String Quartet No. 13 (Beethoven)

The String Quartet No. 13 in B flat major, Op 130 is a string quartet by Ludwig van Beethoven.

The " Grosse Fuge in B flat major ", later issued on behalf of the Russian Prince Nikolai Borisovich Golitsyn, an enthusiastic cellist, commissioned and he also devoted quartet contained in its original version as a final sentence which under the opus number 133 as a work in been.

  • 5.1 documents
  • 5.2 Further Reading

Formation

The string quartet was commissioned by the Russian Prince Nikolai Borisovich Golitsyn from St. Petersburg, ordered three quartets of Beethoven. The order reached Beethoven in a time in which he already harbored the desire to compose again for the genre of the string quartet. So the quartet op 130 was created in January 1826 as the last of the three given by the Prince commissioned quartets; the two quartets were first incurred the String Quartet No. 12 in E flat major, Op 127 ( January 1825 ) and the String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op 132 (July 1825).

Beethoven so much zeal for the composition of string quartets had developed that he composed two more after completion of the three Golitsyn quartets, namely the String Quartets No. 14 ( C sharp minor ), Op 131 (July 1826) and No. 16 (F- major), Op 135 ( October 1826 ), the latter at the same time Beethoven's last completed composition was because he died a few months after completion.

According to his own note Beethoven planned " last quartet " (meaning the last for the prince Golitsyn certain Quartet) ' to be provided with a ernsthaftigen and stiff Introduction ". This proves that Beethoven began composing the first movement and the finale in order to provide a framework for the quartet.

Set names

About the Music

The three composed for Prince Golitsyn quartets have a parallel to the " Razumovsky Quartets " on. In both cases, is the central quartet in a minor key, while the other two are in the major.

First Set

The sentence, as the first sentences of the String Quartet No. 14 in C sharp minor, Op 131 and the String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op 132 Viertongruppe gis afe basis. Emil Platen says this: " However, this to want to infer that it was a sense of context, the three quartets, one unit of a higher order, a ' gigantic cycle ' who then also actually should be listed in an unbroken sequence, I think is missed. . " Lewis Lockwood pointed out that this issue of the Fugue No. 4 in C sharp minor is similar to the first volume of Johann Sebastian Bach's "Well -Tempered Clavier ".

The first set includes three themes: A figure in sixteenth figurations, a contrapuntal reputation kind of fanfare, while the third theme of elegiac and lyrical nature.

The sonata character of the movement is only hinted at, as its Allegro is interrupted several times by the set of the initial Adagio. The set contains a total of 15 changes from 3/4-time of the Adagio for 4/4-time of the Allegro. Unlike the Andante of this sentence, the Allegro of indifferent character, since his motive substance appears unimpressive and conventional and is only enhanced by the intellectual set design. The latter can be with the first movement of Beethoven's String Quartet No. 9 in C major, Op 59.3 compare.

Second sentence

The second movement, Presto, has the function of a scherzo. The eight bars twice with extremely short scherzo section contains a simple, four-note motif of the type of streets Hauer. This topic is compared to an existing topic from sforzati.

Third set

Despite the tempo marking " Andante ", the third sentence is not the same serious, solemn depth as the Andante - sets of the first two Golitsyn quartets, Beethoven accented with the tempo marking " scherzoso ".

The three piece set combines variations and sonata. Like Beethoven to his friend Karl Holz, who played in related Schuppanzigh Beethoven Quartet as second violinist, uttered this phrase in " broken style " is written. Karl Holz says it is " the distribution of roles meant ," as Beethoven told him. "They are a new type of voice leading note "

In the first part of the sentence a melancholy motif directly after onset scherzando mood precedes. The second part of the sentence is in D major and is a varied reprise of the first part. The third part is a coda with elements of implementation and alternates between joy and melancholy. The introductory motif of the sentence is heard again and is followed by tritone intervals and little melancholy seconds before the movement ends cheerful.

Fourth proposition

The fourth set was originally intended for the String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op 132. He is in the style of the " Germans ", a forerunner of the waltz written. The simple folk mood of the sentence is disturbed, for example by a restless dynamics and crescendos with a Subitopiano end. This is also reflected in the disintegration process underlying coda, up until the end of the sentence returns the idyll tedious.

Fifth set

The fifth movement is a lyrical, expressive and vocal scale cavatina. Karl Holz reported that this sentence ( which is one of several pieces of music on the Voyager Golden Record in 1977 launched Voyager 2 spacecraft, intended to inform the possibly existing alien life forms of the existence of humans) for Beethoven the " crown of all quartet sets and his favorite song, " was :" He has komponirt real, with tears of sorrow, and confessed to me that never his own music had produced such an impression on him, and that even the back feeling of this piece, it would cost more new tears. "

As in the previous quartets, Beethoven sat here too, as in his later works, common vocal techniques to achieve a direct and simple expression. This is reflected in the fact that the first violin is the whole set via within the tonal range of the human voice.

The set is divided into three parts: the main part of one, as Beethoven called it, " beklemmten " midsection followed before returning to the repetition of the main part of the Cantabile sentence beginning again.

The main part consists of two sections, both of which are repeated. Here, the repetition of the first main body portion, the A section, much more freely than the repetition of the second main body portion, the B- part. The central part of the sentence is recitative and is in pianissimo. Breaks and tied notes in the first violin lead to only four times a note and a Begleittriole coincide. It is followed by the repetition of the main part, the main part reprise. In this reprise of the A section is repeated almost unchanged. It is followed by a coda, which is still being worked freer than the repetition of the B section in the first main part of the sentence.

Sixth set

Originally the finale of the quartet forming joint Beethoven published six months after the composition of the quartet as " Grosse Fuge in B flat major, Op 133 " ( for further information on the " Grosse Fuge ," qv). Was replaced the " Grosse Fuge " by a rondo finale in folksy Gassenhauer character.

Having a popular song -style main theme of the exposition is accompanied by simple Murkybässen. During the exposure, many small Scherzando elements are isolated strung together. In the implementation breaks in the middle of the processing of the main theme in a cantabile flat major theme. The recapitulation is different from the exposure in some details, such as the reversed votes. In the coda, the subject will be more intense than in the implementation process so that the coda is the focus of the sentence.

Effect

In January 1826 Schuppanzigh Quartet rehearsing for the scheduled on March 21, 1826 premiere began. Soon Karl Holz reported to the composer: "It will all go easy, except for the joint. The Cantilene ( in the Cavatina ) is the lightest, apart from lectures, but that's Schuppanzigh thing. My lord asked not to change anything in the cavatina ". After Beethoven, given the playful difficulties showed reluctantly contingent responsiveness, Schuppanzigh dealt in detail with the joint.

Originally, the quartet for sale to the Berlin publisher Adolf Martin Schlesinger determined, however, went in the course of January 1826 for a price of eighty ducats to Mathias Artaria in Vienna, which it half a year later with voices and score (still with the original joints Finale ) first published.

In March, the Schuppanzigh Quartet did still hard with the joint, so that a week before the premiere, a sample was prepared under Beethoven's supervision in his apartment, " Wednesdays at 7 clock in the evening is Beethoven's body quartet with drums and fifes in the heights Irish parade of black and Spain manoeuvriren ". About this sample reported Karl Holz, " Beethoven sat [ ... ] between Schuppanzigh and me, for the high notes even met his ear while he did not hear the deep. Beethoven gave the tempos at which ritardando, etc., played us well as individual sites on the piano before. [ ... ] Schuppanzigh sometimes had a hard fight with heavy steps, the first violin, what Beethoven broke into a Homeric laughter. "

At the premiere, during the next to the quartet also some lighter pieces, and A. Beethoven's art song "Adelaide", rang out, were only the second and the fourth movement of the quartet successfully; they had to be repeated once. Karl Holz reported by the angry reaction of Beethoven not present at the premiere: " Beethoven was waiting for me after the performance at the nearest inn. I told him that the two [ central ] pieces must be repeated. 'Yes! ' He then said angrily, these goodies! Why not the fugue? '". Karl Holz held the Quartet No. 13 for the most important of the three Golitsyn quartets, after which Beethoven replied, " Each in its own way ,".

The gap, however, came immediately to unanimous rejection. Accordingly, the " General Musical Zeitung" wrote:

" The first, third and fifth movements are serious, somber, mystical, probably sometimes bizarre brusque and capricious; the fourth zweyte and full of mischief, joy and playfulness [ ... ] With thunderous applause repetition beyder sets were required. But the meaning of the fugal finale dares not to interpret Ref: For him it was incomprehensible, like Chinese "

Mathias Artaria Publishers - of no relation to the company Artaria & Comp. was - it had set itself the goal of producing a particularly impressive output of the quartet with elegant gestochenem musical text and in large format; also for the creation of the title page of the engraver has been carefully designed. Karl Holz initiated and maintained contact between Beethoven and the publisher and took care of the error correction, in which he was reading and correcting the quartet together with his colleagues from the Schuppanzigh quartet played several times.

Just came quite early on Artaria's suggestion, a piano version of the Fugue; this was Beethoven's String Quartet No. 14 after the completion of ( C sharp minor ) op 131 created after he had displeased the custom built by pianist Anton Halm piano version.

In this phase, Beethoven saw by the negative reaction to the joint causes these separately to publish half a year later " Grosse Fuge in B flat major " and compose a new finale for Opus 130. The latter happened during Beethoven's stay at the estate of his brother Johann van Beethoven in Gneixendorf; the new final was next to the String Quartet No. 16 ( F major ), Op 135, which should be Beethoven's last complete composition, the last work of the composer before his death. Was encouraged to re-composing of the finale of Beethoven Karl Holz, who said even before Beethoven's departure to Gneixendorf: " In an hour, you're done ." Also with the new finale would be op 130 still " a quartet of Beethoven, and the publisher does not cost the support so much "; besides, it would " bring more money ."

The first edition of the Vienna String Quartet, op 130 ( with the new final ) was on 10 May 1827 shortly after Beethoven's death, by Mathias Artaria in common with the " Grosse Fuge ," Op 133 as well as their piano accompaniment (Op. 134). On 2 June 1827 Initial publication was followed in Berlin.

With the new finale, the quartet was performed in the first 50 years after its creation 214mal as a statistic of cardiologists and Amateurquartettisten Ivan Mahaim revealed. The "Great Fugue" on the other hand experienced in this period only 14 performances.

The cavatina is one of several songs that were recorded on the Voyager Golden Record. The Voyager Golden Record was attached to the Voyager 2 spacecraft launched in 1977 in the hope that one day find alien life forms by the spacecraft of the existence of the people.

The autograph of the quartet is located at several locations distributed: The first set is preserved in the Biblioteka Jagiellońska, the second sentence in the Library of Congress in Washington, the third sentence in the Paris Bibliothèque nationale de France, the fourth set at the Moravian Museum of Music Historical Institute in Brno, the fifth and sixth set turn in the Prussian State Library cultural Heritage in Berlin.

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