Overview
Introduction
The String Quartet No. 14 in C♯ minor, Op. 131, was completed by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1826. It is the last-composed of a trio of string quartets, written in the order op. 132, 130 (with the Große Fuge ending), 131.
It was Beethoven's favourite of the late quartets: he is quoted as remarking to a friend that he would find "a new manner of part-writing and, thank God, less lack of imagination than before". It is said that upon listening to a performance of this quartet, Schubert remarked, "After this, what is left for us to write?" Robert Schumann said that this quartet and Op. 127 had a "...grandeur [...] which no words can express. They seem to me to stand...on the extreme boundary of all that has hitherto been attained by human art and imagination."
This work is dedicated to Baron Joseph von Stutterheim as a gesture of gratitude for taking his nephew, Karl, into the army after a failed suicide attempt.
Music
About 40 minutes in length, it consists of seven movements played without break:
| Tempo indication(s) | Key | Meter | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| I. Adagio ma non troppo e molto espressivo | C♯ minor | C | About 7 minutes |
| II. Allegro molto vivace | D major | 6/8 | About 3 minutes |
| III. Allegro moderato – Adagio | B minor | C | About 45 seconds |
| IV. Andante ma non troppo e molto cantabile – Più mosso – Andante moderato e lusinghiero – Adagio – Allegretto – Adagio, ma non troppo e semplice – Allegretto | A major | 2/4 | About 14 minutes |
| V. Presto | E major | C | about 51⁄2 minutes |
| VI. Adagio quasi un poco andante | G♯ minor | 3/4 | About 2 minutes |
| VII. Allegro | C♯ minor | C | About 61⁄2 minutes |
The Op. 131 quartet has been described as a monumental feat of integration.[by whom?] While Beethoven composed the quartet in six distinct key areas, the work begins in C♯ minor and ends in C♯ major. The finale directly quotes the opening fugue theme in the first movement in its second thematic area. This type of cyclical composition was avant-garde for a work of that period. Joseph Kerman wrote: "blatant functional reference to the theme of another movement: this never happens". (It had happened in some other Beethoven works such as the Piano Sonata Op. 101, Cello Sonata Op. 102 No. 1, and the Fifth and Ninth Symphonies; it had even happened before in Joseph Haydn's Forty-Sixth Symphony. Nevertheless, Op. 131 is the first Beethoven work in which the quotation is integrated completely into its new context instead of appearing like an explicit quotation, though even this effect had been anticipated the previous year in the young Felix Mendelssohn's Octet, and much earlier in Christian Latrobe's A major Piano Sonata dedicated to Haydn.)
Op. 131 is often grouped with Opp. 132 and 130. There is motivic sharing among the three works. In particular, the "motto" fugue of the leading note rising to the tonic before moving to the minor sixth and then dropping down to the dominant is an important figure shared by these works. This intervallic material is descendent from Bach, and has been used by other notable composers, including Haydn and Mozart.[citation needed]
This quartet is one of Beethoven's most elusive works musically. The topic has been written about extensively from very early after its creation, from Karl Holz, the second violinist of the Schuppanzigh Quartet, to Richard Wagner, to contemporary musicologists today. One popular topic is a possible religious/spiritual genesis for this work, supported by similarities to the Missa Solemnis. In the first movement of Op. 131, the continually flowing texture resembles the Benedictus and the Dona Nobis Pacem from the earlier work. In addition, whether purposefully or not, Beethoven quotes a motivic figure from Missa Solemnis in the second movement of the quartet.
The piece was featured in the plot of the 2012 film A Late Quartet. It also featured in the Band of Brothers episode "Why We Fight".
