String Quartet No. 3 in C major (Emperor) |
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Composed: 1797 First Performed: February 12, 1797 Published: 1799 Peak: -- Sales (in millions): -- Genre: classical > chamber music |
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Rating: 4.695 out of 5.00 (average of 5 ratings)
Awards:(Click on award to learn more).
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About the Work:Haydn’s third string quartet grew out of visits to London from 1791 through 1795. After returning to Vienna, he told Baron von Swieten, a friend and patron for numerous composers, that, in light of the threat from Napoleon, the Austrian empire needed “something to rally patriotic hearts and spur military recruitment the way ‘God Save the King’ did in England.” HB Swieten was instrumental in arranging “for a prominent poet to write ‘Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser’ (God Save Emperor Franz),” HB a tribute to Emperor Francis II. Haydn integrated “a set of variations” WK of the piece in the second movement of his string quartet, hence its nicknames of Emperor and Kaiser. It became “the centerpiece of one of his boldest and brightest quartets” HB Haydn’s work became “an instant and enduring classic” HB and “quickly acquired national status.” HB In 1847 it became the national anthem of Austria-Hungary. The same melody was later used for the German national anthem, WK adopted by the Weimer Republic in 1922. HB “The tune has also been turned into Christian and Masonic hymns. Haydn always loved it. In his final years, when he was unable to compose (an unknown illness changed Haydn from a vigorous, creative 70-year-old to a feeble 71-year-old), he would play it on his piano and weep.” HB Regarding the rest of the quartet, “its first movement mixes energetic high spirits, intricate counterpoint, and some harmonic adventures that foreshadow Schubert.” HB “The third movement continues the first movement’s intriguing juxtaposition of major and minor, but is, rhythmically speaking, a fairly conventional minuet, which is a surprise coming from a composer who liked to stretch the minuet form beyond its dance origins.” HB “The finale is a violent tempest in C minor that looks back to Haydn’s Sturm und Drang period of 30 years earlier, and forward to Beethoven’s early quartets of a few years later. When the key of C major finally reappears in the coda, it seems less an inevitable development than torrential rain finally ending and the sun coming out, even while the wind is still blowing.” HB |
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First posted 2/22/2026. |
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