String Quartets, Op. 76

• Haydn composed this set of six string quartets in Vienna¹ between 1796-7.²
• The set was commissioned by Hungarian Count Joseph Erdődy.³ Erdődy retained the exclusive right to perform them for two years.⁴
• Haydn published his Op. 76 set of six string quartets in 1799,⁵ almost simultaneously in London and in Vienna.⁶ 
  • Haydn was well-loved in London by this time; he’d been presenting his series of “London” symphonies there since 1791. These quartets incorporated some of the innovative style of the London symphonies.⁷

“A few days ago I went to see Haydn again, who now lives right next to me since he gave up his customary winter and spring lodgings in the suburbs and moved a whole quarter-of-a-mile away. On this occasion he played to me, on the piano, violin quartets which a certain Count Erdődy had ordered from him and which may be printed only after a number of years. These are more than masterly and full of new thoughts. While he played he let me sit beside him and see how he divided the various parts in the score.” 

Swedish diplomat Frederik Silverstolpe, writing about Haydn’s Op. 76 Quartets on June 14, 1797.⁸

Contents 

Click for scores and stats. 

1. String Quartet in G Major, Hob.III:75 Listen for: this quartet’s final movement is (surprisingly) in g minor instead of G Major; it only reverts to the major mode at the very end.⁹
2. String Quartet in d minor, Hob.III:76, “Fifths.” “Fifths” refers to the opening melody having been written in fifths (example: A to E, B to G, etc.) 
3. String Quartet in C Major, Hob.III:77, “Emperor.” This quartet quotes “Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser,” hence the nickname.¹⁰
4. String Quartet in B-flat Major, Hob.III:78, “Sunrise” 
5. String Quartet in D Major, Hob.III:79 
6. String Quartet in E-flat Major, Hob.III:80 

1. Georg Feder and James Webster, “Haydn, (Franz) Joseph,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed November 2, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo.
2. “String Quartets, Op. 76 (Haydn, Joseph),” IMSLP, accessed November 2, 2021, https://imslp.org/wiki/String_Quartets,_Op.76_(Haydn,_Joseph).
3. Feder and Webster, “Haydn, (Franz) Joseph,” Grove Music Online.
4. Daniel Heartz, Mozart, Haydn, and Early Beethoven: 1781-1802 (New York: Norton, 2009), 572.
5. “String Quartets, Op. 76 (Haydn, Joseph),” IMSLP.
6. Heartz, Mozart, Haydn, and Early Beethoven: 1781-1802, 572.
7. Feder and Webster, “Haydn, (Franz) Joseph,” Grove Music Online.
8. Quoted in Heartz, Mozart, Haydn, and Early Beethoven, 572. 
9. Feder and Webster, “Haydn, (Franz) Joseph,” Grove Music Online.
10. Ibid.