String Quartets, Op. 76 (Haydn)

The six String Quartets, Op. 76 by Joseph Haydn were composed in 1796 or 1797 and dedicated to the Hungarian count Joseph Georg von Erdődy (1754–1824). They form the last complete set of string quartets that Haydn composed. At the time of the commission, Haydn was employed at the court of Prince Nicolaus Esterházy II and was composing the oratorio The Creation as well as Princess Maria Hermenegild Esterházy's annual mass.

Although accounts left by visitors to the Esterházy estate indicate that the quartets were completed by 1797, an exclusivity agreement meant that they were not published until 1799. Correspondence between Haydn and his Viennese publishers Artaria reveal confusion as regards their release: Haydn had promised Messrs. Longman Clementi & Co. in London the first publishing rights, but a lack of communication led him to worry that their publication in Vienna might also be, unintentionally, their first appearance in full. In the event, their publication in London and Vienna was almost simultaneous.

The Op. 76 quartets are among Haydn's most ambitious chamber works, deviating more than their predecessors from standard sonata form and each emphasizing their thematic continuity through the seamless and near-continual exchange of motifs between instruments.

This G-major quartet is numbered variously as No. 60, No. 40 (in the FHE) and No. 75 (in the Hoboken catalogue, where its full designation is Hob.III:75). It consists of four movements:

Although its opening key signature indicates that the work is in G major, the quartet moves in and out of G minor and the last movement begins in the key of G minor.

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