III
There follows between this quartet and the quartet, opus 127, a period of fourteen years, in which time Beethoven composed the seventh, eighth, and ninth symphonies, the last pianoforte sonatas, the Liederkreis, and the Mass in D. He turned to the quartet for the last expression in music of what life had finally come to mean to him, stone-deaf, miserable in health, weary and unhappy. There is not one of the last five quartets which does not proclaim the ultimate victory of his soul over every evil force that had beset his earthly path.
In November, 1822, Prince Nikolaus Galitzin, a man who held Beethoven’s genius in highest esteem, asked him if he would undertake the composition of three quartets. In the spring of the following year Ignaz Schuppanzigh returned to Vienna after a seven-years’ absence and resumed his series of quartet concerts. Whether these two facts account for Beethoven’s concentration upon the composition of quartets alone during the last two years of his life is not known. Before the receipt of Prince Galitzin’s invitation Beethoven had written to Peters in Leipzig that he expected soon to have a quartet to send him. But no traces of quartet composition are to be found before 1824. Probably, then, the quartet in E-flat major, opus 127, was composed in the spring of 1824. In 1825 the quartet in A minor, opus 132, and later that in B-flat major, opus 130, were composed. These three quartets were dedicated to Prince Galitzin. The final rondo of the quartet in B-flat major was written considerably later (was, indeed, the last of Beethoven’s compositions). Originally the last movement of this quartet was the fugue, now published separately as opus 133, which the publishers felt made the work too long and too obscure. Beethoven therefore wrote the final rondo to take its place.
There is much internal evidence that while Beethoven was at work on the last two of the quartets dedicated to Prince Galitzin he was likewise at work on the quartet in C-sharp minor, opus 131, dedicated to Baron von Stutterheim. The quartet in F major, opus 135, was written later in 1826. It was dedicated to Johann Wolfmeier.
The first performance of opus 127 was given by the Schuppanzigh quartet[74] on March 7, 1825. On September 9th of the same year, Schuppanzigh led the first private performance of opus 132 at the inn Zum Wilden Mann. It was first publicly performed at a concert given by Linke on November 6, and was well received. Opus 132 was publicly performed first (in its original form, i.e., with the fugue finale) on March 21, 1826. The second and fourth movements were encored.
Of the five last quartets the first and last are formally the most clear; the intermediate three, especially those in A minor and C-sharp minor, are perhaps the most intricate and difficult music to follow and to comprehend that has been written. All but the last are very long, and thus tax the powers of attention of the average listener often beyond endurance. Their full significance is discerned only by those who not only have made themselves intimately familiar with every note and line of them, but who have penetrated deep into the most secret mysteries of the whole art of music.
Opus 127 begins with a few measures—maestoso—which, as Dr. Riemann has suggested, play something of the same rôle in the first movement as the Grave of the Sonata Pathétique plays there. The passing over from the introduction to the allegro is only a trill, growing softer over subdominant harmony. The allegro is in 3/4 time, and the first theme, played by the first violin, is obvious and simple, almost in the manner of a folk-song. Yet there is something sensuous in its full curves and in the close, rich scoring. The transitional passage is regularly built, and the second theme—in G minor—pure melody that cannot pass unnoticed. Everything is simple and clear. The first section ends in G major, and the development section begins with the maestoso motive in the same key, followed, just as at the opening of the movement, with the trill and the melting into the first theme. This theme is developed, leading to the maestoso in C major. It is then taken up in that key. The maestoso does not reappear as the beginning of the restatement section, the first theme coming back in the original key without introduction. Instead of the simple note-for-note scoring with which it was first presented, it is now accompanied by a steadily moving counterpoint. The second theme is brought back in E-flat major. The coda is short and simple, dying away pianissimo.
The following movement is an adagio, to be played not too slowly and in a wholly singing manner. The time is 12/8, the key, A-flat major. The opening notes, which build up slowly a chord of the dominant seventh, are all syncopated. The first violin gives only a measure or two of the melody, which, thus prepared, is then taken up by the violoncello. The second strophe is sung by the violin. There is a full cadence.
The first variation opens with the melody for violoncello, only slightly altered from its original form. The violins add a counterpoint in dialogue. This variation comes to a full stop. The second brings a change in time signature (C, andante con moto). The theme, now highly animated, is divided between the first and second violins. In the fourth variation (E major, 2/2, adagio molto espressivo) only the general outline of the theme is recognizable, cut down and much compressed. The fifth variation brings back the original tempo and the original key. The violoncello has the theme, only slightly varied in rhythm, and the first violin a well-defined counter-melody. The sixth and last variation (in this movement) grows strangely out of the fifth, in D-flat major, sotto voce, leads to C-sharp minor, and thence to A-flat major. There is a short epilogue.
The main themes of the Scherzo and Trio which follow are so closely akin to the theme of the adagio, that the movements may be taken as further variations. The main body of the Scherzo is in that dotted rhythm of which Beethoven made frequent use in most of his last works; and is fairly regular in structure, except for the intrusion, at the end of the second part, of measures in 2/4 time, in unison, which may be taken as suggestions of still another fragmentary variation of the adagio theme. The Trio is a presto in E-flat minor.
The Finale is entirely in a vigorous, jovial and even homely vein. The themes are all clear-cut and regular; the spirit almost boisterous, suggesting parts of the ‘Academic Festival Overture’ or the Passacaglia from the fourth symphony of Brahms.