33 String Quartets were written by Joseph Haydn in the summer and Autumn of 1781 for the Viennese publisher Artaria.
The fourth movement implemented a lighter character, originating from Haydn's first shift from the minuet to the scherzo.
In a letter to Artaria, Haydn boasted about his pieces by saying, they are "a new and entirely special kind".
The rondo form of the final movement remains true to its definition by always returning to the tonic in the refrain.
72–106), which is almost an exact repetition of the first refrain (aba) with the only change being the omission of the repeats.
This is followed by a sudden forte sixteenth note in the beginning of the adagio that shocks the audience.
After this, the first violin plays the A theme of the opening phrase with rests interrupting the music every two bars.
The rests get progressively longer, giving the impression that the piece is over many times in a row, after which the music ends abruptly with a repeat of half of the movement's opening phrase, leaving the work hanging in mid-air.
The first movement opens with a melody in the first violin featuring repeated notes.
The first theme of the opening movement begins and ends with the same rising four-note cadence that gives the quartet its nickname.
The melody bears a strong resemblance to the oboe theme that begins the arioso "Che puro ciel" from Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, which Haydn had directed at Eszterháza in 1778.