String Quartet No. 12 (Beethoven)
- String Quartet No. 12 (Beethoven)
The String Quartet No. 12 in E-flat major, opus 127 of Ludwig van Beethoven, was completed in 1825. It is the first of Beethoven's late quartets. There are four movements:
#I. Maestoso — Allegro
#II. Adagio, ma non troppo e molto cantabile
#III. Scherzando vivace
#IV. Allegro
The first movement is interrupted several times — just before the development of the sonata form begins, and when that section is almost but not quite over — by the Maestoso which opened the work.
The immense second movement is in the subdominant key of A-flat major. It consists of a set of five variations with an episode in D-flat major (between the fourth and fifth variations) and a coda. The first and fourth variations are in 12/8 meter; the third is hymn-like and in the movement's submediant E major. The last two variations are recapitulatory, with the 4th returning to the tonic A flat major. The fifth variation presents only half of the theme and connects directly to the coda.
The penultimate variation recapitulates the theme after a contrasting section in the submediant, while the final variation restores the tonic and basic thematic material after an episode in the subdominant. Beethoven based this tonal progression on the finale of the Ninth Symphony (Op. 125) where the orchestral double fugue episode in B flat is followed by the "grand" variation for full orchestra and choir in D major, followed by the "Seid umschlungen" episode in G major, which moves into the choral double fugue in the tonic D major.
Op. 127: A flat -> E (submediant) - penultimate variation -> D flat (subdominant) -> final variation
Op. 125: D -> B flat (submediant) - penultimate variation -> G (subdominant) -> final variation
The scherzo's trio is a "Presto" of a kind Beethoven did not use very often, though it is similar in sound and phrasing to some of his bagatelles from the contemporary opus 126 set.
Beethoven initially planned two additional movements, one between the first and second, and another between the third and fourth.
Trivia
*The Maestoso - Allegro Movement of this piece was sampled as an intro in Harry Nilsson's "Who done it?" on the 1977 album Knnillssonn.
External links
* [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/13078 Project Gutenberg — Score and MIDI of this piece] .
*
* [http://www.harrynilsson.com/page-sampling-beethoven.html Article about Harry Nilssons use of the piece}]
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