but to relieve what is apt to become monotonous, by reducing the score to three, two, or even at times one instrument, so the introduction of absolute silence may occasionally produce an excellent effect. Handel recognised this, and we find examples in “He rebuked the Red Sea” (_Israel in Egypt_), “Wretched Lovers” (_Acis and Galatea_), and at the close of the Amen Chorus (_Messiah_). Brahms makes use of the device in the allegretto of his Second Symphony, as does another master, Wagner, at the close of the prelude, Act 2 of _Parsifal_. The scherzo of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony also contains several examples, and Sir C. Villiers Stanford in the andante of his String Quartett, op. 45, produces a strikingly artistic effect, where after a full bar’s silence, the viola enters alone on a note unrelated to the previous tonality. Of course the use of a means of this kind obviously depends upon the character and feeling of the music, and its absence in no way implies imperfection, but it is curious to note that neither Schumann, Mendelssohn, nor Brahms introduces it into any of their String Quartetts.[13] [Footnote 13: At the fifty-fifth bar of the finale of Brahms’s A minor Quartett there is a hint of this kind of effect; also at the opening of Schumann’s A major Quartett.] [Illustration: Antonin Dvořák [signature]] [Sidenote: =Haydn’s Quartetts=] The bulk of Haydn’s Quartetts are so well known that any detailed reference to them would be superfluous. Op. 33, No. 3, in C major; op. 74, No. 1, in the same key; and op. 77, No. 2, in F major, may however be named as among the most interesting, and not perhaps so often played as, say, the so-called “Kaiser,” op. 76, No. 3, the op. 64, No. 5, and the op. 76, No. 1, which with some others are so justly held in high esteem wherever this style of music is cultivated. With regard to the slow movement of the “Kaiser,” a set of variations on the Austrian National Anthem, which Haydn is said to have composed because he envied the English their “God Save the King,” Mr. W.H. Hadow, in his book _A Croatian Composer_ (which work may well be read, containing as it does a report of some very interesting investigations), gives a number of instances wherein the germ of symphonic and other of Haydn’s musical themes are traceable to Croatian folk-songs, and among them is this Austrian National Anthem. What Handel did with the works of Steffani and others is pretty well known by musicians, but this less known case is an equally interesting one. [Sidenote: =Haydn’s Kaiser Quartett=]