Pieces › Joseph Haydn

String Quartet in B-flat major, Hob. III:23, Op. 9 No. 5

4 movements

Joseph Haydn · 1769–70 · B♭ major · 472 bars · 243 chords analysed

The first quartets Haydn wrote in the four-movement form that became standard.

Haydn wrote nearly 70 string quartets and more or less invented the form: four equal voices in conversation. From the early divertimento-like Op. 1 and Op. 2 to the Op. 76 set of 1797, you can hear the genre grow up.

Keys visited: B♭ major.