How do you do, Herr Haydn? Lazily referred
To as “Father of the Symphony”, on the Esterhazy team,
In truth you put more into the seemingly effortless slog
Of the string quartet – your true masterstroke.
An expository movement that could twitter and lark like a bird,
Contrasted with a slow, gentle, fathomless dream;
Next a subversive minuet that bops like a frog,
Rounded off by the finale’s trademark joke.
This is four-part harmony not just heard
But seen in the mind, glass-like, an explicative gleam
Of this art’s every ratchet, spring and cog,
Classical music’s engine in glorious uncloak.
It takes twenty-four hours to play
All these works; what a matchless day.
To as “Father of the Symphony”, on the Esterhazy team,
In truth you put more into the seemingly effortless slog
Of the string quartet – your true masterstroke.
An expository movement that could twitter and lark like a bird,
Contrasted with a slow, gentle, fathomless dream;
Next a subversive minuet that bops like a frog,
Rounded off by the finale’s trademark joke.
This is four-part harmony not just heard
But seen in the mind, glass-like, an explicative gleam
Of this art’s every ratchet, spring and cog,
Classical music’s engine in glorious uncloak.
It takes twenty-four hours to play
All these works; what a matchless day.
(9.5.26) v 1.1
