Week 3 : Chamber Music

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Beethoven's Chamber Music

Late string quartets à elaborate counterpoint, large number of movements, substantial length, as well meaningful and witty irony (String Quartet op. 131).

 String Quartet op. 130, B-flat major 1825-6

•  This has six movements. His original finale was enormous and his publisher convinced him to provide a new finale. The fugue, Grosse Fugue of 741 bars was published separately with the op. number 133.

•  This is a cycle of contrasting movement types à sonata form, scherzo and trio, slow movement variation, German dance, slow movement in ternary form, and a fugue or rondo.

•  The key structure divides the work in to two halves. The key progression proceeds in a standard way until the third movement, where he uses G major. Then a cavatina in E flat follows and the finale is in B flat. The final movement's opening, whether it's the fugue or the rondo, emphasizes G major.

•  The Grosse Fugue gives a new sense of contrast and climax (compare it to his Hammerklavier sonata). He also refers back to thematic and tonal material from earlier movements in a clear but unobvious way.

 

String Quartet op. 131 c-sharp minor 1825-6

•  Seven Movements.

•  Progresses from a contemplative fugue in C# minor to a sonata from in C sharp minor which them becomes C sharp major in the final bars.

•  All the movements are influenced by the first inflection in the work à a sforzando on ‘A' in the second bar of the fugal subject followed by a sforzando Neapolitan D major chord.

•  Again, the IV slow movement variation is central to the work. Rather than ornamenting the first variation, he reduces the texture to its harmonic outline.

•  Movement III is a recitative progressing from B minor to A major and remains in the tonic which in the broader sense functions as a flattened sixth to c# minor and the dominant of D.

•  Movement V is a scherzo and trio in E major and progresses to A major. The trio is heard twice and then only referred to once.

•  Movement VI is marked Adagio quasi un poco andante and begins in G sharp minor ending on the dominant of C sharp minor setting up for the finale. The finale thematic material refers to the head motif of the fugal theme heard in the first movement. It doesn't proceed to a D major chord which is saved for the recapitulation and heard as a tonic (instead of expected C sharp major) for the second subject à semitonal relationship between C# and D (also used in his Op. 53 no. 2, & op. 95).

String Quartet op. 132 a minor 1825

The slow movement is central à III in a sequence of V movements

•  The slow movement alternates two kinds of music, both gives titles that reflect the composer's current situation of illness: ‘Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesnen an die Gottheit, in der lydischen Tonart' (Sacred song of Thanksgiving to the Deity from a convalescent, in the Lydian mode). And the shorter, ‘Neue Kraft Fühlend' (Renewed Strength).

•  The Lydian mode of the first section is deliberate as in Zarlino's treatise it is described as a remedy for fatigue of the mind and body. Points of imitation and block chord homophony characterize the Heiliger Dankgesang and was familiar to Viennese audiences from church services. The Neue Kraft Fühlend has strong secular associations and ingredients of a German dance à 3/8 beat, heavy accents in the bass, dimple diatonic harmony, trill in the first violin à However the slow tempo and the contradictory emphasis on the third beats with the irregular phrase structure conceal an obvious dance association. From the two contrasting sections, he builds in alternating variations, ABABA structure ending in the Lydian mode with the tonic F major chord.

•  The structure of the slow movement is placed within a five movement structure giving a strong sense of symmetry. Movement 2 is in A major, and is a scherzo and trio and movement 4 is a march. The outer movements are allegro movements based on the sonata form in A major (sonata first movement and sonata-rondo finale). This structure is unique to Beethoven but had last been used in Haydn's earlier quartets.

•  The first movement has a slow introduction which anticipate the ‘Heiliger Dankegesand' and the key of the second subject, F major anticipates its tonic.

•  He links the fourth and fifth movement through thematic anticipation, which also prevents the fourth movement not sound too brief.

•  His experimenting with an unconventional five movement work allows for new possibilities of balance and progression.

 

String Quartet Op. 135 no. 16 1826 F major

•  For his last quartet he reverts back to the standard four movement structure.

•  It uses a variations movement in a slow tempo and is the central part of the work.

•  The first movement could be inspired from the 18 th century quatuor concertant heard especially in France where all of the instruments act soloistically rather than the first violin dominating.

•  Like in the variation movement of Op. 131 he reduces the texture to the harmonic skeleton for the first variation rather than ornamenting the theme. Here he turns the music from major D flat to c# minor and slows down the tempo to Piu lento.

•  The finale makes use of a vocal canon, ‘Es muss sein.' He turns the demand into a question by using inversion and the minor key. The two motifs bear the title ‘The Difficult Decision'. This extra musical influence requires him to use the point of contrast, the tonic minor, in the finale rather than earlier in the cycle (used by Haydn in Op. 76 no. 1 and 3).

•  He leaves the decision to repeat the development and recapitulation up to the performers.

•  Like Haydn's op. 76 no. 1, he begins the coda with a pizzicato.

Schubert's Chamber Music

Born in Vienna , chamber music occupied him more consistently than any other type through his short career. String quartets are among his earliest known pieces.

He was a violist of the family string quartet as a boy. His early works echo Mozart, Haydn and less often Beethoven.

His quartets fall into two groups:

  1. Eleven early works from the years 1810/11-1816 and are rarely heard today.
  2. Three quartets from 1824-26, the Rosamund in A minor, Death and the Maiden in D minor and the vast G major quartet D.887 which are performed regularly.

In the middle of these is his Quartettsatz of 1820 D.703 where he is at his full maturity as an instrumental composer. The entire movement is dominated by its opening, a traditional symbol of lament; the descending tetrachord c-bflat-aflat-g and embellished by trembling neighbor notes.

 

String Quartet No. 14 in d minor “Death and the Maiden.”

•  The end dance shapes his last two quartets where each ends in a long tarantella, the ritual dance to prevent madness and death carrying ironic overtones of the carnivalesque.

•  The subtitle is not Schubert's but is from his famous song that provides the theme of its slow movement variations.

•  He does not include the maiden's terrified outbursts in the song and incorporates only Death's solemn, oracular phrases in the past part of the theme “Be of good courage! I am not savage, / You shall rest peacefully in my arms.'

•  The reaper wit the scythe is benevolent rather than punitive.

•  The role of death is played by the cello and the Maiden is played by the first violin.

•  The coda is lacking material substance as if Death had won and is of comfort.

 

String Quartet No. 13 A minor “Rosamunde” D. 804

•  Fundamentally lyrical cast in a succession of movements.

•  Opens with a broad sonata form based on two lied like themes.

•  The first and third movements sings of longing in a minuet style with no resolution. The Andante is based on an entr'acte from Rosamunde

•  Neither this or his late chamber works does he end in a heroic fashion.

•  It closes in a sonata rondo based on the gypsy idioms with drone harmonies, accented second beats and dotted rhythms and quasi improvised ritardandos à Style hongrois.

 

 

String Quartet No. 15 G major D.887

•  Can be seen as an expansion and intensification of the d minor quartet though they lack thematic connections.

•  Vast opening movement with tremolos and triplets throughout with major and minor modes providing ambivalence.

•  Difference from Beethoven à the music unfolds through remembrance, going from later events to earlier ones versus goal conscious.

•  Schubert treats the expositions' materials episodically as he might in a development section à Resembles a double variation

•  The Andante is forzando in all voices like an interruption of a dream. The cello has a melody and follows another forzando after a shocking secondary sections. The mood shifts as if dreaming in a rondo like format in a temporarily peaceful conclusion that doesn't resolves the movement's conflicts.

•  After the nocturnal scherzo, he uses a tarantella. The vast structure à sonata rondo with displaced reprise of the primary material

Rushing rhythm, persisting two bar phrases, modal shifts, modulations frequently by half step and abrupt dynamic changes.

Schumann's Chamber Music

•  The chamber music year 1842-3

•  His 2 principles of the string quartet à 1. The string quartet should avoid ‘symphonic furore' and be conversational such that everyone says something. 2. the composer must know the genre's history and be more than just an imitator of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.

•  One of chamber music's greatest practitioners of chamber music.

•  He emulates Haydn's mono motivic forms and Mozart's combining developmental and recapitulatory processes in the opening and closing movements in nearly all his quartets.

•  Beethoven's op. 131 is a model for the tonal and thematic techniques in creating large scale unity (see his op. 41 no. 1).

•  3 String quartets op. 41, The piano Quartet op. 47, the piano Quintet op. 44 and Fantasiestücke for piano, violin and cello à all composed during 1842. The compositions with piano are considered his most successful.

•  Schumann felt that Beethoven's late string quartets in E flat op. 127 and C # minor op. 131 were great and inspired him to write his own quartet.

•  Op. 41 no 1 A minor à Begins with a minor introduction influenced by Beethoven's op. 131 and132. He avoids imitation, however à only the first six bars are strict imitation and the music doesn't have the powerful opening and is almost a short movement unto itself. Sonata form, 6/8 Allegro in an unusual F major. Meter, rhythms, and texture recall the D major Allegro molto vivace that follows the fugue of Beethoven's op. 131. Beethoven seems to generate forward momentum, even over pedals using his ambiguities where Schumann uses a repetitive two bar segments which add up to eight or ten. This symmetry is more of a song and character piece style than of traditional Viennese sonata forms. A fugato arrives but ends quickly. when a transition is expected with its subject taken from the end of the first group. The triplet recalls Beethoven's Grosse Fugue with less ferocity. He uses Schubert's style of sequential block manner as he recycles sequential material . The scherzo with its clipped phrases and parallel motion are in the style of Mendelssohn but with a les complex structure (using ABA '). The Adagio is a mixture of strophic variation and ternary form and the best part of the quartet. Here the hymn like melody recalls Beethoven's ninth slow movement with the accompaniment like Mendelssohn's song without words. Schumann is creative in his use of harmonic and melodic intensity that emerges in the middle section wit the change to A flat. Late Beethoven is evoked with its harsh contrast and fragmented texture and slow motion intensity of the theme's fourth phrase. The reprise the tensions stop and do not resolve as if returning to the dream like introduction.

•  String quartet op. 41 no. 3 is his most popular, longest and most idiosyncratic. A short intro highlights the first movement's motto gesture of a falling fifth over a ii6/5 chord. The non tonic generates momentum in the main theme of the Allegro and at each of the movement's structural benchmarks. The early transition leads into a song like second theme which is derived from the first, with sequencing for momentum and a off beat accompaniment. This treatment gives Schumann's symmetrical phrasing new life. The development is based entirely on sequential treatment of the motto and the recapitulation is reversed beginning with the second theme. The coda is short. Unusual in that he replaces the scherzo with a variation. Assai agitato in f# minor with constant syncopations in 3/8. Then a loose imitative first variation, second a tight stretto imitation in duple time and variation 3, Un poco Adagio is treated to classical simplicity while the 4 th evokes style hongrois . This quartet is most successful as it is the closest to Schumann's idea of a conversation between four people. The rondo finale is a mosaic-like succession of miniature character portraits but doesn't give a larger picture as the fragments is blurring à the episodes are atypically harmonically and metrically more stable than the refrain. In the coda does the music take harmonic turns.

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