His practical knowledge of the kettledrums made him very partial to them; and he was the first to give this instrument an individuality and artistic part in the Orchestra. Haydn introduced a loud blow on the kettledrum in the _Surprise Symphony_ to startle and wake up the audience. “Here all the women will scream,” he laughingly said when he wrote the part. Regarding Haydn’s quartets we have the following clever and humorous analysis by Stendhal: “An intelligent woman said that when she heard a quartet of Haydn’s she fancied herself present at the conversation of four agreeable persons. She thought that the first violin had the air of an eloquent man of genius of middle age who supported a conversation, the subject of which he had suggested. In the second violin she recognized a friend of the first, who sought by all possible means to display himself to advantage, seldom thought of himself and kept up the conversation rather by assenting to what was said by the others than by advancing any ideas of his own. The alto was a grave, learned and sententious man. He supported the discourse of the first violin by laconic maxims, striking for their truth. The bass was a worthy old lady, rather inclined to chatter, who said nothing of much consequence, and yet was always desiring to put in a word. But she gave an additional grace to the conversation, and while she was talking, the others had time to breathe. It was, however, evident that she had a secret inclination for the alto, which she preferred to the other instruments.” [Illustration: HAYDN _By Gutenbrunn_] Stendhal, who knew Haydn well, also writes: “You must know, my friend, that before Haydn, no man had conceived the idea of an Orchestra composed of eighteen kinds of instruments. He is the inventor of _prestissimo_, the very idea of which made the old square toes of Vienna shudder. In music, as in everything else, we have little conception of what the world was a hundred years back; the _Allegro_, for instance, was only an _Andantino_. “In instrumental music Haydn has revolutionized the details as well as the masses. It is he who has obliged the wind instruments to execute _pianissimo_. “In the same way as Leonardo da Vinci sketched in a little book which he always carried with him the singular faces he met with, Haydn also carefully noted down the passages and ideas which came into his head. When he was in good spirits and happy he hastened to his little table and wrote subjects for airs and minuets. Did he feel himself disposed to tenderness and melancholy, he noted down themes for _Andantes_ and _Adagios_; and, afterwards, in composing, when he wanted a passage of such a character, he had recourse to his note-book.