Richibi’s Weblog

o, I said, when my flute teacher, an art I’d taken up

too late in life, presented me with a piece I should 

learn to play, the second movement of Haydn’s 

Opus 76, no. 1, an adagio sostenuto

adagios always remind me of John, I’d read, at

a modest ceremony of remembrance for him, 

from a text I’d prepared, which prophetically, 

transcendentally, connected me with a

cornucopia of adagios, I’d sought them out,

been consoled, repaired, eventually inspired, 

by them, Haydn’s Opus 76, no.1, movement 

two, had been a total shoe-in

Haydn is where the history of string quartets 

starts in the West, they existed before, but 

not formally as a musical format, became 

thereafter, however, an identifiable category, 

and consequently, imitated

the string quartet, a piece of music written

for four instruments, all string traditionally,

two violins, a viola, and a cello, playing 

more than one segment of music, 

Classically three, then becoming four,

became a structure that has not even

nowadays lost its appeal, though the 

individual combinations might’ve 

significantly, since, been altered 

Haydn wrote 68 string quartets, which  

established him as their spiritual father, 

all string quartets devolve from him,

including Beethoven‘s, those of 

Shostakovich, and Messiaen

marvel

R ! chard