I
Beethoven’s six quartets, opus 18, were first published in 1800. He had already experimented in other forms of chamber music, not only for strings alone. The sextet for two clarinets, two bassoons, and two horns; the quintet, opus 16, for piano, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon; the string quintet, opus 4; three trios for violin, viola, and violoncello; the trio, opus 11, for piano, clarinet, and violoncello; and sonatas for violin and piano, and violoncello and piano, had already been written. The pianoforte sonatas up to that in B-flat, opus 22, and the first symphony had likewise been completed. Beethoven thus turned to the composition of string quartets after an experience with almost all other branches of music had made him master of the art of composition.
Apart from any inner development in the man which waited thus long before attempting expression in that form in which the very last and in some ways the most remarkable of his thoughts were to find utterance, one or two external circumstances probably turned his attention to the string quartet. One was undoubtedly the morning musicales at the house of his friend and patron, Prince Lichnowsky, where such music was especially in demand, and where Beethoven must constantly have heard the quartets of Haydn and Mozart.[70] Another was his personal acquaintance with Emanuel Aloys Förster,[71] a composer of quartets for whom Beethoven had a high regard.
These first quartets appeared in two groups of three. They are not arranged in the order of their composition. For example, that in D major, the third in the first set, is probably the oldest of the six. But the series presents little evidence of development within its limits, and there is hardly reason to attach serious importance to the order in which the various quartets were created. Besides, with the exception of the quartet in C minor, No. 4, the entire series is expressive of much the same mood and intention. If one quartet is at all distinguished from the others, it is only by a few minor details, usually of biographical or otherwise extrinsic significance. The technique is that of Haydn and Mozart, lacking, perhaps, the assured grace of the earlier masters; the character, one of cheerfulness, with only here and there a flash of the emotional imperiousness with which Beethoven took hold of music.
No. 1, in F major, is known as the ‘Amenda’ quartet. Beethoven had sent an earlier form of it (completed in 1799) to his friend Karl Amenda. A year later he wrote Amenda, saying that he had greatly altered it, knowing now for the first time how truly to write a quartet. The later arrangement differs from the original in details of workmanship, not in spirit. There are four movements, in conventional form and sequence: an allegro con brio, 3:4; an adagio affettuoso ed appassionato, in D minor; a scherzo and a final rondo. Amenda had a story to tell of the adagio, to the effect that when Beethoven had completed the quartet he played this movement to a friend and asked him afterward of what it made him think. It seemed to the friend to have represented the parting of two lovers. Beethoven is reported then to have said that in composing it he had had in mind the scene in the tomb from ‘Romeo and Juliet.’
The second quartet of the series, in G major, is known as the Komplimentier quartet, because of the graceful character of the opening theme, and, indeed, of the whole first movement. The third, in D major, is not less cheerful. The final movement is a virtuoso piece for all the instruments. The triplet rhythm is akin to the last movement of the Kreutzer sonata, and to that of the sonata for pianoforte, opus 31, No. 3; both of which originated not later than in 1801. Similarly the whole of the fifth quartet—in A major—is in brilliant concert style. There is a minuet instead of a scherzo, standing as second, not third movement, as was frequently the case in the works of Haydn and Mozart, and, indeed, in later works of Beethoven. The third movement is an andante and five variations in D major. Finally the first movement of the sixth and last of the series—in B-flat major—cannot but suggest a comparison with the first movement of the pianoforte sonata, opus 22, in the same key, which originated about the same time. Both are very frankly virtuoso music. The last movement of the quartet is preceded by a short adagio, to which Beethoven gave the title, La malinconia. This whispers once again for a moment not long before the end of the lively finale in waltz rhythm.
The fourth quartet of the series is alone in a minor key. It is of more serious nature than those among which it was placed, and may be related in spirit, at least, to the many works in the same key (C minor) which seem like successive steps in a special development. Paul Bekker suggests in his ‘Beethoven’[72] that we may consider a C minor problem in Beethoven’s work; and points to sonatas, opus 10 and 13, the pianoforte trio, opus 1, the string trio, opus 9, the pianoforte concerto, opus 37, the duet for piano and violin, opus 30, and finally the fifth symphony and the overture to Coriolanus, all of which are in C minor, and all of which follow closely one after the other. Whether or not the quartet in question may be thus allied with other works, there is evidence that it is closely connected with an early duet for viola and violoncello (with two obbligato Augengläser) which originated in 1795 or 1796. Riemann[73] is of the opinion that both the duet and the quartet are rearrangements of some still earlier work. The first movement is weakened by the similarity of the first and second themes. The second is a delightful Andante scherzoso, quasi allegretto, in C major, 3:8. The third movement is a little minuet and the last a rondo.