String Quartet No. 11 (Beethoven)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ludwig van Beethoven's opus 95, his String Quartet No. 11 in F minor, is his last before his exalted late string quartets. It is commonly referred to as the "Serioso," stemming from his title "Quartett[o] Serioso" at the beginning and the tempo designation for the third movement. It is interesting that he chose to invent his own Italian word for this tempo marking. Most European languages have a word similar to 'serioso' but it is hard to tell where he got it from. It is ernst in German, serious in English, sèrio in Italian, sérieux in French, serio in Spanish, and cepьëзнo (pronounced "seryozno") in Russian.
Beethoven is considered to be the first non-Italian composer to use his native language in his expressive markings, and the op. 95 quartet is an interesting example of one of the first non-Italian tempo markings.
As is standard for string quartets, the piece is in four movements:
- Allegro con brio
- Allegretto ma non troppo
- Allegro assai vivace ma serioso
- Larghetto espressivo; Allegretto agitato; Allegro
It is one of the shortest and most compact of all the Beethoven quartets, and shares a tonality (F) with the first and last quartets Beethoven published (Op. 18, No. 1, and Op. 135). In character and key, as well as in the presence of a final frenetic section in the parallel major, it is related to another composition of Beethoven's middle period — the overture to the incidental music he wrote for Goethe's drama Egmont, which he was composing in the same year he was working on this quartet.
The autograph manuscript for this quartet is marked October 1810, but the paper it is printed on doesn't match the paper he was using at that time. It is more likely that he finished it around 1811. It premiered in 1814 and wasn't published until 1816. Beethoven was quoted as saying "The Quartett [op. 95] is written for a small circle of connoisseurs and is never to be performed in public." When one listens to the piece, it becomes clear why he said that. This piece would have been quite out of character in 1810, and is an experiment on compositional techniques he drew on later in his life. (Techniques such as shorter developments, interesting use of silences, metric ambiguity, seemingly unrelated outbursts, and more freedom with tonality in his sonata form.)
The historical picture of this time period helps to put the piece in context. Napoleon had invaded Vienna earlier that year, and this upset Beethoven greatly. All of his aristocratic friends had fled Vienna, but Beethoven stayed and dramatically complained about the loud bombings.
Contents |
[edit] Formal analysis of movements
[edit] Movement I (Allegro con brio)
This movement is in sonata form.
Exposition (mm. 1-59)
1st tonal area, fm (mm. 1-21)
Neapolitan important (m. 6, 19)
Transition
2nd tonal area, D♭M (mm. 24-57)
Closing (mm. 58-59)
Note: There is no repeat of this already very short exposition. This adds to the startling nature of this piece as a whole.
Development (mm. 60-81)
FM cm CM
m. 60 ? m. 77
Recapitulation (mm. 82-128)
1st theme is shorter this time (4 measures is all. 2nd theme begins in D♭M again (it does not need to be in the primary key like one would ordinarily expect in the recap because the second theme is not in the dominant or relative major. Also, this time, measure 103 is in the supertonic (ii) instead of the neapolitan (bII) like it was in measure 34 in the exposition
Coda (mm. 129-end)
Begins on neapolitan. Primary scalar motive of the beginning is developed. This coda is shorter than one might expect considering the already short development.
As Arnold Schoenberg notes in an essay reprinted in the collection Style and Idea, also, most of the themes and events of this movement- and the main theme of the second movement- contain some form of the motive D♭ - C - D - E found in the second bar, even if transposed and changed in some way.
[edit] Movement II (Allegretto ma non troppo)
A B | B A form. This movement is in D major, a startling and remote key from the f minor first movement.
A (mm. 1-34)
B (mm. 35-64) Fugato section. This eventually falls apart.
| The descending scalar cello leads through ever modulating tonalities starting a tritone away from the opening scale!
B' (mm. 77-112) Fugato is back to give it another try.
A' (mm. 112-183) Melody is now an octave higher
[edit] Movement III (Allegro assai vivace ma serioso)
This movement is in scherzo form. Although Maynard Solomon warns against calling it a scherzo because of the very odd tempo marking Allegro assai vivace ma serioso, this movement does follow the formal structure of a scherzo. Solomon prefers to call it a "march-trio" oddly enough.
Scherzo (mm. 1-40, with a repeat)
Trio (mm. 41-102)
Scherzo (mm. 103-144)
Trio (mm. 145-182)
Scherzo (mm. 183-206) This time the tempo increases (Più Allegro)
[edit] Movement IV (Larghetto espressivo; Allegretto agitato; Allegro)
This is in the sometimes misunderstood sonata rondo form. In a sonata-rondo, the piece follows the thematic outline of a rondo (ABACABA), and the tonal outline of a sonata (I V I or i III i, etc.)
Beethoven uses Mozart's favorite rondo form for this movement (ABACBA) the absence of the A theme in between the C and second B is a surprise, and helps cut down on the monotony of hearing the A theme multiple times.
Intro (mm. 1-9) fm (Larghetto expressivo)
A (10-32) fm (Allegretto agitato) *It might be prudent to note that the "missing A" from the typical rondo-sonata form could be analyzed as being shifted from its "rightful" place after "C" to a more intriguing place in m. 23.
B (32, 50) cm
A' (51-64) fm
C (65-82) DbM (that flat submediant that is so prevalent throughout this work)
B' (82-97) Here's where the sonata part of sonata-rondo comes in. This time it's in fm instead of cm.
A' (98-132) fm
Coda (133-175) FM! (Allegro) This fantastically light and bouncy ending is in sharp contrast to the dark, stormy, introspective mood of the rest of the quartet. As Basil Lam said: this "comic-opera ending, [is] absurdly and deliberately unrelated to the 'quartett serioso'- the true Shakespearean touch that provides the final confirmation of the truth of the rest."
[edit] See also
[edit] Sources for further reading
These sources contain information specifically about the Op. 95 quartet.
- Kerman, Joseph, The Beethoven Quartets, pp. 168-187
- Solomon, Maynard Beethoven, pp. 195, 236, 269, 272-273
- Wolff, Christoph, ed. The String Quartets of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, pp. 233-235.
- Lam, Basil, Beethoven String Quartets 2, pp. 1-11.
[edit] Arrangements
This is one of the quartet works, along with Schubert's Death and the Maiden quartet, that Gustav Mahler arranged for use by a string orchestra, mostly by doubling some of the cello parts with double basses.
| String Quartets by Ludwig van Beethoven |
|---|
| String quartets, Op. 18 | Op. 18 No. 1 | Op. 18 No. 2 | Op. 18 No. 3 | Op. 18 No. 4 | Op. 18 No. 5 | Op. 18 No. 6 |
| String quartets, Op. 59 ("Rasumovsky") | Op. 59 No. 1 | Op. 59 No. 2 | Op. 59 No. 3 |
| Middle period quartets | Op. 74 ("Harp") | Op. 95 ("Serioso") |
| Late quartets | Op. 127 | Op. 130 | Op. 131 | Op. 132 | Grosse Fuge, Op. 133 | Op. 135 |
| Arrangement by Beethoven of Op. 14 No. 1 |
