String Quartet No. 3 (Beethoven)

The String Quartet No. 3 in D major, op. 18, No. 3, was written by Ludwig van Beethoven between 1798 and 1800 and published in 1801. Although it is numbered third, it was the first quartet Beethoven composed. It consists of four movements:

Allegro
Andante con moto
Allegro
Presto

According to Steinberg, this is "the gentlest, most consistently lyrical work [within Beethoven's Op. 18]",^[1] except for the fourth movement, in which "Beethoven first explores the idea of shifting the centre of gravity toward the end of a multimovement work".^[2]

The first movement starts with a gentle and unassuming theme:

Beethoven Quartet, Op. 18 No. 3, opening. Listen

However, its return at the start of the recapitulation shows the theme in an entirely different light. Philip Radcliffe (1965, p. 24) describes this moment as “beautifully contrived”.^[3] Burstein (1998, p.295), describes the dramatic and unusual harmonic progression at the end of the development section as “breathtaking”.^[4]

Beethoven Quartet Op. 18 No.3, first movement, bars 156-162. Link to passage

“The sudden reinterpretation of the C♯ creates a type of tonal crisis which has deep structural ramifications for the entire movement. Beethoven’s brilliant manner of dealing with the implications of this unusual strategy indicates a debt to his teacher, Haydn, and also reveals much about Beethoven’s own craft and artistic vision”. ^[5]

Notes

↑ Steinberg, p. 159
↑ Steinberg, p. 163
↑ Radcliffe, P. (1965) Beethoven’s String Quartets. London, Hutchinson.
↑ Burstein, L. P. (1998, p.295) “Surprising returns: the VII# in Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 18 No.3, and its antecedents in Haydn”. Music Analysis, 17/3 pp295-312.
↑ Burstein, L. P. (1998, p.295) “Surprising returns: the VII# in Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 18 No.3, and its antecedents in Haydn". Music Analysis, 17/3 pp295-312.

References

Robert Winter, Robert Martin eds. (1994). The Beethoven Quartet Companion. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-08211-7. ; especially the essay by Michael Steinberg (pp. 159–163)

External links

String Quartet No. 3: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
Performance of String Quartet no. 3 by the Borromeo String Quartet from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in MP3 format

String quartets by Ludwig van Beethoven
Preludes and Fugues	Prelude and Fugue for String Quartet in F major, Hess 30 Prelude and Fugue for String Quartet in C major, Hess 31
Opus 18	No. 1 in F major No. 2 in G major No. 3 in D major No. 4 in C minor No. 5 in A major No. 6 in B♭ major
Opus 59 (Rasumovsky)	No. 7 in F major No. 8 in E minor No. 9 in C major
Other middle period quartets	No. 10 in E♭ major, Op. 74 (Harp) No. 11 in F minor, Op. 95 (Serioso)
Late quartets	No. 12 in E♭ major, Op. 127 No. 13 in B♭ major, Op. 130 No. 14 in C♯ minor, Op. 131 No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132 Große Fuge, Op. 133 No. 16 in F major, Op. 135
String quartet arrangement of Op. 14, No. 1 by Beethoven

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