9th string quartet (Beethoven)

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Beethoven portrait by Joseph Mähler from 1804.
Andrei Kirillowitsch Rasumowski, dedicatee and namesake of the quartets op. 59, on a painting by Johann Baptist von Lampi

The String Quartet No. 9 in C major op. 59,3 is a string quartet by Ludwig van Beethoven . It was written in 1806 and is the third string quartet in the group of the Razumovsky quartets . The quartets are named after their client, the Russian diplomat Andrei Kirillowitsch Rasumowski , who was an important supporter of Beethoven.

Sentence names

  1. Movement: Introduzione: Andante con moto - Allegro vivace ( C major )
  2. Movement: Andante con moto quasi Allegretto ( A minor )
  3. Movement: Menuetto: Grazioso (C major)
  4. Movement: Allegro molto (C major)

To the music

Because of their Russian atmosphere, the “Rasumowsky Quartets” are also called “Russian Quartets”, but op. 59 No. 3 is the only quartet from the group for which, despite its Russian tone, no original Russian melody can be found. Together with the other quartets from the “Rasumowsky” group, this quartet, with its previously unknown complexity for string quartets, marks a turning point in Beethoven's work.

The “Rasumowsky” quartets are designed in such a way that the middle quartet is in minor and is framed by two major quartets. This was to be repeated later with the three quartets composed for the Russian prince Nikolai Borisovich Golitsyn .

First sentence

The quartet op. 59,3 is the only quartet in the Rasumowsky group to have a slow introduction in the first movement. Each diminished seventh chord in this introduction leads to a new, unresolved chord. This introduction is followed by a solo violin cadenza, which leads on to the lively main theme, which is varied over the course of the movement. In the exposition, a thematic development process develops under the concertante surface from an inconspicuous second interval.

One of Beethoven's first ideas for this movement was inspired by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Clarinet Quintet in A major, K. 581.

Second sentence

The main theme of the second movement is a lyrical adagio in A minor, accompanied by cello pizzicati (A part). It is characterized by an evenly swaying eighth-note movement; his melancholy is confirmed by Beethoven's metronome tempo specification of 56 dotted quarters per minute. This is followed by the middle part of the movement (B part) with a lighthearted melody, a minor variation on the major theme. After completing the middle section, the main lyrical theme (C major) sounds again with slight variations compared to the A section.

Since Beethoven, according to his own statements, worked a Russian folk melody into each of the three “Rasumowsky” quartets, this movement is possibly an adaptation of a “Russian” melody.

In any case, the Russian atmosphere of this movement inspired the Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky in 1859 to write a piano transcription of this movement. Further arrangements were made as early as 1819 for piano for two hands and around 1820 for two guitars.

During the course of the composition phase, Beethoven planned a theme in 2/4 time for this movement, but did not use it until five years later as the theme of the slow movement in his 7th Symphony in A major, Op. 92 .

Third sentence

The third movement is introduced by a light-hearted theme, which is varied as the movement progresses, after the variations the main theme of the movement is repeated. While Beethoven looks into the future with the melancholy Adagio of the second movement, here in the third movement he casts an ironic look at the courtly dance of the past.

The movement was originally not supposed to be in F major, but in C major, the trio in D flat major.

Fourth sentence

The main theme of the fourth movement is a stormy fugato , which is varied in the course of the movement in an equally stormy tone. Beethoven demanded a speed of 84 bars per minute for this movement, but not all interpreters adhere to this. Despite its fugati, this movement is not a fugue , but a sonata movement without repetition of the exposition.

The long movement coda, which is 125 bars longer than the exposition, development and recapitulation of the movement, suggests that the finale should crown not only this quartet, but also the entire group of Razumovsky quartets .

While working on the quartet, Beethoven envisaged a finale in C minor.

effect

The quartet was performed together with the other “Rasumowsky” quartets by Ignaz Schuppanzigh and his string quartet ensemble in the Palais des Count Rasumowsky. Beethoven had been friends with Schuppanzigh since he moved to Vienna until his death in 1827 and used to give the musician the nickname " Milord Falstaff ". It is possible that Schuppanzigh and his musicians were allowed to perform the Rasumovsky quartets publicly in the first few months after their creation, during which the diplomat, as the client, still had the sole exploitation rights to the works.

Because of their complexity, the Quartets op. 59 met with incomprehension and rejection. As the “ Allgemeine Musikische Zeitung ” wrote, however, the Quartet, Op. 59, No. 3 “must win over every educated music lover through its peculiarity, melody and harmonious power”.

The Viennese publication of the quartet op. 59,3 took place together with the other Rasumowski quartets in January 1808 in the "Schreyvogelschen Industriecomptoir"; the order in which the quartets were published most likely corresponds to the order in which they were created. In 1809 Simrock published a reprint in Bonn; the first edition of the quartets' scores took place in 1830.

Over time, public opinion about the quartet changed. On February 11, 1816, the C major quartet was part of Ignaz Schuppanzigh's farewell concert, shortly before he set off on multi-year concert tours to Russia . Even after his return in 1823, Schuppanzigh often played the quartet in its chamber music concerts.

The musicologist Arnold Schering saw in op. 59.3 parallels to " Don Quixote " by Miguel de Cervantes . As "scenes set to music" in the Introduzione, he saw Don Quixote, reflecting on the books of knights, in the first movement for example the ride from La Mancha, in the second movement Antonio's romance, in the third movement Don Quixote's excerpt and his fight against the windmills as well as in fourth set his victory.

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-Handbuch , Bärenreiter-Verlag, 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. 244-254
  • Theodor Helm: Beethoven's string quartets. Attempt a technical analysis of these works in relation to their intellectual content . Leipzig 1885, 3rd edition 1921.
  • Walther Vetter : The style problem in Beethoven's string quartets opus 59 . In: Das Musikleben , 1st year, issue 7/8, 1948, pp. 177–180.
  • Ludwig van Beethoven: works. New edition of all works , section VI, volume 4, string quartets II (op. 59, 74 and 95), ed. from the Beethoven Archive Bonn (J. Schmidt-Görg et al.). Munich / Duisburg 1961ff.
  • Joseph Kerman: The Beethoven Quartets , New York 1967.
  • Walter Salmen : On the design of the »Thèmes russes« in Beethoven's op. 59 . In: Ludwig Finscher, Christoph-Hellmut Mahling (Ed.): Festschrift for Walter Wiora . Kassel u. a. 1967, pp. 397-404.
  • Ludwig Finscher : Beethoven's string quartet Opus 59.3. Attempt at interpretation. In: Gerhard Schumacher (Ed.): For musical analysis . (= Paths of Research , Volume 257). WBG, Darmstadt 1974, pp. 122-160.
  • Peter Gülke : On the musical conception of the Rasumowsky Quartets op. 59 by Beethoven . In: Jürgen Elsner, Giwi Ordshonikidse (Hrsg.): Socialist music culture. Traditions, problems, perspectives . Berlin 1977, pp. 397-430
  • Lini Hübsch: Ludwig van Beethoven. The Rasumowsky Quartets op.59 . Munich 1983.
  • Walter Salmen: String Quartets op.59 . In: A. Riethmüller u. a. (Ed.): Beethoven. Interpretations of his works . 2nd Edition. Laaber, 1996, Volume 2, pp. 430-438.

Trivia

The main theme of the fourth movement served as the title melody of the ZDF literary program Das Literäre Quartett .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gerd Indorf: Beethoven's string quartets: Cultural-historical aspects and work interpretation . 2nd Edition. Rombach, 2007, p. 384
  2. ^ Matthias Moosdorf: Ludwig van Beethoven. The string quartets . 1st edition. Bärenreiter, 2007, p. 96
  3. ^ Martin Gustav Nottebohm : Second Beethoveniana , Nachgelassene Aufzüge. Leipzig 1887, p. 86
  4. ^ Alan Tyson : The Razumovsky Quartet. Some aspects of the sources . In: Alan Tyson (Ed.): Beethoven Studies . Volume 3. Cambridge 1982, p. 121
  5. ^ Georg Schünemann : Czerny's memories of Beethoven . In: New Beethoven Yearbook , 9, 1939, p. 60
  6. ↑ Jay Leyda , Sergej Bertensson (Ed.): The Musorgsky Reader. A Life of Modeste Petrovich Musorgsky in Letters and Documents , New York 1947, p. 41, note 82
  7. ^ Georg Kinsky, Hans Halm: The work of Beethoven. Thematic-bibliographical index of all his completed compositions , Munich 1955, p. 44
  8. ^ Georg Kinsky, Hans Halm: The work of Beethoven. Thematic-bibliographical index of all his completed compositions . Munich 1955, p. 142
  9. ^ Alan Tyson: The Razumovsky Quartet. Some aspects of the sources . In: Alan Tyson (Ed.): Beethoven Studies . Volume 3. Cambridge 1982, p. 126 f.
  10. ↑ Paul Mies: The meaning of Beethoven's sketches for recognizing his style , Leipzig 1925, Reprint Hildesheim etc. 1974, p. 92
  11. ↑ James Webster: Traditional Elements in Beethoven's Middle-Period String Quartets . In: Robert Winter, Bruce Carr (Eds.): Beethoven Performers, and Critics. The International Beethoven Congress, Detroit 1977 . Detroit 1980, pp. 94-133, here p. 127
  12. ^ Gerd Indorf: Beethoven's string quartets: Cultural-historical aspects and work interpretation . 2nd Edition. Rombach, 2007, p. 298
  13. ^ Alan Tyson: The Problem of Beethoven's "First" Leonore Ouverture . In: Journal of the American Musicological Society , 28, 1975, pp. 292-334, here pp. 326f.
  14. ↑ Allgemeine Musikische Zeitung , February 27, 1807, column 400
  15. ↑ Lewis Lockwood : Beethoven: His Music - His Life. Metzler, 2009, p. 246f.
  16. ^ Gerd Indorf: Beethoven's string quartets: Cultural-historical aspects and work interpretation . 2nd Edition. Rombach, 2007, p. 285
  17. ↑ Harenberg Culture Guide Chamber Music . Bibliographisches Institut & FA Brockhaus, Mannheim 2008, p. 98

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The musicologist Arnold Schering saw in op.