Greenberg writes, “Repeat listening will never make this music sound conventional because it will always sound only like itself” (302). While certainly true in one way or another, this statement nevertheless seems to have the problematic implication that Pierrot Lunaire cannot refer to anything beyond itself. In order to make a case for the music’s successful expression of content, emotional or otherwise, it would appear necessary to attempt to identify what it is does indeed sound like. And indeed, unless we are committed to the view that the ‘soul of modernity’ will distinguish itself by being nothing besides the soul of modernity, we won’t be surprised to find that we can, I think, make such identifications with relative ease.

For example, Schoenberg pointed out in the preface to Pierrot Lunaire’s score that Sprechstimme leads to a voice that, instead of singing individual notes for discrete periods of time, is continuous in its variation of pitch. Sprechstimme gives Schoenberg’s music interesting new rhythmic properties, perhaps through leading to more variable tone lengths. Moreover, switches between singing, speech and whispering are used to violate expectations to create a sense of creepiness. This definite affective result would seem to testify against the self-enclosed nature of the music.

While Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire is not very pleasant to listen to, it does achieve what Schoenberg sets out to accomplish – it tells a story. The music helps to create a picture in your head of what is going on in the story of Pierrot .When you read the text of the work it’s hard to imagine a pleasant tune playing underneath it. Can you imagine
“The haggard harlot
With scraggy gizzard
Will be his ultimate
Paramour.” being sung pleasantly? No it’s not meant to be pleasant, Schoenberg’s story is meant to be dramatic and it’s atonal music emphasizes the drama of the words. However, I also found this piece a little confusing sometimes because the singer is both Pierrot and the narrator simultaneously. Also, because although Pierrot is a man, he speaks in this piece through the voice of a soprano woman. I’m interested as to why Schoenberg chose to make it that way, perhaps it was also to add to the drama of the piece?

Overall, the string quartets are aesthetically pleasing in major keys and remind me of the Bradenburg Concerto in terms of musical quality, although Bach’s music is much more lively, saturated and quick. Perhaps this is a remembrance of the past by Haydn and a subtle push towards new musical creativity. He certainly appears tired of the same old just by composing and titling this piece.

Haydn’s joke must have been daring in 1781; it also reflects his ingenuity because he leaves the contents of the joke up to interpretation. Most will cite the adagio coda and the silences as the joke, but others might identify elements in the music that speak to them as the joke. Personally, I don’t have enough musical knowledge to understand all the hidden jokes Haydn planted, but he crafted an audacious satirical piece that may just have inspired future musicians to experiment.

Haydn’s “Joke” has four varying movements, but each movement remains consistent with its presentation of a consistent primary theme and the alternating of voices. The Allegro moderato begins with a playful primary theme played by a lower string instrument and accompanied by the higher instruments. This theme is then developed through imitation, with each instrument taking on the melodic voice and then returning to accompaniment. The primary theme is returned to at 1:18, after the build of tension and a ritardando of the development. This movement introduces the piece’s playful tone.

The Scherzo allegro mimics the Allegro’s structure, by first introducing a second theme and then elaborating upon it. This elaboration also includes  varying voices of leading and accompanying instrumentation, with a build of tension and then a return to the original theme. The Largo makes a decisive shift from the Allegro and Scherzo. The mood becomes darker, with the slowing of tempo and sense of unity as the strings alternate between homophony and polyphony. During the Largo’s polyphonic moments, the violins play the central line at a higher register, while the cello and viola form movement underneath.

The Presto, or Fourth Movement, returns the quartet to its lively nature.The theme of the movement is introduced by the violins, and is developed with texture changes that add and subtract depth from the accompaniment. In this movement especially, the accompaniment accentuates the playful rhythm of the theme’s melody. At the end of the piece, “the joke” is referenced by a lack of resolution of the playful theme.

This piece is a great example of the vivid imagery that just four instruments in a quartet can conjure. The first movement of this piece is upbeat, orderly, and fast-paced. The three types of string instruments do a great job covering a wide range of registers. The style reminds me of baroque music such as Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5. The “conversation” which the piece represents starts off friendly and with natural flow.  The second movement has an ABA structure. In the B section, one high-pitched voice stands out among the four instruments. This leads me to envision one speaker in the conversation making a drawn-out, passionate argument. The repeated A sections  are warm and harmonious, providing a background of commentary and discussion from which the B section stands out.

In contrast to the previous sections, the third movement is slow and melancholic. The abrupt change from the upbeat style of the first two movements indicates that the topic of the conversation has changed, possibly to the subject of death. The key remains major, but the soft dynamics and slow tempo reinforce the grave subject at hand. In the final movement, the quartet returns to its former upbeat and fast-paced style. The upper registers drive the melody, while the lower registers drive the harmony. The conversation drives towards a definitive and passionate conclusion, with all voices partaking. The end of the fourth movement has a light, repeated melody with interspersed silences. This makes me envision the vigorous conversation and debate ending with a well-timed joke.

I found Haydn’s “Joke” to be quite enjoyable and light-hearted as a piece. In many ways the piece offers much to the listener. For example, the composition itself, in its purpose to build up to the end where we meet the punchline. Having the piece structure as a joke allows us to appreciate the piece intellectually as a complete work in addition to the various nuances. The statement of the work being a joke, playing with the audience and with norms of the era, is interesting to look at as it engages with the audience and the time particularly, yet remains timeless through the technique that it uses. To that end the work remains interesting and, in my opinion, timeless.

In terms of specifics, the work maintains a bouncy, whimsical melody, being played in major with quick notes making it sound bouncy. It crescendos and then very calmly comes down. The piece slows down in the second and especially early in the third movement, but then becomes very fast at the final movement, from which it garners its name. In the third movement, it seems like we see many of the same “bouncy elements” and generally major key, but in a more refined, slower way. Although it may sound odd, up to this point I imagined the metaphor of someone starting as a young boisterous child and then growing up and maturing but maintaining the spirit of youth.  In the next movement we go back to the quick, upbeat, boisterous childhood, which I initially interpreted as the joke.  However, as I listened it seemed at many points the piece would end, but it went on almost rambling going back to the same point despite its divergence throughout. After several times this seemed comical and the title finally made sense. then as it abruptly would stop midway it seemed like the joke running on, until it finally did end on what seemed like a place that wouldn’t make sense. On that end I think Haydn did a wonderful job. While its interesting to think about the relation of a work and its title, I imagine for audiences at the time it would be clear what Haydn is doing. His title serves to enable someone far less sophisticated to get in on the joke.

Listening to Haydn’s Op. 33 No. 22 (“The Joke”), I was waiting for the punch line. Ten minutes in and I was wondering if it had the just gone over my head. By the fourth movement I was just waiting for the piece to end; but then it picked again… and again… and again. With the repetitive themes and elongated pauses, it occurred to me that Haydn was using a technique we’ve seen throughout the semester, tension and release, in a manner similar to that of a comedian. Comic relief is used to break tension that is built up to a point of (or beyond) discomfort. The piece can be related to the classic “Slow Talkers” routine by comedic duo Bob and Ray.

As with the slow talker, Haydn gives small bits of unresolved information followed by a lengthy pause.  In the last minute alone of the fourth movement there are nine rests. Each time the audience anticipates more or assumes that the piece has ended, that is until it picks up again. Furthermore, because he is using a theme that is repeated over and over again, the audience feels as though it can fill in pauses.. like the slow talkers sketch, they are tempted to call out and fill in the blanks, because they know, or at least think they know, what is coming next.

For me, the transition from the Romantic and the contemporary pieces that attempted to instill the music with emotions and meaning back to the Haydn quartets which are driven by absolute music is dissatisfying. I think Mahler and Beethoven would agree with me that absolute music is somehow lacking. While music can have whatever meaning one gives to it because it is interpretive, I could not find a way to give meaning to the quartet. This is just my personal opinion because I played a lot of romantic pieces and like the emotional effect they convey.

I think because it is of the repetitions present in the piece. All four movements had some form of repetition. The repetition seemed inhibitory to the development of the music because you would always have to come back to it, so it does not let the piece roam and go where it may go. Perhaps, that is the intended purpose of the repetitions, but I wanted to hear something more from the pieces in general.

Out of the four movements, the third movement stood out to me the most exactly because of how it resembled the expressive, dark, and emotional qualities that the Romantics portrayed. I found great tension at 1:09, 1:13, and 4:07 when the violins played the two chords. After the dramatic chords, I expected something to follow, but we just went right back to the repetitive sections of the piece. The violins created tension once again at 3:00 by driving up the melody higher in a solo and using minor keys to create discomfort. Lastly, the peaceful ending seemed a little lacking to me.

All in all, I think the idea of a joke may sound neat, but I think it takes away from the piece. I certainly expected the quartet to finish the phrase it started, but it ends after having played only the first of the four parts. So at the end of the day, what you hear is repetition after repetition and then an unfinished phrase.

This semester, we have constantly looked at how the composer’s perceived the music’s purpose. In composers was created for the sake of itself, and Wagner sought to incorporate it into all aspects of art. Haydn’s focus seems to be directly aimed at the audience. The purpose of the music is to play with the audience’s mind and create a quirky, fun experience. This is evident throughout the piece. The fourth movement is lighter and contrasts the rest of the piece, and from Wikipedia, I read he actually makes a shift from the minuet to scherzo. This trickery seems to exist to confuse the audience in a satirical manner. Of course, the culmination of this style ends in his joke, where he pauses between parts of his main theme in the final movement. This keeps the audience from knowing when the piece actually ends without time markings, which would result in clapping at the wrong time. The piece essentially plays around with the audience. Apparently, the fourth movement is also done in a Rondo form (ABACA) with the twist of the joke at the end. The piece is like any other in its purpose of entertainment and the use of musical technicalities to create an enjoyable experience, rather than to really reflect upon any significant source material.

I enjoyed this piece for a few reasons. While there did seem to be a lot of dissonance in the first 2 movements I enjoyed their upbeat tones. The way in which the 4 violins played off of each other created very pleasant sounds. I also enjoyed Movement 3 in the way that it really slowed down in timing. It evoked a very different emotional response than Movements 1 and 2, at least for myself. If the entire piece is a conversation among four reasonable people as Goethe wrote then Movement 3 would be a conversation based around a very somber topic. I almost visualized it as if 4 people were sitting around discussing a fond memory. There were bright points as if there were happy memories but also sad moments as if the individuals were sad to see a time had passed.

By the end of Movement 3 I was wondering why this piece had been titled “The Joke”. I thought it was a very pleasant piece all together. It wasn’t until late in Movement 4 that I realized where the name came from. After this Movement brings the composition back up to an upbeat timing the music begins to play tricks on the audience. The movement is going along at this fast pace when right around 2:15 the piece begins to flutter as if it is ending. The track picks back up, a bit more is played slowly, and the piece is broken up with a few short moments of silence. This leaves the audience unable to figure out when the piece has ended. I can imagine being at a performance of this composition, unable to determine when I should clap for the musicians. Then, very suddenly the piece actually ends capping of the composition with what I’m sure evoked some laughter among the audience as they fumbled to applaud at the appropriate time.