String Quartet in D Minor

“Quinten”, “Fifths” and “The Donkey” have all been used as nicknames for Haydn’s String Quartet No. 61 Op. 76/3, in reference to the falling musical interval with which it commences. This motif pervades the sombre-toned opening movement in D minor, where the restless intensity of Haydn’s writing for the first violin is dominant. Respite is offered by a shift to the major key in the gracefully delicate “Andante”, but subversive elements resurface in the “Menuetto” movement, whose gaunt, angular outer sections frame a central Trio where obsessive dotted rhythms create an unsettling impression. The influence of the Hungarian dance music Haydn heard regularly in his youth is clearly felt in the finale, where the hee-hawing of a donkey is explicitly imitated. In its concluding pages, the quartet finally frees itself from minor-key influence, joyfully aping the sound of a rustic bagpipe in the process.