Joseph Haydn String Quartet Op 20 nº 5 4-4 Finale: Fuga a due sogetti

Jerusalem Quartet The finale is a fugue with two subjects. The main subject is a standard fugal motif, used frequently in the Baroque (it appears, among other places, in Handel’s Messiah). While constructing a fugue in the strict, learned style, Haydn imbues the movement with an intense dramatic structure; like other fugues in the set, the entire first two thirds of the fugue is sotto voce. Out of this quiet the first violin suddenly erupts to a Forte, only to fall back into another piano section. The text