6th string quartet (Beethoven)

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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. 6 in B flat major op.18.6 is a string quartet by Ludwig van Beethoven .

Emergence

Within the group op. 18, the B flat major quartet was the last to be composed between April and the summer of 1800 and was the last to be published. Prince Franz Joseph Maximilian von Lobkowitz is the commissioner and dedicatee of this as well as the other quartets op. 18 .

In general, however, the numbering of the quartets in the opus number does not match the order in which the quartets were created; rather, the numbering reflects the order in which the quartets were printed.

The quartet was published in 1801.

Sentence names

  1. Allegro con brio (B flat major)
  2. Adagio ma non troppo (E flat major)
  3. Scherzo. Allegro (B flat major)
  4. La Malinconia: Adagio - Allegretto quasi Allegro (B flat major)

To the music

First sentence

The first movement adheres to the tradition of the sonata form . The main theme consists of a double strike and an ascending triad motif in the first violin. The other instruments take up the double strike; Eighth and quarter movements of the middle instruments accompany the main theme. The secondary theme of the exposition alternates between major and minor. For the exposition, Beethoven sets a tempo of 80 bars per minute, which is seldom noticed by the performers.

The implementation starts by taking the double strike again and the main theme, providing the latter with minor effects. After the main theme has sounded again, Beethoven breaks new ground in the development by reducing the existing subject matter to the simplest elements in order to open up new possibilities of expression.

The recapitulation begins with a sudden sforzato ; Here, too, energetic sforzati accompanies the double strike motif. The unstable course of the sentence only reaches the tonic via detours .

Second sentence

In the second movement, the three-part song form and the variation movement are combined. The set of variations follows a principle that is continued in the slow movements of Beethoven's String Quartet No. 7 in F major, Op. 59.1 and String Quartet No. 8 in E minor, Op. 59.2 : The variations are not found in the melody part, but in the accompanying voices; Furthermore, the variations have an idiosyncratic rhythm that Beethoven explicitly called "queste note ben marcate".

The movement begins in a deliberate 2/4 time. The first violin starts a song-like theme, which is taken up by the second violin. The main part is designed as a three-part song style and contrasts with the middle part, which is in E flat minor. The recapitulation cannot completely break away from the minor of the middle section. The minor theme of the middle section is even taken up again in the coda . Then the coda changes abruptly to C major and ends in E flat major.

The second movement was neglected for a long time in the analysis by musicologists such as Wulf Konold , Herbert Schneider, Arnold Werner-Jensen and Hugo Riemann in favor of the Adagio finale.

Third sentence

The third movement unsettles rhythmically due to the lack of a common center of gravity of the four instruments as well as idiosyncratic sforzati and urgent syncopation ; the otherwise usual minuet character is completely absent. The confusion does not arise, as has often been assumed, from the contrast between three-quarter and six-eight time; In addition, the movement can only be played through by orienting itself to three-four time.

In contrast to this, in the trio, the key points of the beat are indicated by the opening sixteenth in the violin figure.

Fourth sentence

The Adagio, which introduces the fourth movement, consists of two parts: the first part begins with a brooding melody that ends suddenly and starts again two more times. The second part of the Adagio starts as a fugato and ends with a sigh.

Lewis Lockwood shares Professor Richard Kurth's view that the finale of op. 18.6 is inspired by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's  " Dissonance Quartet "; he sees parallels in the slow introduction and the harmonious flow of both final movements. Richard Kurth expressed his assessment in an unpublished lecture he gave during a Harvard seminar on Beethoven's string quartets.

With the default “Questo pezzo si deve trattare colla piú gran delicatezza”, Beethoven wishes that the movement entitled “La Malinconia” should be played with the greatest possible sensitivity. Contrary to the original assumption, the term »La Malinconia« (Eng .: »melancholy«) denotes not only the Adagio part of this movement, but the entire finale of the B flat major quartet.

The second part of the quartet finale is an Allegretto quasi Allegro in 3/8 time and, according to Beethoven's metronome indication from 1818, it should be played with a tempo of 88 bars. Within the Allegretto part, the adagio at the beginning of the sentence returns twice. The musicologist Carl Dahlhaus, on the other hand, describes the Adagio merely as an “introduction”, but without justifying his assessment.

The return of the Adagio is one of several indications that the Allegretto part is only an apparent release from Malinconia . Another indication is that the movement in sonata form does not contain any further development because it lacks the development. In addition, the recapitulation contains hardly any changes. The depressive Adagio on the one hand and the hectic Allegretto on the other hand symbolize different expressions of one and the same state of mind.

The contrast between Adagio and Allegretto prompted Beethoven research to see parallels to Beethoven's biography. Accordingly, this contrast reflects the personal life situation triggered by Beethoven's deafness, in which the composer found himself at the time the quartet was composed. So he wrote on the one hand: "I can say that I spend my life miserably, for the last 2 years I have been avoiding all societies" , and on the other hand: "Oh, it is so beautiful to live life a thousand times - for a quiet - life, no, me feel it, I'm not made for it anymore « .

The creation of a connection between the biography of the composer and the music written at the same time is also viewed critically. In the case of the B flat major quartet, for example, Carl Dahlhaus speaks of "psychological-biographical arguments" which are "irrelevant to the interpretation of the musical work" . The opposite opinion was represented in 1994 by Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht in "On the History of Beethoven Reception" (Laaber, 1994); and as early as 1865 August Wilhelm Ambros had written: "We are therefore almost at the same point of view with Beethoven as with Göthe - we regard his works as the commentary on his life [...] her life as the commentary on her works" .

literature

supporting documents

further reading

  • Theodor Helm: Beethoven's string quartets. Attempt a technical analysis of these works in relation to their intellectual content. Leipzig 1885.
  • Ludwig van Beethoven: works. New edition of all works. Department 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 1961ff.
  • 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 et al. 1971, pp. 75-79.
  • Sieghard Brandenburg : Beethoven's string quartets op. 18. In: Sighard Brandenburg, Martella Gutiérrez-Denhoff (ed.): Beethoven and Böhmen. Bonn 1988, pp. 259-302.
  • Carl Dahlhaus : La Malincolia. In: Ludwig Finscher (Ed.): Ludwig van Beethoven. (= Paths of Research . Volume 428). WBG, Darmstadt 1983, pp. 200-211.
  • Arno Forchert : The depiction of melancholy in Beethoven's Op. 18.6. In: Ludwig Finscher (Ed.): Ludwig van Beethoven. (= Paths of Research. Volume 428). WBG, Darmstadt 1983, pp. 212-239.
  • Herbert Schneider: 6 string quartets in F major, G major, D major, C minor, A major and B major op. 18. In: A. Riethmüller et al. (Ed.): Beethoven. Interpretations of his works. Volume 2, 2nd edition. Laaber, 1996, 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. 219.
  2. ^ Gerd Indorf: Beethoven's string quartets: Cultural-historical aspects and work interpretation. 2nd Edition. Rombach, 2007, p. 223.
  3. ^ Marianne Danckwardt: On the string quartets op. 18 by Ludwig van Beethoven. In: Franz Krautwurst (ed.): New musicological yearbook. 1997, pp. 149f.
  4. ^ Gerd Indorf: Beethoven's string quartets: Cultural-historical aspects and work interpretation. 2nd Edition. Rombach, 2007, p. 226.
  5. ↑ Lewis Lockwood : Beethoven: His Music - His Life. Metzler 2009, p. 130 & footnote 39 (p. 405)
  6. ↑ Arno Forchert : The representation of melancholy in Beethoven's Op. 18.6. In: Ludwig Finscher (Ed.): Ludwig van Beethoven. (= Paths of Research. Volume 428). Darmstadt 1983, pp. 212-239, pp. 212ff.
  7. ^ Carl Dahlhaus : Ludwig van Beethoven and his time. Laaber, 1987, p. 201.
  8. ^ A b c Matthias Moosdorf: Ludwig van Beethoven. The string quartets. Bärenreiter, 2007, p. 62.
  9. ^ Ludwig van Beethoven: Correspondence . Complete edition, ed. by Sieghard Brandenburg, 7 volumes, Munich 1996–1998, volume 1, p. 80.
  10. ^ Ludwig van Beethoven: Correspondence . Complete edition, ed. by Sieghard Brandenburg, 7 volumes, Munich 1996–1998, volume 1, p. 89.
  11. ^ Carl Dahlhaus: Ludwig van Beethoven and his time. Laaber, 1987, pp. 200ff.
  12. ↑ August Wilhelm Ambros : Culturhistorische pictures from the musical life of the present. Leipzig 1865, p. 9.