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Why did Joseph Haydn use the Emperor’s Hymn in the Emperor Quartet?

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Joseph Haydn incorporated the "Emperor’s Hymn" into the second movement of his Emperor Quartet because he had specifically composed the melody to serve as an Austrian national anthem.1

During his tours of London in the early 1790s, Haydn was deeply impressed by the stately nature of the British anthem, "God Save the King." Recognizing that Austria lacked an equivalent patriotic song, he decided the nation deserved something equally impressive. He subsequently crafted the melody for the hymn "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser" ("God Save Emperor Franz"), with lyrics by Lorenz Leopold Haschka, which was first performed in February 1797.1

Haydn completed the Emperor Quartet later that same year, using the elegant hymn as the foundation for a series of variations in its second movement.1