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The string quartet is recognised as the purest of musical
forms, providing the composer with a definitive genre through which to
express their most profound musical thoughts. The most prolific and productive
period for the string quartet was the period between the late eighteenth
century, encompassing the pioneering and consolidatory works of Haydn
and Mozart, and the first half of the nineteenth century and the monumental
works of Beethoven and the works of the early romantics Schubert, Mendelssohn
and Schumann. Throughout this period of development the “anxiety of influence”
(Bloom, 1992) can be seen as th e motivating force of successive generations
of composers, commencing with Beethoven’s backward glances at the acheivements
of Haydn and Mozart, and then Schubert, Mendelssohn and Schumann’s self-conscious
preoccupation with the mammoth works of Beethoven.
“Viennese musical life bought the classical string quartet
to fruition in the later years of the eighteenth century” (Grove Vol..18,
p.280). It also provided the environment in the first half of the nineteenth
century for the birth of a “new expressiveness, new organising principles,
and a new aesthetic philosophy “(Ulrich 1966,p.264-5), which became known
as Romanticism. In its development the works of Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770-1827),
Franz Schubert (1797-1828), Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847) and
Robert Schumann (1810-1859) led the way.
The seventeen string quartets of Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770-1827), which “mark the point of departure for many composers of
the nineteenth century” (Grove, Vol.18,p.281), may be divided into three
distinct periods. Firstly, the Opus 18 quartets, written in his first
maturity around 1800; secondly, the middle period quartets written between
1807 - 1810 which include the Razumovsky quartets; and finally, his late
period between 1824 to 1826 which includes works written in his last months
of life.
The six quartets of Opus 18, although written within the
conventional framework established by the Viennese masters Mozart and
Haydn, already begin to reveal the profundity and expansion of scal e
which is to mark the quartets of his middle and late periods (Grove Vol..18,
p.281). Quartet No. 1 in F major contains many examples of the “generating
power of the individual motive” (Ulrich 1948, p.247), Beethoven’s first
subject from the first movement has its genesis in the short opening motive
(Ex. 1) which dominates the entire movement, in fact in occurs 102 times
in all. The use of counterpoint, which was to become almost a preoccupation
in his later writing, is also evident in Opus 18 (“The Beethoven Compendium
1991, p.233).
Example 2 taken from the development section shows Beethoven’s
use of the opening motive in a contrapuntal format.
Beethoven was very fond of sudden dynamic contrasts. The
use of the sforzando on the week beat is a technique used quite frequently
(Radcliffe 1965,p.38), a typical example is found in the Trio of Opus
18 No.5 (Ex.3)
Six years elapse between the Opus 18 quartets and the
three Razumovsky quartets that make up Opus 59, which were completed between
April and November of 1806 and dedicated to the Russian ambassador to
the Imperial Court in Vienna, Count Razumovsky (Kramer,R.1980, p.232).
The enormous forward stride marked by the composition of the Eroica symphony
(1804) is evident in this series of compositions, which along with the
Harp quartet Opus 74 (1809), and the Quartetto serioso Opus 95 (1810),
make up the quartets of Beethoven’s middle period. This period in Beethoven’s
work “marked the point of departure for many later composers of the nineteenth
century” (Grove Vol.18, p.281).
First movement sonata form predominates as the main structural
vehicle for the middle period quartets, Beethoven seldom using the rondo
form after 1802 (Cobbett 1963, Vol.1, p.88). The slow movements of this
period are scored with “richly sonorous and elaborated textures”(Grove
Vol.18, p.281), and counterpoint assumes a new dramatic purpose. This
last point is most apparent in the finale of Opus 59 No.3 (1806), where
the fierce driving quality of the counterpoint is completly free from
the text book rigidity so often apparent in the works of lessor composers.
It is obvious that Beethoven ; was not concerned with writing a model
fugue, but with expressing “superhuman vitality” (Ferguson 1977, p.106).
Cobbett (1963, Vol..1, p.96) suggests that the Quartetto
Serioso Opus 95 (1810) is “the most typical of what we recognise to be
the Beethoven spirit”, full of contrasts, struggling figures, diminished
seventh chords, sforzandos. Beethoven, aware that the revolutionary concepts
in this quartet may not be immediately accepted by the public, wrote to
a friend, “The quartet [Opus 95] is written for a small circle of connoisseurs
and is never to be performed in public” (Anderson 1961, Letter no.664).
Fourteen years separate the Quartetto Serioso Opus 95
and the six that make up Beethoven’s final period. These works with their
“violent contrasts, their mixture of the earthy and the sublime, the serio
Ïus and the comical, had already gone far towards creating a universe
in their own genre” (Grove Vol.18, p.281). Beethoven’s preoccupation with
a more polyphonic musical thought is most pronounced in the late quartets.
This point not only applies to movements that are obviously fugal, but
to movements such as the Allegro from Op.127 (Ex.4) where “Beethoven’s
thought becomes an indivisible entity of four parts” (Grove Vol.18, p.281).
Beethoven now views the fugue as a vehicle for his most profound musical
thoughts and no longer as a technical means. In his hands the form, which
so often becomes cold in the hands of a lessor composer, becomes the vehicle
for his “innermost feelings of peace, suffering, or joy” (Cobbett 1963,
Vol. 1, p.99).
Structurally the final quartets of Beethoven are quite
diverse. He adopted five, six and seven movement schemes for his Opus
132, 130 and 131 respectively, but then returned, in October of 1826,
to the conventional four movement form for his last quartet Opus 135.
This work, which Beethoven entitled Dyer schwergefasste Entschluss (the
hard -won decision), is shorter than the other late quartets and features
a final movement based on two motives which provide the thematic material
for the work, one set to Muss es sein? (Must it be?), and the other Es
muss sein? (It must be) (Kerman 1967, p.363). The implications of Beethoven’s
final dramatics have been the subject of much speculation and debate (Ferguson
1977, p.130-131).
Between the years 1812 and 1826 Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
wrote fifteen string quartets. The first twelve of these, wr itten during
his youth for performance at home gatherings, failed to display the same
maturity present in his Lieder and piano music of the same period (Cobbett
1963,p.354). Ulrich (1966, p.269) states, “in his early works Schubert
was not striving to imitate Classical form; his efforts were directed
toward an expansion of colour possibilities, toward a discovery of new
textures and a warm lyricism”.
Cobbett (1963, p.357) suggests that “a whole world divides
the youthful quartets from the quartet fragment of 1820”. This work, Quartettsatz
in C minor, is written with a new sort of intensity and consists of a single
movement which clearly demonstrates Schubert’s ability to incorporate his
lyrical genius into the sonata form framework. Commencing with an eight
bar fugato style introduction based on a two bar subject, the sinister beginning
is then transformed at bar 13 into the descending first subject. (Ex.5)
The second subject, commencing at bar 94, is one of Schubert’s superb
lyrical melodies given to the first violin, and under-scored in the viola
by a figure born out of the first subject.
Schubert differs from Beethoven in that he “no longer
regards the individualisation of the four parts as the goal itself” (Cobbett
1963, p.354). He was fond of grouping the instruments in twos and playing
them off, one against the other. What Schubert tries to achieve with this
technique is an arrangement of parts in layers as in orchestral technique
(Cobbett 1963, p.354). (Ex. 7)
Another characteristic of Schubert’s style was the use
o f accompaniment patterns as in his Lieder (Grove Vol..18, p.282). Example
8 from the A minor quartet (1824) has the figure in the second violin.
The music of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847) reflects
the privileged upbringing both Felix and his sister Fanny received. Felix
was insulated, through an exclusive private education, from the harsh
realities of the revolutionary period in which he grew up. His music is
a “model of design and of discrimination of colour” (Ferguson 1977, p.156),
absent is the reflection on human suffering and despair that mark the
works of both Beethoven and Schubert .
Mendelssohn wrote six string quartets between 1829 and
1850, their texture was quite often orchestral in style, for example the
prominent tremolos in the opening of the D major quartet(1837) and the
F minor Quartet(1847), which aim at intensity, “only capture a sense of
spurious industry”(Grove Vol..18, p.281-282). The slow movement of the
Em quartet Opus 44, No.2 (Ex. 9), with its lyrical melody accompanied
by pianistic figurations, is virtually a song without words (Grove Vol.18,
p.282). As with most composers living in the shadow of Beethoven, the
influence of the great man is evident in a number of his quartets. The
E minor quartet Opus 12 (1829) features an introduction modelled on Beethoven’s
Harp quartet op.74, the F minor quartet Opus 80 (1847) expounds a strong
Beethoven influence throughout (Cobbett 1963).
The three string quartets of Robert Schumann (1810-1859),
in many ways “among the mos t perfect of all the products of his genius”
(Cobbett, Vol.2, p. 369), were written in the yaer 1842. Schumann prepared
himself for his quartet writing by devoting two months during this year
1842 to the study of the scores of Mozart and Beethoven (Cobbett,Vol.2
,p. 369).
Schumann’s quartet writing was influenced by his years
of piano training and his lack of familiarity with stringed instruments
(Cobbett, Vol.2, p. 371). For example the first movement of Opus 41 No.3
(Ex.10) uses a typical pianistic off-beat figuration. These passages were
met with hostility by the string players of his day, although subsequent
generations have learned to play these passages and have “attuned to their
beauties” (Cobbett, Vol.2 , p. 371).
The development of the string quartet reached its pinnacle
with the late quartets of Beethoven, the subsequent works of Schubert,
Mendelssohn and Schumann and their contemporaries following in the shadow
of Beethoven, whilst adding certain personal characteristics to the genre
failed to add either structurally or conceptually to his monumental achievements.
The most obvious reasons for this situation are two-fold; firstly, the
genius of Beethoven encompassing its immense range of emotion, intensity
of thought and economy of application, found an ideal medium in the string
quartet which was unmatched by the following generation; and secondly,
the preoccupation during the Romantic period with the grandiose conception
of the expanded orchestra and its two most important vehicles, the symphony
and the symphonic poem, was incompatible with the conciseness and intimacy
of the string quartet genre, therefore the m edium became less attractive
to composers as the nineteenth century progressed.
Bibliography
Anderson, Emily ,1961, The Letters of Beethoven, Macmillan
& Co. Ltd., London.
Beethoven, Ludwig, Complete String Quartets, Dover Publications
Inc., New York.
Bloom, H., 1973, The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of
Poetry, Oxford University Press, New York.
Cobbett’s Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music, 1963, ed.
Cobbett,W., Oxford University Press, London.
Ferguson, Donald, 1977, Image and Structure in Chamber
Music, Da Capo Press, New York.
Kerman, J., 1967, The Beethoven Quartets, Oxford University
Press, London.
Kramer, Richard, 1980, ‘On the Autograph of Beethoven’s
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of the Autograph Manuscripts, ed. Wolff,C., Harvard University Press,
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Sadie,S., Vo «l.18, Macmillan, England.
Mendelssohn, F., Four Quartets for 2 Violins, Viola and
Cello, Kalmus Study Score No. 1185, Edwin F. Kalmus, New York.
Radcliffe, P. 1965, Beethoven String Quartets, Hutchinson
& Co., London.
Schubert, F., Kalmus Study Score No. 790, Edwin F. Kalmus,
New York.
Schumann,R., Three Quartets for 2 Violins, Viola and Cello,
Kalmus Study Score No. 1105, Edwin F. Kalmus, New York. Thayer, Alexander
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Vol.1, Princeton University Press, New York.
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Ulrich, H., 1948, Chamber Music, Colombia University Press,
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 billt@guitardownunder.com
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The
String Quartets Of Beethoven by Bill Tyers
