Chamber Music: An Essential History

4. The Chamber Music of Beethoven

four The Chamber Music of Beethoven The most important chamber works by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770– 1827) are his string quartets. His earliest, begun in 1798, eventually became the set of six string Quartets, Op. 18. His middle period quartets are the three Razumovsky Quartets, Op. 59, the Harp Quartet, Op. 74, and the Quartetto serioso, Op. 95. The late quartets include Opp. 127, 132, 130, 131, and 135. Along with these sixteen quartets, we possess the Grosse Fuge (grand fugue) for string quartet, Op. 133, which was originally the ‹nale of Op. 130.1 the early quartets Beethoven dedicated his six quartets, Op. 18, to Joseph Franz Maximilian Prince of Lobkowitz. They were composed between 1798 and 1800. The published order of these quartets (i.e., F major, G major, D major, C minor , A major, B-›at major) does not re›ect the chronology of their composition . Beethoven commented about the edition published by Tranquillo Mollo in 1801: He wrote to Franz Anton Hoffmeister that Mollo’s edition was “full of mistakes and errata—on a large scale and on a small scale. They swarm like little ‹shes in water, that is to say, ad in‹nitum. . . . My skin is full of pricks and scratches—thanks to the beautiful edition of my Quartets .”2 Unfortunately, the autograph manuscripts of these quartets have all been lost. The Op. 18 quartets are conservative: All are in four movements with 62 fast outer movements. Sonata form movements are conventional, as is Beethoven’s inclusion of six quartets in the set. The melodic style relies on terse motifs of the galant sort, and the principal themes are often standard ornamental ‹gures. The turn ‹gure is the fundamental melodic idea in the ‹rst movement of the F-major Quartet, Op. 18, No. 1, and it forms the basis of both the opening theme and the secondary theme. The full quartet plays this motif in unison at the opening, but in the secondary key area, it is stated in reduced note values (i.e., diminution), and it forms the basis of a dialogue between the outer voices. Though the quartet exhibits an unprecedented singularity in its melodic continuity, the motivic transformations are always so ingenious that listeners hardly notice the movement’s monothematic design . Similar thematic unity can be seen in the ‹rst movement of the Gmajor Quartet, Op. 18, No. 2, which also uses a typical ornamental ›ourish as its main theme. Beethoven’s ‹rst set of variations to appear within the context of a string quartet occurs in the Andante cantabile of the A-major String Quartet, Op. 18, No. 5. The movement is positioned in third place following a Minuet and trio in the principal tonality of A major. All ‹ve variations are in the subdominant , D major. These are strict variations in which the original theme is preserved in its essentials. The theme is remarkable for its syncopations and melodic retardations that make the metrical shape and harmonic progress somewhat confusing upon ‹rst hearing. Phrase endings are obscured by tied values, and weak-beat cadences delay arrivals at pivotal harmonies where these are expected. From this theme, Beethoven was able to elicit a wide range of emotions. In the ‹rst variation, he develops the tune in imitative counterpoint. The ‹rst violin dominates, as in quatuor brillant texture , in the second variation. The third is devoted to the lower strings, which play the tune and fragmented motifs derived from it beneath a repeated ‹gure in the ‹rst violin. The ostinato pattern of the ‹rst violin gives way in the fourth variation to an essentially harmonic treatment of the melody. Chromatic alterations within secondary dominants produce striking harmonic shifts. The ‹fth variation is a raucous, military march reminiscent of some eighteenth-century patriotic celebration. The march, which is the ‹nal numbered variation, leads to a sixth, unnumbered variation that is free and ‹gural. Presumably, Beethoven eschewed the assignment of a number for this variation because of its structural function as a coda. Of the twenty-four movements in Op. 18, the ‹nale of the B-›at-major String Quartet, Op. 18, No. 6, is the most bizarre and original. Beethoven The Chamber Music of Beethoven • 63 gave this movement the subtitle La malinconia. He also wrote the instruction that Questa pezzo si deve trattare colla piu gran delicatezza (This piece should be rendered with the greatest delicacy). The harmonic idiom...