String Quartet No. 14 (Beethoven)

String Quartet No. 14 (Beethoven)

The String Quartet No. 14 in C♯ minor, Op. 131, by Ludwig van Beethoven was completed in 1826. (The number traditionally assigned to it is based on the order of its publication; it is actually his fifteenth quartet by order of composition.) About 40 minutes in length, it consists of seven movements to be played without a break, as follows:

1. Adagio ma non troppo e molto espressivo
2. Allegro molto vivace
3. Allegro moderato — Adagio
4. Andante ma non troppo e molto cantabile — Più mosso — Andante moderato e lusinghiero — Adagio — Allegretto — Adagio, ma non troppo e semplice — Allegretto
5. Presto
6. Adagio quasi un poco andante
7. Allegro

This work, which is dedicated to Baron Joseph von Stutterheim, was Beethoven's favourite from the late quartets. He is quoted as remarking to a friend that he would find "a new manner of part-writing and, thank God, less lack of imagination than before". The work was dedicated to von Stutterheim as a gesture of gratitude for taking his nephew, Karl, into the army after a failed suicide attempt in 1826. (Op. 131 is the conclusion of that trio of great works, written in the order 132, 130 with the Grosse Fuge ending, 131.) It is said that upon listening to a performance of this quartet, Schubert remarked, "After this, what is left for us to write?". Along with Op. 127, Robert Schumann called these quartets "..the grandeur of which no words can express. They seem to me to stand...on the extreme boundary of all that has hitherto been attained by human art and imagination."

The Op. 131 quartet is a monumental feat of integration. While Beethoven composes the quartet in six distinct key areas, The work begins in C♯ minor and ends in C♯ major. The Finale directly quotes the opening fugue theme in the first movement in its second thematic area. This type of cyclical composition was avant-garde for a work of that period. Notable Beethoven scholar Joseph Kerman described it in the following manner: "blatant functional reference to the theme of another movement: this never happens.".

Op. 131 is often grouped together with Op. 132, and Op. 130. There is motivic sharing between all three works. In particular, the "motto" fugue of the leading tone rising to tonic, before leaping up a minor sixth and then dropping down to the dominant, is an important figure shared between all these works. This intervallic material is descendent from Bach, and has been used by other notable composers including Haydn and Mozart. The subject matter of the first movement fugue also closely resembles Bach's own C# minor fugue from Book 1 of the Well-Tempered Clavier.

This quartet is one of Beethoven's most elusive works musically. The topic has been written about extensively from very early after its creation, from Karl Holz, the second violinist of the Schuppanzigh quartet, to Richard Wagner, to contemporary musicologist today. Popular topics are a religious/spiritual genesis for this work, often supported by some of its similarities to the Missa Solemnis. In the first movement of Op. 131, the continually flowing texture, resembles the Benedictus and the Dona Nobis Pacem from the earlier work. In addition, whether purposefully or not, Beethoven quotes a motivic figure from Missa Solemnis in the 2nd movement of the Beethoven.