Joseph Haydn – String Quartet Op. 33 No. 2 or “The Joke”

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The title of “The Joke” affected my perception of the piece heavily, as I would try to associate every change or modification to what The Joke actually was. My first impression while listening to the first movement was how the instruments engaged in an almost turn based, rising scale that seemed to evoke the idea of a conversation between people or even groups. Is one of the parts talking going to tell/play the joke on the other? Maybe. However, I realized most parts of the piece are not structured as monophonic alternations. At the same time I felt that there was the idea of a narrative building up The Joke. Although this thought might have just been me trying to determine The Joke before the punchline, it made me see every section as a point of relief that would make me say “everything is still alright, for now…” whenever a section I had heard before returned.

This idea of “nothing has changed, yet” was teasing me through every modification Haydn would implement in different section within movements. Emphasizing or contrasting a different instrument would make me tense, expecting The Joke to be explicitly present anytime soon, but no, just more repetition. The third movement took me off track, as the tempo changed and I became more involved with the movement itself, forgetting about my previous goal. The fourth movement brought me back to it, as it seemed fitting to its name: A playful melody played in a faster tempo than what we just finished listening to. “This is it, the punch line is coming,” I thought, expecting a drastic change to occur suddenly at any point of the movement. Then the last section comes and I am confused, unsatisfied, and somewhat sad. I can only think whether I don’t get it, or if this was The Joke all along. Did Haydn plan this string quartet and watch everyone in the audience try to get the joke, only to see that none of the build up was actually related it to it? Is he laughing at us? Did I just grossly overthink all of this? Whichever it was, I guess the joke went over my head…

30 thoughts on “Joseph Haydn – String Quartet Op. 33 No. 2 or “The Joke””

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