DAILY DOSE of BEETHOVEN (July 16, 2020)
In today’s post, we do not seek to analyze the late quartets (although we have discussed a few in the Daily Dose, especially the Grosse Fuge.) Here, we simply wish to identify how the essentials of the C Minor investigation inform so many of these late quartets.
The question investigated—such as the C Minor Series—does not remain neutral, static, and unchanged outside of the process. The discoveries made by investigating the question, change the question itself.
Imagine posing 10,000 years ago the question: "What is justice?" The answer might have been brutal. Subsequent discoveries have changed the answer into something more civilized. Great knowledge has been developed through investigation of the C Minor Series. Different keys are involved. Different intervals are explored. Beethoven is now ready to examine the matter in new ways. For example, our half-tone motions have often surrounded the interval of a fifth such as C to G, in the case of G-Ab, C-B. Now Beethoven examines the interval of a minor sixth.
There are at least three of Beethoven’s late quartets that explore these matters. If Op. 111 took it to a higher level, the late quartets go even higher. We sense that all five of them (six counting the Grosse Fuge as a separate work), are united by the study of a single problem, or complex of problems. For now, we limit ourselves to identifying where Beethoven is pursuing the C Minor Series.
Today, we try a new approach to our use of examples. At various points throughout the 2 pages of scores (see the two pages below), we marked No. 1, 2, 3 etc, to denote the portion of the score under discussion. Since reading string quartet scores can be difficult, we offer a piano reduction. Please let us know if it works for you.
No. 1 and 2: simply show the mirror-image half-steps of C Minor transposed to A Minor.
No. 3: is the opening of string quartet No. 15, Op. 132. It's fugue-like, and upwards half-tones are played against downwards ones, in a manner reminiscent of Mozart's “Jupiter Symphony”.
No. 4: shows how, beginning at measure 75 of that movement, the half-tones, instead of surrounding a fifth A to E (G#-A F-E) now define a sixth F# to D (F-F# Eb-D.)
No. 5: shows that process in the main subject of the Grosse Fuge.
No. 6: shows 5-6 and 8-1 in C# Minor, and
No. 7 shows the opening of the String quartet No. 14, in C# minor, Op. 131. It's a fugue and Beethoven places great emphasis on the fourth note of the fugue subject, in this case the note A (tone 6 of the c# minor scale). Throughout the first movement, the dissonances will grow on the fourth tone of the subject.
