Describe the Stylistic Features of Haydn's Joke Quartet Which Show That It Was Composed In The Classical Period

There are a lot of features within this piece that show that it was composed in the Classical period, however the biggest features is that it is a string quartet.
The structure of the piece is in Rondo form with each section being in a rounded binary form. Rondo form is a very typical type of structure for a classical piece. Within each section there is a lot of periodic phrasing which is a very common feature within classical music. Periodic phrasing is where parts of the music are played in either 4, 8 or 16 bar phrases.
The harmony of this piece is has features of the classical period such as slow harmonic rhythms, this is the rate at which a chord changes within a piece. In this piece the chord changes are very slow. The piece also has some chromatic harmony but only very little. Chromatic harmony is where there is chromaticism between 2 chords. The tonality of the piece is mainly diatonic, it uses pedals to establish the key. A pedal is a long held note that is usually played on either the tonic or the dominant and is often seen in the bass part. The piece modulates from Eb major to close keys such as Ab Major and F minor. There are regular cadences through out the piece.
The texture of the piece is melody led homophony which is very common in classical music as it is simple. Also in the melody there is some melodic chromaticism e.g A natural at bar 11.
To conclude this piece contains many features that prove that is has been composed in the classical period, from the genre of the piece being a string quartet to all the harmonic devices and the