13th string quartet (Beethoven)

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Beethoven portrait by Johann Decker from 1824.

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

The quartet, commissioned and dedicated to the Russian Prince Nikolai Borissowitsch Golizyn , an enthusiastic cellist, contained in its original version the “ Great Fugue in B flat major ” as the final movement , which was later published under opus number 133 as an independent work has been.

Emergence

The string quartet was commissioned by the Russian Prince Nikolai Borissowitsch Golitsyn from Saint Petersburg , who ordered three quartets from Beethoven. Beethoven received the commission at a time when he was already wishing to compose for the string quartet genre again. The Quartet op. 130 was thus created in January 1826 as the last of the three quartets commissioned by the Prince; the first two quartets that were composed were 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 had developed so much enthusiasm for the composition of string quartets that after completing the three Golitsyn quartets he composed two more, namely the string quartets No. 14 (C sharp minor) op.131 (July 1826) and No. 16 (F- Major) op. 135 (October 1826), the latter also being Beethoven's last completed composition, as he died a few months after its completion.

According to one of his own notes, Beethoven planned to give his “last quartet” (meaning the last quartet intended for Prince Golitsyn) “with a serious and difficult introduction”. This shows that Beethoven began composing the first movement as well as the finale in order to create a framework for the quartet.

Sentence names

  1. Adagio ma non troppo - Allegro (B flat major)
  2. Presto (B flat minor)
  3. Andante con moto, ma non troppo (D flat major)
  4. Alla danza tedesca. Allegro assai (G major)
  5. Cavatina. Adagio molto espressivo - attacca (E flat major)
  6. Final. Allegro (B flat major)

To the music

The three quartets composed for Prince Golitsyn show a parallel to the “ Rasumowsky Quartets ”. In both cases the middle quartet is in a minor key, while the other two are in major.

First sentence

Like the first movements of the String Quartet No. 14 in C sharp minor, Op. 131 and the String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132 , the movement is based on the four-tone group G sharp-afe. Emil Platen comments on this: “However, to want to deduce from this that it is a matter of a context of meaning between the three quartets, a unit of a higher order, a 'gigantic cycle', which should actually be performed in uninterrupted succession, I think is a mistake . ". Lewis Lockwood pointed out that this theme is similar to that of Fugue No. 4 in c sharp minor from the first volume of Johann Sebastian Bach's “ Well-Tempered Clavier ”.

The first movement has three themes: a figure in sixteenth-note figures, a contrapuntal call of the kind of a fanfare, while the third theme is of the elegiac-lyrical kind.

The movement's character as a sonata movement is only hinted at, as its Allegro is interrupted several times by the adagio that introduces the movement. The movement contains a total of 15 changes from 3/4 time in Adagio to 4/4 time in Allegro. In contrast to the Andante of this movement, the Allegro is indifferent in character, as its motif substance appears inconspicuous and conventional and is only enhanced by the intellectual composition of the movement. The latter can be compared with the first movement of Beethoven's String Quartet No. 9 in C major, Op. 59.3 .

Second sentence

The second movement, a Presto, has the function of a Scherzo. The Scherzo part, which is extremely short with two eight bars, contains a simple four-tone motif in the style of a popular song. This theme is contrasted with a theme from Sforzati .

Third sentence

Despite the tempo designation “Andante”, the third movement does not have the same serious, solemn depth as the Andante movements of the first two Golitsyn quartets, as Beethoven emphasizes with the addition “con moto, ma non troppo”.

The movement, which consists of three parts, combines the variation and sonata movement. As Beethoven said to his friend Karl Holz , who also played the second violinist in the Schuppanzigh Quartet , which was close to Beethoven, this movement is written in the “openwork style”. Karl Holz thinks it was "the distribution of roles" when Beethoven said to him: "You will notice a new way of leading the voice."

In the first part of the movement, a melancholy motif precedes the Scherzando mood that immediately followed. The second part of the movement is in D flat major and is a varied recapitulation of the first part. The third part is a Coda with elements of a carrying and switches between cheerfulness and melancholia. The introductory motif of the movement sounds again and is followed by tritone intervals and small, melancholy seconds before the movement ends cheerfully.

Fourth sentence

The fourth movement was originally intended for the String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132 . It is written in the " German " style, a pre-form of the waltz . The simple, folk mood of the movement is disrupted , for example, by restless dynamics and crescendos with a subitopiano ending. This is also expressed in the coda, which is subject to a process of decay, until the idyll only returns with difficulty at the end of the movement.

Fifth sentence

Cavatine ; Pencil drawing by Hermann Voss , violist of the Melos Quartet , 1985

The fifth movement is a lyrical, expressive and vocal cavatine . Karl Holz reported that this movement (which is one of several pieces of music on the Voyager Golden Record on the Voyager 2 space probe launched in 1977 , which is supposed to inform possibly existing extraterrestrial life forms of the existence of humans) for Beethoven the “crown of all quartets and his favorite piece "was:" He actually composed it amid tears of melancholy, and confessed to me that his own music had never made such an impression on him, and that even feeling back for this piece always cost him new tears ".

As in the previous quartets, Beethoven also used vocal techniques here, as is customary in his late work, in order to achieve a direct and simple expression. This is shown by the fact that the 1st violin remains within the range of the human voice throughout the entire movement.

The movement is divided into three parts: the main part is followed by what Beethoven called a "oppressive" middle part, before the cantabile of the beginning of the movement returns in the repetition of the main part.

The main part consists of two sections, both of which are repeated. The repetition of the first main section, the A section, is much more free than the repetition of the second main section, the B section. The middle part of the movement is recitative and is in pianissimo. Rests and tied notes in the first violin mean that a note and an accompanying triplet only coincide four times. This is followed by the repetition of the main part, the main part recapitulation. In this recapitulation, the A section is repeated almost unchanged. This is followed by a coda that is even more freely worked out than the repetition of the B part in the first main part of the movement.

Sixth sentence

Beethoven published the fugue, which originally formed the quartet's finale, six months after the quartet was composed as “ Great Fugue op. 133 in B flat major ” (for more information on the “Great Fugue” see there). The “Great Fugue” was replaced by a rondo finale in the popular popular style.

The main theme of the exposition is accompanied by simple murky basses. In the course of the exposure, many small Scherzando elements are lined up in isolation. In the development, a cantable A flat major theme breaks into the processing of the main theme. The recapitulation differs from the exposition in some details, e.g. B. the swapped voices. The theme is processed more intensively in the coda than in the development, so that the coda forms the focus of the movement.

effect

In January 1826, the Schuppanzigh Quartet began rehearsing for the premiere, which was scheduled for March 21, 1826. Karl Holz soon reported to the composer: “Everything will be easy, with the exception of the fugue. The cantilene (in the cavatina) is the easiest, apart from the performance, but that's Schuppanzigh's thing. My lord asks not to change anything in the Cavatine ”. After Beethoven reluctantly showed conditional concession in the face of the playful difficulties, Schuppanzigh studied the fugue in detail.

Originally the quartet was intended for sale to the Berlin publisher Adolf Martin Schlesinger , but in January 1826 it went to Mathias Artaria in Vienna for a price of eighty ducats, who six months later received it with parts and score (still with the original joint finale ) first published.

In March the Schuppanzigh Quartet was still having a hard time with the fugue, so a week before the premiere a rehearsal was scheduled under Beethoven's supervision in his apartment: “On Wednesdays at 7 o'clock in the evening, Beethoven's personal quartet will be on the heights with drums and pipes to march and maneuver from Black Spain ”. Karl Holz reported about this rehearsal: “Beethoven sat [...] between Schuppanzigh and me, because the high notes still hit his ear while he could no longer hear the low notes. Beethoven gave the tempos, the ritardandos , etc., and also played us individual passages on the piano. [...] Schuppanzigh sometimes had a tough fight with heavy movements on the 1st violin, about which Beethoven burst into Homeric laughter ”.

At the world premiere, during which, in addition to the quartet, some easier pieces, including A. Beethoven's art song “ Adelaide ”, when heard, only the 2nd and 4th movements of the quartet were successful; they had to be repeated immediately. Karl Holz reports on the annoyed reaction of Beethoven, who was not present at the premiere: “Beethoven was waiting for me in the nearest inn after the performance. I told him that the two [middle] pieces had to be repeated. 'Yes!' He said angrily, these delicacies! Why not the joint? Karl Holz considered Quartet No. 13 to be the most important of the three Golitsyn quartets, whereupon Beethoven replied “Each in its own way!”.

However, the fugue immediately met with unanimous rejection. Accordingly, the Allgemeine Musikische Zeitung wrote :

“The first, third and fifth movements are serious, gloomy, mystical, and sometimes bizarre, harsh and capricious; the second and fourth full of courage, cheerfulness and mischief [...] With stormy applause, the repetition of both sentences was demanded. But Ref. Doesn't dare to interpret the meaning of the fugitive finale: for him it was incomprehensible, like Chinese. "

- Allgemeine Musical Zeitung, 1826

Publisher Mathias Artaria - who has no relationship with Artaria & Comp. stood - had set itself the goal of producing a particularly impressive edition of the quartet with elegantly engraved musical notation and in large format; The engraver was also carefully selected to create the title page. Karl Holz initiated and maintained contact between Beethoven and the publisher and took care of the correction of errors by reading proofreading and playing the quartet several times with his colleagues from the Schuppanzigh Quartet.

At Artaria's suggestion, a piano version of the fugue was also written very early on; this was created by Beethoven after completing the String Quartet No. 14 (C sharp minor) op. 131 , after he disliked the piano version made by the pianist Anton Halm .

Title page of the String Quartet op.130 when it was published in Berlin on June 2, 1827

During this phase, Beethoven saw himself prompted by the negative reaction to the fugue to publish it six months later as “ Grosse Fugue in B flat major ” and to compose a new finale for op. 130. The latter happened during Beethoven's stay on the estate of his brother Johann van Beethoven in Gneixendorf ; The new finale, along with the String Quartet No. 16 (F major) op. 135 , which was to be Beethoven's last complete composition, was the composer's last work before his death. Beethoven was encouraged to recompose the finale by Karl Holz, who said before Beethoven left for Gneixendorf: “You will be finished in an hour”. Even with the new finale, op. 130 would still be “a quartet by Beethoven, and the edition does not cost the publisher so much”; it would also bring "more money".

The Viennese first edition of the string quartet op. 130 (with the new finale) took place on May 10, 1827, shortly after Beethoven's death, by Mathias Artaria together with the "Große Fuge" as op. 133 and its piano arrangement (op. 134). On June 2, 1827, it was first published in Berlin.

With the new finale, the quartet was performed 214 times in the first 50 years after its formation, according to statistics from cardiologist and amateur quartetist Ivan Mahaim . The “Big Fugue”, on the other hand, only saw 14 performances during this period.

The Cavatine is one of several pieces of music 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 extraterrestrial life forms will learn of the existence of humans through the spacecraft.

The quartet's autograph can be found in several places: the first set is kept in the Biblioteka Jagiellońska , the second set in the Library of Congress in Washington, DC , the third set in the Paris Bibliothèque nationale de France , the fourth set in Moravian State Museum of the Music History Institute in Brno , the fifth and sixth movements in turn in the State Library of Prussian Cultural Heritage in Berlin .

literature

  • Ulrich Konrad (Ed.): Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet in B flat major op. 130 • Grande Fugue in B flat major op. 133 . Facsimile of the autograph parts of the score and commentary, Kassel etc. 2019 (= Documenta musicologica II, Volume 55).
  • Matthias Moosdorf : Ludwig van Beethoven. The string quartets . 1st edition. Bärenreiter, 2007, ISBN 978-3-7618-2108-4 .
  • Gerd Indorf: Beethoven's string quartets: cultural-historical aspects and work interpretation . 2nd Edition. Rombach, 2007, ISBN 978-3-7930-9491-3 .
  • Harenberg cultural guide chamber music . Bibliographisches Institut & FA Brockhaus, Mannheim, 2008, ISBN 978-3-411-07093-0
  • Jürgen Heidrich: The string quartets . In: Beethoven-Handbuch , Bärenreiter-Verlag Karl Vötterle, Kassel 2009, ISBN 978-3-476-02153-3 , pp. 173-218
  • Lewis Lockwood : Beethoven: His Music - His Life. Metzler, 2009, ISBN 978-3-476-02231-8 , pp. 344-383
  • Theodor Helm: Beethoven's string quartets. Attempt a technical analysis of these works in relation to their intellectual content . Leipzig 1885, 3rd edition 1921.
  • Ludwig van Beethoven: works. New edition of all works , section VI, volume 5, string quartets III (op. 127–135), ed. from the Beethoven Archive Bonn (J. Schmidt-Görg et al.). Munich / Duisburg 1961 ff.
  • Lev Ginsburg: Ludwig van Beethoven and Nikolai Galitzin . In: Beethoven-Jahrbuch 1959/60 , ed. by Paul Mies and Joseph Schmidt-Gorg, Bonn 1962
  • Ivan Mahaim: Naissance et Renaissance des Derniers Quartuors , 2 volumes, Paris 1964
  • Joseph Kerman: The Beethoven Quartets , New York 1967
  • Ekkehard Kreft: Beethoven's late quartets. Substance and substance processing , Bonn 1969
  • Arno Forchert : Rhythmic Problems in Beethoven's Late String Quartets . In: Report on the international musicological congress Bonn , 1970, Kassel a. a., 1971, pp. 394-396
  • Rudolf Stephan : On Beethoven's last quartets . In: Die Musikforschung , 23rd year 1970, pp. 245–256
  • Emil Platen : A Notation Problem in Beethoven's Late String Quartets . In: Beethoven-Jahrbuch 1971/72 , ed. by Paul Mies and Joseph Schmidt-Görg, Bonn 1975, pp. 147–156
  • Klaus Kropfinger : The divided work. Beethoven's string quartet Op. 130/133 . In: Contributions to Beethoven's chamber music , ed. by Sieghard Brandenburg and Helmut Loos, Munich 1987, pp. 296-335
  • Emil Platen: About Bach, Kuhlau and the thematic-motivic unity of Beethoven's last quartets . In: Contributions to Beethoven's chamber music . Symposion Bonn 1984. Publications of the Beethoven-Haus Bonn. New series, 4th series, volume 10, ed. by Sieghard Brandenburg and Helmut Loos. Munich 1987, pp. 152-164
  • Kurt von Fischer : On the Cavatina from Beethoven's String Quartet op.130 . In: The musical work of art. History. Aesthetics. Theory. Festschrift f. Carl Dahlhaus on his 60th birthday , ed. by Hermann Danuser u. a., Laaber 1988, pp. 493-501
  • Ulrich Siegele: Beethoven. Formal strategies of the late quartets. Music Concepts , ed. by Heinz-Klaus Metzger and Rainer Riehn, issue 67/68, Munich 1990
  • Klaus Kropfinger: String Quartet in B flat major op.130 . In: A. Riethmüller u. a. (Ed.): Beethoven. Interpretations of his works . 2 volumes. 2nd Edition. Laaber, 1996, Volume 2, pp. 299-316
  • Klaus Kropfinger: Beethoven - Under the sign of Janus. Op. 130 ± op. 133. The reluctantly made decision . In: About music in pictures , ed. by R. Bischoff u. a., Volume 1, Cologne-Rheinkassel 1995, pp. 277-323

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Klaus Kropfinger: The split work. Beethoven's string quartet Op. 130/133 . In: Contributions to Beethoven's chamber music , ed. by Sieghard Brandenburg and Helmut Loos, Munich 1987 (pp. 296-335), p. 305
  2. ^ Gerd Indorf: Beethoven's string quartets: Cultural-historical aspects and work interpretation . 2nd Edition. Rombach, 2007, p. 384
  3. ^ Matthias Moosdorf: Ludwig van Beethoven. The string quartets . 1st edition. Bärenreiter, 2007, p. 96
  4. ^ Hans Mersmann : Die Kammermusik , Volume 2: Beethoven , Leipzig 1930, p. 165
  5. ^ Emil Platen : About Bach Kuhlau and the thematic-motivic unity of Beethoven's last quartets . In: Contributions to Beethoven's chamber music , Symposion Bonn 1984 (publications of the Beethoven-Haus Bonn, New Series, 4th series, Volume 10, edited by Sieghard Brandenburg and Helmut Loos), Munich 1987, (pp. 152-164), p 163
  6. ↑ Lewis Lockwood : Beethoven: His Music - His Life , Metzler 2009, p. 371
  7. ^ Matthias Moosdorf: Ludwig van Beethoven. The string quartets . 1st edition. Bärenreiter, 2007, p. 102
  8. ↑ a b c d Wilhelm von Lenz : Beethoven. An art study , 5 volumes, Kassel 1855 (Vol. 1–2), Hamburg (Vol. 3–5), Volume 5, p. 217
  9. ↑ a b Voyager - The Interstellar Mission
  10. ↑ Ludwig van Beethoven: Konversationshefte , ed. by Karl-Heinz Köhler , Grita Herre, Dagmar Beck, u. a., 11 volumes. Leipzig 1968-2001, Volume 8, pp. 245 f.
  11. ↑ Ludwig van Beethoven, Konversationshefte , ed. by Karl-Heinz Köhler, Grita Herre, Dagmar Beck u. a., 11 volumes. Leipzig 1968-2001, Volume 9, p. 103
  12. ^ Wilhelm von Lenz: Beethoven. An art study . 5 volumes. Kassel 1855 (Vol. 1-2), Hamburg (Vol. 3-5), Volume 5, p. 218
  13. ^ Wilhelm von Lenz: Beethoven. An art study , 5 volumes, Kassel 1855 (volumes 1–2), Hamburg (volumes 3–5), volume 5, pp. 218f.
  14. ↑ Allgemeine Musical Zeitung , 28 [1826], p. 310; quoted from concert reports , p. 559 f.
  15. ↑ Alexander Wheelock Thayer : Ludwig van Beethoven's life. , Edited from the original manuscripts in German by Hermann Deiters, revision of the new edition by H. von Deiters (1901) by Hugo Riemann, 5 volumes. Leipzig 1907-1919, Volume 5, p. 405
  16. ↑ a b Ludwig van Beethoven, Konversationshefte , ed. by Karl-Heinz Köhler, Grita Herre, Dagmar Beck u. a., 11 volumes. Leipzig 1968-2001, volume 10, p. 107
  17. ↑ Ivan Mahaim: Naissance et Renaissance des Derniers Quartuors , Vol. I., Paris 1964, p. 206
  18. ^ Jürgen Heidrich: The string quartets . In: Beethoven manual . Bärenreiter-Verlag Karl Vötterle, Kassel 2009, ISBN 978-3-476-02153-3 , p. 206