Joseph & John by Tetra Brass

Although the main instrumental structures such as the sonata and symphony were already clearly comprehensible, the development of the string quartet was initially less clear. It emerged between 1750 and 1760 within various musical forms such as the Italian sinfonia and sonata as well as the German divertimento.

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) accepted an invitation from Karl Joseph Weber von Fürnberg to his castle Weinzierl near Wieselburg in Lower Austria and wrote his ten early string quartets there, without these works having a specific name. In a catalog of works he had compiled himself, he first titled his Opus 1 “Cassatio” – this was the original name given to divertimentos performed outdoors in the Viennese Classical period – and later corrected it to “Divertimento”. His stylistic starting point was the South German-Austrian divertimento tradition – music in a gallant tone, but also a little playful. In the Paris print edition of 1762, his string quartets were referred to as “Simphonies ou Quatuors dialogués”.

As it is usual for Joseph Haydn's early quartets, which are following the form of most of Haydn's divertimenti, Op. 1, No. 2 consists of five movements. A slow serenade movement forms the heart of the quartet and is surrounded by two minuets. The two fast outer movements form the framework around these three movements. His quartets were very popular and therefore were printed several times early on. He is generally regarded as the "master of the string quartet," but his works were also frequently criticized - mostly because of their humorous tone. Some tempi and the abundance of notes in his works are unexpected, and bars are filled differently than expected from the average string quartet.

A rarity in Haydn's compositions is the use of brass instruments: only one trumpet concerto and a few horn concertos can be found among his works. But Joseph Haydn must also have known the trombone as a solo instrument, as his brother Michael Haydn and Johann Georg Albrechtsberger - whose brother Anton played in a quartet with Joseph Haydn, the castle administrator and the castle pastor in Weinzierl - each composed a concerto for alto trombone.

Only a few years after Joseph Haydn composed his Opus 1, the music which forms the basis for John Cage's Harmonies was created in North America. He transformed 44 Protestant hymns from the 18th century - congregational songs for church services - into fragments for his work "Apartment House 1776". The lack of cadences creates empty spaces in his works and John Cage leaves it to our imagination what we (continue to) hear in the silence. For the composer absolute silence did not exist; he came to this realization, among other things, after he himself spent some time in an anechoic chamber. Known as a fan of simple "sound", he was careful not to interpret tones - and thus also silence - as anything other than what they are, as he made clear in a 1992 documentary: "I love sounds, just as they are. I don’t want to see them psychological, I don’t want to see a sound as a bucket, or as a president or in love with another sound – I just want it to be a sound!”

The balancing act between tradition and innovation is felt in hardly any other work as much as in these 44 Harmonies, about which he himself said: “The cadences and everything disappear, but the flavor remains. You can recognize it as 18th century music, but it’s suddenly brilliant in a new way.”

The musicians of Tetra Brass interpret the “Harmonies” in their own way in connection with Joseph Haydn. Sometimes unforeseen, and so they may also open up a completely new way of understanding and reading music.

Tetra Brass is characterized by creativity, endless curiosity, and experimental openness. They specializes in the discovery, performance and expansion of chamber music for brassquartet. Their open approach to music creates a diverse repertoire starting from original works of the late romantic and the 20th century as well as music from nowadays, written especially for and premiered by the ensemble.