16th string quartet (Beethoven)

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Beethoven portrait by Johann Decker from 1824.

The string quartet No. 16 in F major op. 135 is a string quartet by Ludwig van Beethoven . It is the last completed work by the composer.

Emergence

Anonymous miniature of Beethoven's nephew Karl van Beethoven .
Commemorative plaque for the 16th string quartet at Schloss Wasserhof in Gneixendorf

Beethoven began with the first sketches for the quartet in July 1826; this work was overshadowed by the attempted suicide of his nephew Karl on August 6, 1826. On September 28, 1826, Beethoven traveled to his brother Johann's estate, Schloss Wasserhof in Gneixendorf , and completed the quartet there. Beethoven's decision to comply with his nephew's wishes and let him join the military contributed to the fact that Beethoven was able to concentrate more relaxed on completing the quartet. Work on the quartet was finished on October 13th. On October 30th, Beethoven sent a copy of the quartet, which he had made by hand for lack of a copyist , to his publisher Maurice Schlesinger in Paris. This already contained the first changes.

Beethoven made further changes in the autograph . However, due to Beethoven's illness, from which the composer finally died, these could no longer be implemented in the first print version.

The quartet is dedicated to the wealthy Viennese cloth merchant Johann Nepomuk Wolfmayer, a decades-long admirer of Beethoven. Wolfmayer had supported Beethoven financially on several occasions and, according to Anton Felix Schindler , Beethoven's secretary and one of his later biographers, was one of "the quietest but most supportive of our master's patrons."

After completing op. 135, Beethoven spent a month recomposing the finale for his string quartet No. 13 in B flat major, op. 130 . He also had plans for a quintet (commissioned by publisher Anton Diabelli ) and a 10th symphony; however, both did not get beyond a fragmentary stage.

Sentence names

  1. Allegretto (F major)
  2. Vivace (F major)
  3. Assai lento, cantante e tranquillo (D flat major)
  4. The difficult decision: Grave, ma non troppo tratto (Must it be?) - Allegro (It must be!) - Grave, ma non troppo tratto - Allegro (F minor - F major)

To the music

Obviously Beethoven wanted to compose a three-movement quartet, but probably wrote a quartet in four movements at the request of his publisher Schlesinger. In 1859, Schlesinger quoted a letter from Beethoven that has since disappeared from memory: “You see, what an unhappy person I am, not only that it was difficult to write because I was thinking of something much bigger, and only it wrote because I promised you and I needed money and that it was tough on me you can decipher from the 'It must be' ”.

First sentence

The main theme of the first movement, which is in sonata form , sounds on the viola and then develops further. The sentence is characterized by “ openwork work ” so that the individual instruments play the three motif parts presented in the exposition to each other , which the music theorist Theodor W. Adorno described as “a dissociation of the various layers of material from one another”.

In the exposition there is no variation of the main theme, but a new combination of its motif parts. The transition to the sub-topic has a higher weight than the actual sub-topic. The sentence structure in the exposition coda developed the greatest density up to that point; however, their repetition, which is thus obvious, does not occur.

In the course of the implementation , the motifs are condensed, with the seemingly unimportant motifs in the foreground.

In the recapitulation - not in the sense of “return”, but in the sense of a further development of the sonata form - the condensation is successively continued, with the least developed motifs of the exposition until the condensation finally reaches its climax in the coda .

For the musicologist Theodor Helm, the first movement represented a “delightful, humorous tone play” and for Paul Bekker “a conflict between serious and happy thoughts”. Wulf Konold sees the movement, especially in comparison to Beethoven's previous string quartet No. 14 (c sharp minor) op. 131 , an “» emotional drop height «” and a “strange brittleness, even intangible expression”. Adorno comes to the following conclusion: “Touched by death, the masterful hand releases the masses of material that it previously formed; the cracks and cracks in it, testimony to the ego's finite powerlessness from being, are her last work "

Second sentence

Hugo Riemann suspected that it was the second movement that Beethoven subsequently composed, because it was "difficult to connect psychologically" with the "predominantly humorous character of the work". The musicologist Gerd Indorf considers this unlikely, since without this movement the quartet would consist solely of F major movements and Beethoven would probably not have written any movements for the quartet without contrasting keys.

In the second movement the simple melody is provided with polyrhythmic elements. The trio's double beat motif seems inconspicuous at first, until it sounds like a crescendo and the lower instruments cling to it for 51 bars. In the first violin there are jumps in a range of up to two octaves . Hugo Riemann wrote about this dance of the violin that the "tonal effect" was "not what Beethoven probably imagined":

“The first violin cannot sufficiently assert itself against the other three instruments, especially since the entire passage ff is required; we miss a stronger cast of the voice. It is one of the few cases in which Beethoven was mistaken about the effect due to his hearing loss. "

- Alexander Wheelock Thayer

and thus places himself in the ranks of those who blamed Beethoven's deafness for the difficult intelligibility of Beethoven's late works.

After 33 bars of fortissimo, a diminuendo introduces the recapitulation until the six-bar coda ends the movement with a subito-forte final chord.

Third sentence

For the third movement, which flows in clarified calm, Beethoven noted on a sketch sheet “Sweet calm song or peace song”. There are no changes to the theme in melody, key, tempo or rhythm; instead, the theme is circled by the four variations of the movement.

The movement is introduced by a D flat major chord; the cantable theme contains two half-movements in a total of eight bars. All instruments play it in the lower register. The core of the theme is neither its melody nor its rhythm, but its harmonic structure.

The first variation looks like a further development of the theme; its harmony remains. The violin rises an octave to the middle register, followed by the other instruments.

The second variation loses its harmonic substance and threatens to stand still; a doubling of the dynamic changes reinforces the minor character of the variation.

In the third variation in D flat major, the theme sounds almost unchanged in the cello. The viola follows the theme at a third interval , while in the first violin a canon develops first at one bar and then at half a bar.

In the fourth variation, individual figures can be heard in the middle part, while the cello increases the rhythm of the movement with octave figures.

In the coda the violin rises to the four-bowed b, until the movement ends in a D flat major chord like the one at the beginning of the movement.

Fourth sentence

The F minor introduction of the fourth movement lets the question “Must it be?” (Minor motif) sound in the notes GE-As; this question is answered by an F major Allegro in the notes ACG and GBF ("It must be! It must be!") (major motif). The F minor severity of the introduction is intended here as a parody.

The exposition of the movement consists of one main theme complex of the major theme. The side theme is similar to the major motif. The implementation focuses less on variations of the theme motif, but on new combinations of melodic elements. The recapitulation begins with a “dolce”, leaving the drama of the development behind. This form of serenity goes so far that Beethoven lets the players decide (“al suo piacere”) whether the development and recapitulation should be repeated. A minor tuning briefly penetrates the coda until the major motif ends the movement almost like a dance.

Anton Schindler had claimed in his Beethoven biography that the additions “Must it be?” And “It must be!” Came from a maternity allowance demanded by Beethoven's housekeeper. For this purpose, Schindler even forged a page of a conversation notebook in about 1840, which is dated December 11 or 12, 1826: “The old woman needs her maternity allowance again”. But Barbara Holzmann, who was meant by “the old woman”, did not work for Beethoven again until December 20, 1826 at the earliest. However, the following connection has been passed down from Beethoven's personal friend Karl Holz , the second violinist of the Schuppanzigh Quartet , who is close to Beethoven: The wealthy music lover Ignaz Dempscher wanted Beethoven's string quartet No. 13 in B flat major op.130 to be performed in his own house, whereupon Beethoven von Dempscher demanded compensation of 50  florins for Ignaz Schuppanzigh , the leader of the Schuppanzigh Quartet. Dempscher replied with a resigned “If it has to be!”, Whereupon Beethoven wrote the canon WoO196 with the title “It must be, yes, yes, yes, take the bag out! Out, out, it has to be! ”Wrote. The canon was written close to the quartet, but at most a few months before.

In contrast, the origin of the title section “the difficult decision” has not been clearly established. The explanations of the research range from a joke to a difficult completion of the quartet under the impression of the suicide attempt of the nephew Karl and by Beethoven's poor health. The latter assumption is based on the letter quoted by Schlesinger from his memory. Due to the factual errors in Schlesinger's rendering of the letter, this assumption is considered improbable.

effect

In August 1827, a few months after Beethoven's death, Maurice Schlesinger published the quartet's edition of parts in Paris; In September it was published in Berlin together with the score by Adolf Martin Schlesinger .

The first performance took place on March 23, 1828 in a memorial concert in honor of Beethoven, probably under the direction of Joseph Linke, the cellist of the Schuppanzigh Quartet.

In the following year Adolf Bernhard Marx wrote in the Allgemeine musical newspaper :

“Beethoven's newest quartets, and especially the one mentioned here, are now the most important, but at the same time the most difficult task for all good quartet clubs. The sighs and grumbling of the few, who do not even want to understand Beethoven, fade away more and more to the exclamation of general admiration, and it is interesting to hear how even the Parisian public turns with admiration and admiration for the most profound German composer - Of course, showing his interest with much more emphasis and enthusiasm than the more withdrawn German. "

- Adolf Bernhard Marx : General musical newspaper, 1829

In the history of reception, many reviewers rated the quartet as backward-looking and criticized a lack of complexity. Paul Bekker wrote in 1911: "There is a lack of strong mental tension, there is a lack of profound and disturbing excitement, problems and questions". Wulf Konold called the phenomenon a “clear reduction in the dimension of the claim” and thought he recognized “an almost classical homage to the two models Haydn and Mozart ”. Joseph Kerman argued in a similar direction when he wrote in 1967: "[...] the first movement of this quartet is his most successful evocation of the style of Haydn and Mozart". Also in the direction of the first sentence, Hans Mersmann wrote that “there are no more problems to be solved. Joy of playing, pure musicianship break through [...]. The theme is relaxed play. It points back to an earlier creative area of ​​Beethoven: to the atmosphere of improvisation and social music, to the attitude of the › Complimenting Quartet ‹ of Opus 18 ”and cites the first two bars of Op. 135 as evidence the similarity of its first movement with that of Beethoven's String Quartet No. 2 in G major Op. 18 No. 2 only relates to the rhythm and two-bar formations.

In contrast, Sieghard Brandenburg said : "But where is there actually a model in Haydn (or in the young Beethoven himself) even for a movement of op. 135?"

Parts of the autograph are still preserved; they are in the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn (first movement), in the Musée de Mariemont (third movement) and in the Berlin State Library (fourth movement).

literature

  • 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 Culture Guide Chamber Music , Bibliographisches Institut & FA Brockhaus, Mannheim 2008, ISBN 978-3-411-07093-0
  • Jürgen Heidrich: The string quartets . In: Beethoven manual . 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, 2nd 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.
  • 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: Paul Mies, Joseph Schmidt-Görg (eds.): Beethoven-Jahrbuch 1971/72 . Bonn 1975, pp. 147-156
  • Kurt von Fischer : The hard decision. An interpretation study for Beethoven's string quartet op.135 . In: Contributions to musicology , 18th year 1976, pp. 117–121
  • Emil Platen: About Bach, Kuhlau and the thematic-motivic unity of Beethoven's last quartets . In: Sieghard Brandenburg, Helmut Loos (Hrsg.): Contributions to Beethoven's chamber music. Symposion Bonn 1984. Publications of the Beethoven-Haus Bonn. New series, 4th series, volume 10. Munich 1987, pp. 152-164
  • Ulrich Siegele: Beethoven. Formal strategies of the late quartets . In: Heinz-Klaus Metzger, Rainer Riehn (ed.): Musik-Konzept , Heft 67/68, Munich 1990
  • Friedhelm Krummacher : String Quartet in F major op.135 . In: A. Riethmüller u. a. (Ed.): Beethoven. Interpretations of his works . 2 volumes. 2nd Edition. Laaber, 1996, Volume 2, pp. 347-364

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Anton Felix Schindler : Ludwig van Beethoven . 2 volumes. Münster 1840, 2nd edition 1860, p. 142
  2. ↑ Martin Staehelin : Another Approach to Beethoven's last String Quartet Oeuvre. The Unfinished String Quintet of 1826/27 . In: Christoph Wolff (Ed.): The String Quartets of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven . Cambridge MA 1980, pp. 302-328
  3. ↑ Ludwig van Beethoven: Konversationshefte , ed. by Karl-Heinz Köhler , Grita Herre, Dagmar Beck, u. a. 11 volumes. Leipzig 1968-2001, Volume 10, p. 185
  4. ↑ a b Georg Kinsky, Hans Halm: The work of Beethoven. Thematic-bibliographical index of all his completed compositions . Munich 1955, p. 409
  5. ^ Gerd Indorf: Beethoven's string quartets: Cultural-historical aspects and work interpretation . 2nd Edition. Rombach, 2007, p. 480
  6. ^ Theodor W. Adorno : Beethoven. Legacy writings. , Dept. I, Volume 1. Frankfurt a. M. 1993, p. 271
  7. ^ Theodor Helm: Beethoven's string quartets. Attempt a technical analysis of these works in relation to their intellectual content . Leipzig 1885, 2nd edition 1921, p. 296
  8. ^ Paul Bekker: Beethoven . Berlin / Leipzig 1911, 2nd edition 1912, p. 555
  9. ↑ a b Wulf Konold : The String Quartet. From the beginning to Franz Schubert . Wilhelmshaven 1980, p. 161
  10. ^ Theodor W. Adorno: Beethoven. Legacy writings. , Dept. I, Volume 1. Frankfurt a. M. 1993, p. 183
  11. ↑ a b Alexander Wheelock Thayer : Ludwig van Beethoven's life in 5 volumes, 5 volumes in German edited by Hermann Deiters, revised by Hugo Riemann. 1866 ff., Reprint Hildesheim-New York 1970, volume 5, p. 403
  12. ^ Gerd Indorf, Beethoven's string quartets, Freiburg / Breisgau, 2007, p. 487
  13. ↑ a b Alexander Wheelock Thayer: Ludwig van Beethoven's life in 5 volumes, 5 volumes in German edited by Hermann Deiters, revised by Hugo Riemann, 1866 ff., Reprint Hildesheim / New York 1970, volume 5, p. 402 f.
  14. ↑ Alexander Wheelock Thayer: Ludwig van Beethoven's life in 5 volumes. Volume 5, p. 402 f.
  15. ↑ Ludwig van Beethoven: Konversationshefte , ed. by Karl-Heinz Köhler, Grita Herre, Dagmar Beck, u. a., 11 volumes. Leipzig 1968-2001, Volume 10, p. 319
  16. ^ Wilhelm von Lenz : Beethoven. An art study . 5 volumes (Vol. 1–2 Kassel 1855, Vol. 3–5 Hamburg 1860). Volume 5, pp. 268f.
  17. ↑ Ludwig van Beethoven: Konversationshefte , ed. by Karl-Heinz Köhler, Grita Herre, Dagmar Beck, u. a., 11 volumes. Leipzig 1968–2001, volume 10, p. 353, note 215
  18. ^ Gerd Indorf: Beethoven's string quartets: Cultural-historical aspects and work interpretation . 2nd Edition. Rombach, 2007, p. 493 f.
  19. ↑ Lewis Lockwood : Beethoven: His Music - His Life . Metzler 2009, p. 374 ff.
  20. ↑ Lewis Lockwood : Beethoven: His Music - His Life , Metzler 2009, p. 376
  21. ↑ Anderson: The Letters of Beethoven , translated and edited. by Emily Anderson, 3 volumes. London 1961, Volume 3, p. 1318, Note 4
  22. ^ Paul Bekker : Beethoven . Berlin / Leipzig 1911, 2nd edition 1912, p. 555
  23. ↑ a b Wulf Konold: The String Quartet. From the beginning to Franz Schubert , Wilhelmshaven 1980, p. 159
  24. ^ Joseph Kerman: The Beethoven Quartets . New York 1967, p. 354
  25. ^ Hans Mersmann : Die Kammermusik , Volume 2: Beethoven , Leipzig 1930, p. 183
  26. ^ Gerd Indorf: Beethoven's string quartets: Cultural-historical aspects and work interpretation . 2nd Edition. Rombach, 2007, p. 482
  27. ^ Sieghard Brandenburg : The sources on the genesis of Beethoven's string quartet in E flat major Op. 127 . In: Martin Staehelin (Ed.): Beethoven-Jahrbuch 10 , 1978/1981. Bonn 1983, pp. 221-276, here p. 227
  28. ^ Jürgen Heidrich: The string quartets . In: Beethoven manual . Bärenreiter-Verlag Karl Vötterle, Kassel 2009, ISBN 978-3-476-02153-3 , p. 215