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.

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…

Initially, I was thoroughly impressed with Haydn’s composition, more specifically, the seamless note exchange between the instruments. Goethe perfectly describes a string quartet as “a conversation among four reasonable people,” one in which I envision rhetoricians extending their personal thoughts onto others while accepting opposing, yet logical viewpoints. I think it is important to highlight the ‘reasonable’ aspect of these characters. While the quartet is mostly flawless in composition, with few dissonances and discords, the instances in which conflict does appear gives meaning to the word ‘reasonable.’ That is, they provide the listener with “arguments” and even “jokes” that occur between any two reasonable people. Notice that if these aspects were not present, Goethe would have described a string quartet as “conversation among four perfect people.”

In the midst of eloquent rhetoric, I pictured an “argument” at 0:59. To me, the quick succession of unpleasant notes was as if one of the guests had quickly and loudly extended a political theory, disliked by the other guests, who in response, react to the notion similar to how the listener did, with aversion. As though the feedback on his first theory was not enough, the radical guest choses to extend theory a second time at 2:18, hastily, as if he did not want the others to pose counterarguments, or in the musical sense, the other instruments to collaborate. The fourth movement highlights the most creative aspect of this piece. At this point, the four dinner guests appear to have consumed one too many drinks. They no longer introduce new subjects of conversation; they only alternate between The New Yorker’s last issue and Met Opera’s upcoming opening night. While these men appeared composed when the dinner started, they no longer make cohesive statements. They have consumed their night away and drunkenly pass out with their instruments in hand.

I really enjoyed listening to Haydn’s “The Joke.” The way in which Haydn used the violins and musical structures was suspenseful, unpredictable, yet simultaneously playful – all essential characteristics that encompass a good joke.

The first movement, “Allegro moderato,” was the most structured. Using the sonata form, it was as if Haydn was constructing the background of the joke that he is going to tell in the following movements. We are first presented with a lighthearted theme, characteristic of the movement, which is then transformed into numerous and unpredictable variations. Notably, before its recapitulation, it is presented in the minor key, adding a further feeling of relief when it is finally presented normally during the recapitulation.

However, the feeling of unpredictability returns in the second movement, “Scherzo.” I tried to predict what was to come next, but I could not pinpoint a musical structure that the movement followed. This movement is almost a constant development, and I could no longer predict when or if the themes were going to be recapitulated. Haydn adds several short cadences, which add to the unpredictability of this movement. We lose our sense of structure. It reminds me of the suspense that I feel during the buildup of a good joke.

The following theme, “Largo,” was perhaps my favorite of the four. More melancholic than the preceding and subsequent movements, it seems to be the anomaly and unfitting movement given the title, “The Joke.” It appears to be a dialogue between the two groups of string instruments. However, this movement maintains the characteristic unpredictability of “The Joke.” The movement switches from being very loud to quiet, and, like the preceding movement, there are numerous cadences, contributing to the sense of uneasiness. We wait for the resolution, which is somewhat achieved at the end of the movement when all the instruments play in unison; but the instruments slowly fade out, and the two short final musical fragments give little resolve to the listener.

The final movement, “Presto,” acts as the punch line for the joke. Unlike the preceding movement, it is fast-paced and, in my opinion, most resembles the human voice. It almost sounds like a laughing, almost out-of-breath, telling of a joke, as one frantically is trying to get to the punch line. It is in the rondo form, adding a sense of structure that was somewhat lost in the prior two movements. While cadences were dropped throughout the other movements, the most striking are the few placed in the last movement. I was continuously tricked into believing that the movement was over. I can imagine the audience, when seeing it performed live, accidentally applauding at the wrong moment.

All the movements are mercurial: No constant structure, theme, and mood are maintained. This is the punch line of the joke. We listen to the first movement and expect this to be a lighthearted string quartet, which is contrasted with the melancholic third movement. Using (and not using) sonata and rondo form while integrating the occasional cadence, Haydn seems to set up our expectations with the use of existing musical structures while simultaneously breaking them down.

John Cage’s Sonatas and Interludes remind me of Charles Ives’ Putnam’s Camp, an apparent dissonant mess that is in fact a carefully organized piano piece. As such I treat it more as an intricate work of art that I don’t understand rather than consumable entertainment. While I can’t say that I enjoy this type of music I can certainly admire the creative spirit that went into the set.

Sonatas and Interludes is a 20-piece set broken down into 16 sonatas and 4 interludes. The aim was to demonstrate the 8 emotions of the Indian rasa tradition; in fact Cage was inspired by his introduction to Indian philosophy and music. Most of the sonatas follow the AABB form, like classical sonatas, and a specific subdivision named nested proportions: “an arbitrary sequence of numbers defines the structure of a piece on both the macroscopic and microscopic level, so that the larger parts of each piece are in the same relation to the whole as the smaller parts are to a single unit of it.” This explains the apparent randomness of note spacing in his sonatas. One striking feature is that his compositions are very clean and each note is very important, reflecting the avant-gardism of his musical expertise.