3rd string quartet (Beethoven)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Beethoven portrait by Carl Traugott Riedel from 1801
Franz Joseph Maximilian von Lobkowitz, dedicatee of the Quartets op. 18, on an oil painting by Friedrich Oelenhainz

The String Quartet No. 3 in D major op.18.3 is a string quartet by Ludwig van Beethoven .

Emergence

It was written from autumn 1798 to January 1799 and - contrary to its numbering as number 3 - as the first of the six string quartets op. 18. The numbering in the opus number corresponds to the order in which the quartets were printed. Although the order in which the quartets op. 18 were composed is not clearly certain, since the autographs have been lost, it can be assumed from the sketchbooks.

The quartet was published in 1801. Prince Franz Joseph Maximilian von Lobkowitz is the commissioner and dedicatee of this as well as the other quartets op. 18 .

Sentence names

  1. Allegro (D major)
  2. Andante con moto (B flat major)
  3. Allegro (D major)
  4. Presto (D major)

To the music

First sentence

The main lyric theme in the exposition of the first movement is determined by sevenths . Its melody in the first violin is reminiscent of the D major string quartet (KV 575) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart . The secondary theme contrasts with syncope and sforzati . In performing variations lead of the main theme and other syncope and sforzati to six-part triplets . In the recapitulation, the seventh dominates again, before the movement ends in powerful eighth notes.

Second sentence

The cantable main theme of the second movement consists of four tones, which are repeated three times - each in a higher pitch. It is contrasted with a cheerful secondary theme. In this, the instruments dance around in a canonical way as well as around each other in the pauses. The recapitulation is determined by sixteenths underlaid with sforzati, before this movement ends in the coda in increasingly weaker pauses.

Third sentence

In a departure from tradition, Beethoven no longer calls the third movement a “Scherzo”, but only neutrally with the tempo indication “Allegro”, which in its song-like nature is based on the first two movements. The middle part of this movement in minor (titled "Minore") is marked by eighth runs.

Fourth sentence

From Beethoven's sketches it can be seen that the composer had originally planned a different finale for the fourth movement. The version that finally found its way into the quartet as the final movement consists in the exposition of a tarantella dance in six-eighth time, which cannot be slowed down by the somewhat calmer secondary theme. In the development, two instruments play the theme motif against a third in a constantly new combination. In the coda , the movement comes to a surprising end in a pianissimo .

literature

Continuing

  • 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 3 (op. 18, 1–6, first version of op. 18,1 and string quartet version of the piano sonata op. 14), ed. from the Beethoven Archive Bonn (J. Schmidt-Görg et al.). Munich / Duisburg 1961 ff.
  • Joseph Kerman: The Beethoven Quartets . New York 1967
  • Boris Schwarz: Beethoven's op.18 and Haydn's string quartets . In: Report on the international musicological congress . Bonn 1970, Kassel a. a. 1971, pp. 75-79
  • Sieghard Brandenburg : Beethoven's string quartets op.18 . In: Sighard Brandenburg, Martella Gutiérrez-Denhoff (Hrsg.): Beethoven and Böhmen . Bonn 1988, pp. 259-302
  • Herbert Schneider: 6 string quartets in F major, G major, D major, C minor, A major and B major op.18 . In: A. Riethmüller u. a. (Ed.): Beethoven. Interpretations of his works . 2 volumes. 2nd Edition. Laaber, 1996, Volume 2, pp. 133-150
  • Marianne Danckwardt: On the string quartets op. 18 by Ludwig van Beethoven . In: Franz Krautwurst (ed.): New musicological yearbook . 6th year, 1997, pp. 121-161

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gerd Indorf: Beethoven's string quartets: Cultural-historical aspects and work interpretation . 2nd Edition. Rombach, 2007, p. 143