"UNLOOSING THE GORDIAN KNOT": SONATA THEORY, FORM-FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS, AND BECOMING IN JOSEPH HAYDN'S STRING QUARTET, OP. 64, NO. 2, I

The first movement of Joseph Haydn's String Quartet in B minor, op. 64, no. 2, has long resisted conventional sonata-form analysis. A sense of unrest characterizes its musical journey: ambiguous, incomplete, or seemingly misplaced formal units hold sway as the exposition unfolds, setting a turbulent tone that persists throughout the development section. Subsequently, rather than establishing formal clarity in the recapitulation, Haydn further dissolves the musical material until it stalls completely, resuming its motion with great difficulty as the movement concludes. This study, drawing upon previous discussions by William Caplin (1998), Mathieu Langlois (2014), and Matthew Hall (2019), presents an in-depth analysis of this movement, primarily using Caplin's theory of formal functions, James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy's Sonata Theory (2006), and Janet Schmalfeldt's becoming (2011). The blending of disparate analytical methods provides a framework to illustrate how Haydn both articulates and stretches the boundaries of sonata form.