String Quartet No. 14 (Beethoven)
 |
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. (Consider using more specific cleanup instructions.) Please help improve this article if you can. The talk page may contain suggestions. (June 2009) |
The String Quartet No. 14 in C♯ minor, Op. 131, by Ludwig van Beethoven was completed in 1826. (The number traditionally assigned to it is based on the order of its publication; it is actually his fifteenth quartet by order of composition.) About 40 minutes in length, it consists of seven movements to be played without a break, as follows:
- Adagio ma non troppo e molto espressivo
- Allegro molto vivace
- Allegro moderato
- Andante ma non troppo e molto cantabile — Più mosso — Andante moderato e lusinghiero — Adagio — Allegretto — Adagio, ma non troppo e semplice — Allegretto
- Presto
- Adagio quasi un poco andante
- Allegro
This work, which is dedicated to Baron Joseph von Stutterheim, was Beethoven's favourite from the late quartets. He is quoted as remarking to a friend that he would find "a new manner of part-writing and, thank God, less lack of imagination than before"[1]. The work was dedicated to von Stutterheim as a gesture of gratitude for taking his nephew, Karl, into the army after a failed suicide attempt in 1826. Together with the quartets Opp. 130 and 132, it goes beyond anything Beethoven had previously written. (Op. 131 is the conclusion of that trio of great works, written in the order 132, 130 with the Grosse Fuge ending, 131.) It is said that upon listening to a performance of this quartet, Schubert remarked, "After this, what is left for us to write?"[citation needed]. Along with Op. 127, Robert Schumann called these quartets "..the grandeur of which no words can express. They seem to me to stand...on the extreme boundary of all that has hitherto been attained by human art and imagination."[2] The Op. 131 quartet is a monumental feat of integration. Beethoven composes the quartet in six distinct key areas, closing the quartet again in C♯ major. The Finale directly quotes the opening fugue theme in the first movement, prompting Joseph Kerman to note it as a "blatant functional reference to the theme of another movement: this never happens."[citation needed]
Contents |
[edit] Summary of movements
1. Adagio ma non troppo e molto espressivo An intense, poignant fugue, based on the following subject:
Richard Wagner said this movement: "reveals the most melancholy sentiment expressed in music".[3]
2. Allegro molto vivace A delicate dance in 6/8 time in the key of D major, in compact sonata form based on the following folklike theme:
3. Allegro moderato In the spirit of recitativo obbligato following the key of B minor; the modulation from B minor to E major functions as a short introduction to:
4. Andante ma non troppo e molto cantabile — Più mosso — Andante moderato e lusinghiero — Adagio — Allegretto — Adagio, ma non troppo e semplice — Allegretto This, the central movement of the quartet, is a set of 7 variations (6 Complete & 1 Incomplete with Coda) on the following simple theme in A major:
This movement is the apotheosis of the 'Grand Variation' form from Beethoven's late period.
5. Presto In E major, this is a brilliant Scherzo (though in duple rather than triple time), based on the following simple idea: 
6. Adagio quasi un poco andante In G♯ minor, 28 Measures in the form ABB with a Coda; this is a slow, somber introduction to:
7. Allegro The finale is in sonata form and returns to the home key of C♯ minor. The first subject has two main ideas: 
The violent rhythm in this subject is contrasted with the soaring, lyrical second theme:
[edit] TV and movie appearances
A spooked-up rendition of the first movement's opening bars appears repeatedly in the soundtrack to the horror movie Scanners. The second movement is featured early in the film I Heart Huckabees and is erroneously cited in the credits as "Op. 151." The music is also used at the end of the film Welcome to Sarajevo. The sixth movement is featured in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers episode nine, "Why We Fight".
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Steinberg, Michael (1994). Robert Winter, Robert Martin. ed. The Beethoven Quartet Companion. University of California Press. p. 264. ISBN 0-520-08211-7.
- ^ Robert Alexander Schumann, F.R. Ritter tr. ed. (1877). Music and musicians, essays and criticisms. Oxford University Press.; (p. 391)
- ^ Berger, Melvin (2001). Guide to Chamber Music, p. 67, Mineola, NY: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-41879-0
[edit] External links
- String Quartet No. 14: Free scores at the International Music Score Library Project.
- Performance by the Orion String Quartet from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in MP3 format
- PDF and Finale files of the score of the quartet can be downloaded here.
- An account of the relation among Beethoven, his nephew Carl, and the dedicatee Joseph von Stutterheim Further on the circumstances behind the dedication of this quartet.
|
|||||||||||||||||
