Haydn’s Late Quartets – IELTS Reading Sample With Explanation

IELTS is quite popular among youth who wish to study and settle abroad. It is a complete course students pursue to demonstrate their proficiency in English to be eligible to study abroad. It includes modules for reading, writing, and listening to test each ability of the students.

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The IELTS reading section tests the reading and understanding ability of the students through passages followed by 40 questions based on those passages. This particular reading passage is Academic topic and contains answers involving:

1. Choose the right answer
2. Complete the summary by fill in the blanks
3. Choose the correct answer

There is a wide variety of similar topics available in IELTS reading practice papers for candidates.

Section 1

Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions

Haydn’s Late Quartets IELTS Reading Sample

1. By the time he came to write the String Quartets published as Opus 76 and Opus 77, Haydn was undoubtedly the most famous living composer in the whole of Europe. He had recently returned from the highly successful second visit to England, for which he had composed his last six symphonies, culminating in the brilliant and festive Drum Roll Symphony (No. 103) and London Symphony (No, 104). This is public music, full of high spirits, expansive gestures and orchestral surprises. Haydn knew how to please his audience. And in 1796, following his return to Vienna, he began work on his largest and most famous choral work, the oratorio, “The Creation”. In the succeeding years, till 1802, he was to write a series of other large scale religious choral works, including several masses. The oratorios and masses were also public works, employing large forces for dramatic effect, but warm and full of apparently spontaneous religious feeling. Yet at the same time he composed these 8 quartets, in terms of technical mastery and sheer musical invention the equal of the symphonies and choral works, but in their mood and emotional impact far removed, by turns introspective and detached, or full of passionate intensity.
2. Once again, as in the early 1770s when he appears to have been going through some kind of spiritual crisis, Haydn returned to the String Quartet as a means to accomplish a two-fold aim: firstly to innovate musically in a genre-free from public performance requirements or religious convention; secondly to express personal emotions or philosophy in a musical form that is intimate yet capable of great subtlety and complexity of meaning. The result is a series of quartets of astonishing structural, melodic, rhythmic and harmonic variety, inhabiting a shifting emotional world, where tension underlies surface brilliance and calm gives way to unease.
3. The six quartets of Opus 76 differ widely in character. The opening movement of No. 2 is tense and dramatic, while that of No. 4 begins with the soaring long-breathed melody that has earned the nickname of “The Sunrise”. The minuets have moved a long way from the stately court dance of the mid-eighteenth century. The so-called “Witches Minuet” of No. 2 is a strident canon, that of No. 6 is a fast one-in-a-bar movement anticipating the scherzos of Beethoven, while at the heart of No. 5 is a contrasting trio section which, far from being the customary relaxed variant of the surrounding minuet, flings itself into frenetic action and is gone. The finales are full of energy and grace. We associate with Haydn but with far less conscious humour and more detachment than in earlier quartets.
4. But it is in the slow movements that Haydn is most innovative and most unsettling. In No. 1, the cello and the first violin embark on a series of brusque dialogues. No. 4 is a subdued meditation based on the hushed opening chords. The slow movements of No. 5 and No. 6 are much looser in structure, the cello and viola setting off on solitary episodes of melodic and harmonic uncertainty. But there the similarity ends, for while No. 5 is enigmatic and predominantly dark in tone, the overlapping textures of its sister are full of light-filled intensity.
5. The Opus 76 quartets were published in 1799 when Haydn was well over 60 years old. Almost immediately he was commissioned to write another set by Prince Lobkowltz, a wealthy patron, who was later to become an important figure in Beethoven’s life. Two quartets only were completed and published as Opus 77 Nos. 1 & 2 in 1802. But these are not the works of an old man whose powers are fading, or who simply consolidates ground already covered. Once again Haydn Innovates. The opening movement of Opus 77 No. 2 is as structurally complex and emotionally unsettling as anything he ever wrote, alternating between a laconic opening theme and a tense and threatening counter theme which comes to dominate the whole movement. Both quartets have fast scherzo-like “minuets”. The slow movement of No. 1 is in traditional variation form but stretches the form to the limit in order to accommodate widely contrasting textures and moods. The finale of No. 2 is swept along by a seemingly inexhaustible stream of energy and inventiveness.
6. In fact, Haydn began the third quarter in this set but never finished it, and the two completed movements were published in 1806 as Opus 103, his last published work. He was over 70 and clearly lacked the strength to continue composition. The two existing movements are a slow movement followed by a minuet. The slow movement has a quiet warmth, but It is the minuet that is remarkable. It is in true dance time, unlike the fast quasi-scherzos of the earlier quartets. But what a dance in a sombre D minor Haydn unfolds an angular, ruthless little dance of death. The central trio section holds out a moment of consolation, and then the dance returns, sweeping on relentlessly to the final sudden uprush of sound. And then, after more than 40 years of composition the master falls silent.

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Section 2

Solution With Explanation 

Question 1 – 3
Choose the correct answer between A-D
Write the correct answer A, B, C, D in the boxes on your answer sheet.
[ Guide: in these types of questions, students need to read the whole passage then find the answers to these questions which is one of the four given options.]

1. Which one of the following statements Is true?

1. Haydn wrote the London Symphony In England
2. We do not know where Haydn wrote the London Symphony
3. Haydn wrote the London Symphony in Vienna
4. Haydn wrote the Drum Roll Symphony in England

Question 1.

Answer: B

Supporting sentence: He had recently returned from the highly successful second visit to England, for which he had composed his last six symphonies, culminating in the brilliant and festive Drum Roll Symphony (No. 103) and London Symphony (No, 104).

Keywords: Symphonies, Drum Roll Symphony (No. 103), London Symphony (No. 104)

Keyword Location: Paragraph 1, line 2.

Explanation: Paragraph 1, line 2 reads as, “He had recently returned from the highly successful second visit to England, for which he had composed his last six symphonies, culminating in the brilliant and festive Drum Roll Symphony (No. 103) and London Symphony (No, 104).”

These lines state that Haydn composed the London Symphony for London, but don’t state where he composed it.

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Question 2. Like symphonies 103 and 104, the oratorios and masses were …?

1. written in the eighteenth century
2. for the public
3. as emotional as the quartets
4. full of religious feeling

Answer: B

Supporting sentence: The oratorios and masses were also public works, employing large forces for dramatic effect, but warm and full of apparently spontaneous religious feeling.

Keywords: oratories, masses, Symphonies 103 and 104, public works, religious feeling, choral work, the oratorio, the creation.

Keyword Location: paragraph 1, lines 5-7

Explanation: paragraph 1, lines 5-7 read as,” And in 1796, following his return to Vienna, he began work on his largest and most famous choral work, the oratorio, “The Creation”. In the succeeding years, till 1802, he was to write a series of other large scale religious choral works, including several masses. The oratorios and masses were also public works, employing large forces for dramatic effect, but warm and full of apparently spontaneous religious feeling.”

From these lines, it is clear that oratories and masses were for the public, so option B is the correct answer.

A is wrong as several masses were written in the later years.
C is not true as the last line of the paragraph “but in their mood and emotional impact far removed, by turns introspective and detached, or full of passionate intensity” states the opposite.
D is wrong as only the oratories and masses were full of religious feelings, not the Symphonies.

Question 3. The string quartets in Opus 76 and Opus 77 were …

1. the cause of a spiritual crisis
2. intimate yet capable
3. calm unease
4. diverse

Answer: D

Supporting sentence: The six quartets of Opus 76 differ widely in character.

Keywords: string quartets, Opus 76 and 77, The Sunrise, Witches Minuet, scherzos of Beethoven.

Keyword Location: Paragraph 3, lines 1-5

Explanation: The correct option is D i.e. Diverse. Paragraph 3, line one states,” The six quartets of Opus 76 differ widely in character.” Later lines of the paragraph,” The opening movement of No. 2 is tense and dramatic, while that of No. 4 begins with the soaring long-breathed melody that has earned the nickname of “The Sunrise”. The minuets…….” also depict the diverse nature of these Quartets.

Option A is incorrect because these string quartets were the result of the spiritual crises and not the cause.

Option B is not right because the phrase “intimate yet capable” is not complete and only describes the musical form.

Option C doesn’t make sense.

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Questions 4-8

Complete the text by filling the blanks with the appropriate words from the given word list. Write the answers in boxes 4-8 on your answer sheet.

The text is a summary of paragraphs 3 & 4 of the reading passage.

For example, the opening of “The Sunrise” is not nearly as _____4____ as that of No. 2._____5_____those of the mid-eighteenth century, the minuets are more frenetic and less relaxed. It is in the slow movements, however, that Haydn tried something very different. In contrast to No. 4, No, 1 if much ______6___ brusque, the former being much___7____,____8_____ , Nos. 5 and 6 are alike in some respects.

Word List

Question 4.

Answer: tense (not long-breathed)

Supporting sentence: The opening movement of No. 2 is tense and dramatic, while that of No. 4 begins with the soaring long-breathed melody that has earned the nickname of “The Sunrise”.

Keywords: Opus 76, tense and dramatic, The Sunrise, soaring, long-breathed,

Keyword Location: paragraph 3, lines 1-2

Explanation: paragraph 3, sentence 2 says that the opening of The Sunrise is not as tense as that of No. 2, but its opening is a soaring long-breathed melody.

Question 5.

Answer: unlike (not like)

Supporting sentence: “The minuet has moved a long way from the stately court dance of the mid-eighteenth century….. far from being the customary relaxed variant of the surrounding minuet, flings itself into frenetic action and is gone.”

Keywords: minuet, mid-eighteenth century, court dance, Witches Minuet, scherzos of Beethoven, frenetic action

Keyword Location: paragraph 3, lines 3-5

Explanation: paragraph 3, line 1 states that the minuets have moved away from the mid-eighteenth. Line 5 reads as,” far from being the customary relaxed variant of the surrounding minuets , flings itself into frenetic action and is gone” which describes that the minuets are more frenetic and less relaxed.

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Question 6.

Answer: more (not less)

Supporting sentence: “In No. 1, the cello and the first violin embark on a series of brusque dialogues. No. 4 is a subdued meditation based on the hushed opening chords.”

Keywords: cello, the first violin, brusque, subdued, meditation.

Keyword Location: paragraph 3, lines 1-3

Explanation: paragraph 4 reads as,” But it is in the slow movements that Haydn is most innovative and most unsettling. In No. 1, the cello and the first violin embark on a series of brusque dialogues. No. 4 is a subdued meditation based on the hushed opening chords” which suggests that No. 1 embarks on brusque dialogues.

Question 7.

Answer: quieter (not subdued)

Supporting sentence: In No. 1, the cello and the first violin embark on a series of brusque dialogues. No. 4 is a subdued meditation based on the hushed opening chords.

Keywords: subdued, meditation, hushed.

Keyword Location: paragraph 4, line 3.

Explanation: lines 2-3 of paragraph 4 suggest that No. 4 is quieter than No. 1.

Question – 8

Answer: Conversely (not similarly)

Supporting sentence: “The slow movements of No. 5 and No. 6 are much looser in structure,”

Keywords: slow movements of No.5 & No.6, solitary episodes, cello, viola, the similarity ends.

Keyword Location: paragraph 4, lines 4-5

Explanation: paragraph 4, line 4 reads as,” The slow movements of No. 5 and No. 6 are much looser in structure,….. But there the similarity ends,….” This suggests that No.4 & No.5 are similar in some respects and not entirely similar.

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Questions 9-11

Do the statements below agree with that information in Reading Passage 3?

Write your answer in boxes 9-11, as follow:

YES:             if the statement agrees with the information given in the passage
NO:               if the statement doesn’t agree with the information given in the passage
NOT GIVEN: if the information is not given in the passage regarding the statement.

Question 9. Before the Opus 76 quartets were published, Haydn had been commissioned to write more.

Answer: NO

Supporting sentence: “The Opus 76 quartets were published in 1799 when Haydn was well over 60 years old. Almost immediately he was commissioned to write another set by Prince Lobkowltz…..”

Keywords: before, Opus 76 quartets, commissioned, almost immediately.

Keyword Location: paragraph 5, line 1-2

Explanation: the combined reading of lines 1 & 2 of paragraph 5 reads as,” Almost immediately he was commissioned to write another set by Prince Lobkowltz…..” that suggests Haydn was commissioned to write another set immediately when Opus 76 was published and not before the publication.

Question 10. The writer says that Opus 103 was Haydn’s last published work?

Answer: YES

Supporting sentence: “the two completed movements were published in 1806 as Opus 103, his last published work.”

Keywords: Opus 103, last published work.

Keyword Location: first line, paragraph 6

Explanation: the reading of line 1, paragraph 6 suggests that Opus 103 was published in 1086 and it was his last published work.

Question 11. The writer admires Haydn for the diversity of the music he composed.

Answer: YES

Supporting sentence: whole passage. E.g. “And then, after more than 40 years of composition the master falls silent.”

Keywords: silent, composition

Keyword Location: Paragraph F, last line

Explanation: The combined reading of the whole passage gives an impression that the writer deeply admires the diversified compositions of Haydn in the field of music. He addresses him as a master at the end of the passage.