C-major quartet, Op. 76 No. 3, a use that has led to the work's having entered the annals of musical history as the "Emperor" Quartet."
It has been pointed out that as Haydn's variations go, this movement is rather straightfoward if not simple. Oppermann suggests that this may well fit the mood of the imperial tribute: the melody is heard as a constant in each variation, immutable and soverign like the Kaiser. Like many of Haydn's soft and heartfelt adagios, this one is tender, but strong, soft, but noble. Still, Haydn has shown thoughtful craftsmanship to create an effective sequence of varations that shape the overall narrative with a single line of tension and resolve.
If the melody remains the same, what changes? The most prominant variation technique concerns the quartet texture. First, the theme is stated by a full four-voice choral texture. With the first variation, Haydn reduces the texture to the intimacy of a duet featuring the 2 violins. The successive variations grow in texture, adding first the cello and then the viola, vorking back towards the full four-voiced chorus of the final variation. As part of the arrangement, each of the four instruments get to take the lead, each getting a chance to sing its tribute. Here is the basic plan:
Theme - 1st Violin + full quartet (a mostly homophonic, choral texture)
1st Variation - 2nd violin + 1st violin figures (reduced 2-voice texture)
2nd variation - cello + 2nd violin and 1st violin figures (synchopation) + viola harmony (largely 3-voice texture)
3rd variation - viola + 1st violin figures + staggered 2nd violin and cello entries (full texture with staggered entries)
4th variation - 1st violin + full quartet
The staggered enty of the cello in the 3rd variation emphasizes this accretion of texture: it becomes obvious when all voices join midway through the melody. In the final variation, the 1st violin distinquishes itself from its first lead appearance by moving the melody an octave higher. With pedal points in the cello, this final variation soars etherial, like a white dove of song that dissappears into the heavens. The final few measures form an extended cadence that settles into a final ultra soft fermata; its seems to sigh, to whisper, amen.
Along with texture and counterpoint, Haydn also varies the harmony. Curiously, after the first variation, the harmonies appear to move ever so slightly towards the chromatic and the melancholy. It is almost like a courtly love poem that becomes wistful, pining for a loved one that is no longer present. In the sense, the final variation is like a dream that softly fades away.
It is a fascinating experience to compare this with other variation movements even just within Haydn's own Op. 76 (No. 6, 1st movement)