After a weeks-long stretch of winter without sun, that unfamiliar golden orb has finally emerged.

It’s weird to see people blinking and shielding their eyes from something other than snow and sleet.

Also, it’s wonderful to see shadows again.

I wonder if weather ever played a part in Haydn’s musical output? Did he get the winter blahs like everyone else and, accordingly, write blah – or less peppy – music? Did his spirits soar when the sun came out and it warmed up a bit? Did his music reflect that?

I think it would make for an interesting study – perhaps a Ph.D. dissertation – regarding the effects of weather or seasons on Haydn’s music. It wouldn’t be hard to determine that. Just look at the times of year he composed music, chart the kind of music it was (opera? string quartet? piano concerto? folk music? symphony?), observe the keys in which they were written (major? minor?), perhaps the tempo (fast? slow?), etc. Then see if there’s a correlation.

Why do this? Because I think we often revere these great composers so much that we forget that they were human beings, just as we are. As such, they were likely affected by the same kinds of things we are – weather being just one of them. Births, deaths, illnesses, different locales are other factors to take into account.

By allowing people like Haydn to be human, we can then truly understand how great they really were.

That’s why I try to put Haydn’s compositions in context, to examine their year, how old he was, what else was going on in the world at the time, etc. If I see Haydn as a human being, who lived at a specific time and place, I can better understand his remarkable accomplishments.

Speaking of which, these string quartets – all three of them – are lovely. My favorites are the first two – Nos. 1 and 2 – because they are livelier, more vibrant. But No. 3 isn’t bad, either. Even though its tempo is slower, it’s still quite engrossing. (The fourth movement – “Finale: Allegro con brio” – of No. 3 is absolutely stunning. Extremely delightful. Peppier than a room full of kittens. Fantastic violin playing.)

According to the Wiki article “List of String Quartets by Joseph Haydn,” Op. 74 was written in 1793. Haydn was 61. America was just a couple of decades old.

According to the Wiki article “18th Century in Literature,” here’s what was happening around the time Haydn composed these string quartets:

1789 James Fenimore Cooper was born 15 September in America.

1791 Dream of the Red Chamber is published for the first time in movable type format.

1792 Percy Bysshe Shelley was born (August 4).

1793 Salisbury Plain by William Wordsworth.

So, not much was happening in literature. But a lot was happening in music. Remember, Mozart died in 1791 at the age of 35. Haydn composed these string quartets two years after Mozart’s passing.

As I have in previous posts, I can’t forget to introduce the members of the Buchberger Quartet (their site is in German):

Hubert Buchberger violin
Julia Greve violin
Joachim Etzel viola
Helmut Sohler cello

The other players in the quartet do not have their own web sites, apparently. So, no link to them. Sorry.

Here’s what I listened to this morning:

Haydn String Quartet Op. 74 No. 1 in C

Haydn String Quartet Op. 74 No. 2 in F

Haydn String Quartet Op. 74 No. 3 in G Minor