DAILY DOSE OF BEETHOVEN (September 29, 2020)
Beethoven's late quartets are considered by many to be his supreme accomplishment. They are the last works he composed, after the “Missa Solemnis”. Although it is known as quartet No. 15, this one is really No. 13, with Opus. 127 being the only one composed before it. We have addressed individual movements of some of the late quartets in the postings of April 29th (Op. 130), May 7th (Op. 135), May 18 and19th (Op. 131), and June 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 11th (Grosse Fuge, Op. 133). This time, however, we will examine an entire quartet.
THE OPENING
Let's start with the first movement. The opening is a miniature fugue based on the C minor series, except it is in A minor. In diagram Op132a (see photo below), it is enclosed in orange. Look at the first 4 notes in the cello, enclosed in yellow- G# A F E. Remember our discussion about the first 5 notes of Bach’s “King's Theme”—C Eb G Ab B (April 8th post). We talked about the 5th C to G, and the inverted half-tone motions from it, G-Ab, and C-B. Run those notes right to left (retrograde), and they become B-C and Ab-G. Transpose that down a minor third and you have G#-A and F-E, the opening of this quartet!
Two measures later, the first notes of the first violin (also circled in yellow), are D#-E and C-B, the cello's opening notes, transposed up by a fifth, which is exactly the way a fugue progresses.
Now look at the cello part in the third measure, in diagram op132b (see photo below, we used the same diagram several times to prevent confusion). surrounded by a dark blue circle. The pairs have switched order F-E and G#-A. The cello literally plays G#-A F-E for two measures, 2 measures of rests, then runs it backwards as F-E A G# for two measures.
The answer in the first viola (also in dark blue), does the same but a fifth higher C-B D#-E, except it comes a measure before instead of after! Everything else in the orange area is comprised of similar motions. It is a miniature fugue that serves as an introduction to the quartet.
If you change the order of G Ab C B, to G B C Ab, and transpose it up a half-step to G# B# C# A, you will have the opening tones of Op. 131, which begins a fugue (May 18th and 19th)!! The reason this relationship exists between the late quartets is because they actually examine, together, a single set of ideas. Through this process of discovery and development, Beethoven significantly changed the very nature of the questions posed by the “King's Theme”.
THE FIRST MOVEMENT
After a short recitative in measures 9-10, the introduction is over, and the movement proper begins. There are no fugues for the rest of this movement, yet a principle of the double fugue persists, as two very different motifs are in constant play with one another, which you will see in diagram op132c.
The first motif we labelled A and circled in green. The second B and circled in pink. Are they really different? They sound different, but A is closely related to the opening fugue subject! The last two tones of the 7-note section we circled, are A G#, the opening two tones in reverse. The same notes are repeated two measures later in violin 1, so they also end with A G#. Immediately following, we see F-E, the pair which follows G# A from the opening. We circled A-G# and F-E in yellow. Theme B takes just the first two notes of that opening, G# A.
These two motives, both of which derive from the 4-note opening, are in constant interplay throughout the movement. Now that you are familiar with them, diagram op132d circles everything, without labels, just to give us an idea of what Beethoven accomplishes with the most minimal material. When we say minimal, it is not just in reference to the four notes, but the potential in them as developed over the 78-years, from Bach's “Musical Offering” to this work.
At measure 22, another short recitative in 16th notes is heard. 16th-note runs will play a major role in the movement, and a recitative will come back in a big way in the transition from the 4th to the 5th movement. Everything is set up at the outset.
Beethoven seems to begin the movement again at 03:16 in this recording by the Amadeus Quartet. But there are only two entries, and this time, the half-tones do not surround the interval of a fifth, but rather a minor sixth. The cello starts out F F# Eb D. That is repeated in the viola. If G#-A and F-E surrounded the fifth A-E, then F-F# and Eb-D define the minor sixth F#-D. He must have been already thinking about the “Grosse Fuge” because that is exactly what that work does. Transpose F-F# Eb-D up by a fourth, and you have Bb-B Ab-G, the first four notes of the “Grosse Fuge's” main subject! That is new for the C Minor Series. What discoveries led Beethoven to make that change, we do not know. What we do know is that we now have 3 late-quartets that deal with the same germ of an idea.