Con Brio: Beethoven’s Second Quartet
Last week, we looked at the first string quartet that Beethoven ever wrote: his D major quartet, Op. 18, No. 3. This week we’re continuing with the first movement of his second written quartet in F major, Op. 18, No. 1. We’ll perform both works at our season premiere on 11 November 2023. We hope you’ll join us then to experience these two great works live.
Contrasts
The contrasts between these two works are huge, especially in the their first movements. Whereas the opening movement of the G major flows gently and is as a whole quite congenial, the opening movement of the present quartet is tightly-wound and nervous. This F major quartet (Op. 18, No. 1) is probably the most famous and most beloved quartet of the series of six. It is the longest of the set; the first and last movement being longer than any corresponding movement in the opus. The slow movement has the most emotional range of any other slow movement in the series. And the scherzo is the fastest and most harmonically daring.
It’s an exciting work, so let’s look at some examples from the first movement, marked Allegro con brio (lively with vigour).
Sonata Form
This movement is in a musical structure known as “Sonata form”. We will talk a little about it in this post, so you might as well know a bit about the form. If you’d prefer to watch a short video about it, you can find that below.
Sonata form is made up of three main sections: the exposition, the development, and the recapitulation. [Disclaimer: this is a very simplified description of the form to give you a very basic understanding of its parts. Great composers rarely use this form in such a prescriptive way. That would be boring. Even in the movement we’re discussing in this post, Beethoven plays around with things].
Exposition
The exposition is simply where a composer exposes the themes that they will use throughout their work. This is comprised of three or four sections: the first theme group, a transition, second theme group, and an optional closing theme group. The first theme is, you guessed it, the first theme that we hear. The transition moves us harmonically from the tonic key (or home key) to another key which gives the music a sense of travelling away from home. This brings us to the second theme which is contrasting to the first theme, not only harmonically, but also in spirit. So if the first theme is very energetic, the second theme might be more relaxed and gentle. Finally, we end with our closing theme that…well, closes the exposition. Usually after this, there will be a full repeat of the exposition so that you can hear it all again and get acquainted with all of the characters presented.
Development
The development is where a composer will develop the themes from the exposition in any number of ways. This section is the most unstable of the sections, because harmonically we’re travelling quickly and often to other keys. It is often the most exciting part of a sonata form movement, because the composer really is free to let loose here. However, we must get back to our home key by the end of the development, which leads us to the final section.
Recapitulation
The recapitulation is really just a repeat of the exposition with an important distinction: harmonically we must end in the tonic or home key, so it does sound a bit different. Good composers, though, add surprises in this section to keep us interested.
Optional Coda
Often composers surprise us with what’s called a coda. It’s just a way for composers to subvert our expectations and end the movement in a surprising way. Anyway, back to the piece at hand.
A Catchy Tune
Upon hearing the opening of this quartet, it’s immediately clear why Beethoven published this as the first of the set: it immediately grabs our attention. It begins with an orchestral unison where all four instruments play the same notes together. From the outset, Beethoven presents a simple “turn motif” (highlighted in red) which will become the basis of the entire movement.
Because all four instruments are playing exactly the same thing, we immediately sit up and listen. It’s also marked with pregnant silences that also grab our attention. This opening turn motif has set up what we call a musical “question”, which he then answers with a response that continues the exploration of the same turn motif.
And just to drive this point home, Beethoven repeats what he already stated, except this time it’s just more. For example, the opening four bars which were piano (or soft) are now repeated forte (or loud).
And the response that was four bars long is now eight bars long. The turn motif now seems to be searching for something.
Motivic obsession
So far in 24 seconds of music, we’ve heard this turn motif nine times! The quartet doesn’t seem to be able to shake its obsession with this little motif. It continues passing around the quartet, first between the violins, and then later the cello insists on it. This is also where we start to transition away from our home key of F major. Notice how the music seems to wander the farther we get from home.
Now this is just ridiculous! How do we get away from the quartet’s obsession with this turn motif? Let’s try an unexpected key change to A-flat major.
Nope, the viola takes up the turn motif in the new key and the first violin grows increasingly exasperated at this obsession.
The first violin has a solution though: first a declarative sforzando (“suddenly with force”) then a new scale motif (highlighted in blue), which the cello happily takes up until everyone agrees.
Phew! Crisis averted! This takes us to the second theme group and a new key. Finally, we get some relief from that insistent turn motif which is now replaced by a lilting couplet theme (highlighted in green) that contrasts with the previous motifs. This theme passes nicely between each instrument, but it doesn’t seem to resolve anything.
Perhaps we’ve finally vanquished the obsessive turn motif after all! But alas, no, it reappears.
At this point, Beethoven presents a sort of mash up of all the themes he’s presented so far: the turn motif, the scale motif, and the lilting couplet theme. The music seems to lose direction and starts to question itself, marked by two stunning silences.
So where do we go from here? In typical Beethovenian fashion, he announces some sforzandi (remember, “suddenly with force”) chords that lead us to the end of the exposition where, you guessed it, the turn motif returns (plus a new condensed whirling variation of the turn motif highlighted in pink) with a surprise appearance of the scale motif.
And before we realise it, the exposition is over. And what an exciting exposition it was. Even with such a little amount of material, Beethoven created an attention-grabbing opening that drives forward and keeps us guessing at every turn.
Now that we’ve heard all the separate elements of the exposition, let’s see how they all work together.
Contrapuntal Development
Don’t let the term counterpoint scare you. We talked about it in the last blog post. It’s just the art of combining two or more independent melodies to be played simultaneously. The example below is an excerpt from the last movement of Beethoven’s D major quartet, Op. 18, no.3. Each different color represents an independent melody that could stand alone. But when combined with other independent melodies (different colors), it creates a thrilling effect known as counterpoint.
Well, in the development of this movement, Beethoven writes contrapuntally to add drama and intensity. He begins the development with a surprising move to A major, then of course the turn motif reappears, which seems to add doubt to the quartet. Where are we going?
Did you notice the intrusions of the turn motif and the insecurity that they caused? Well, Beethoven is about to unleash a furious passage of imitative counterpoint based on the turn motif that causes the quartet to spin out of control. You’ll hear the turn motif, followed by a new countermelody (highlighted in purple). A countermelody is simply a melody that plays against the main subject (in this case the turn motif) in a contrapuntal passage. You’ll notice that the instruments enter one after the other in quick succession giving the music a manic quality to it. Beethoven also writes shocking off-beat sforzandi which adds even more drama and anxiety.
Intense stuff! The first violin then tries to control the situation by playing a descending passage, based of course on the turn motif. The second violin follows suit. But again where are we going?
This brings us to the final section of the development. At this point the quartet settles on a prolonged C major chord. C major is what’s called the “dominant” of our home key F major. The “dominant” of a key has a strong draw aurally back to the “tonic” or home key. You don’t really need to understand the theory behind it, but I think you’ll hear how that prolonged C major chord adds a strong sense of anticipation. Beethoven adds to this harmonic feeling the scale motif frantically passing back and forth between the instruments. Add to this that sforzandi are being hammered out in practically every measure, and it all creates a sense of excited anticipation. So when we finally arrive back to F major and the return of the opening turn motif (this time fortissimo or very loud), it all feels inevitable and satisfying.
An exciting conclusion
The recapitulation largely unfolds as we might expect: mimicking the exposition. But then Beethoven throws something unexpected into the mix for a bit of drama. Here the recapitulation ends just like the exposition: an exchange of the turn motif which turns into an explosion of the scale motif. But instead of ending, the music takes a wild turn: a version of the countermelody from the contrapuntal section of the development brings the music to a halt twice!
The sudden drop of momentum makes it unclear of where we will go next. But the quartet seems to just shrug off what just happened by presenting a skipping variation of the turn motif (highlighted in salmon) accompanied by the countermelody from the development. After this, Beethoven appends a new little addition to the countermelody, which we’ll call the countermelody extension (highlighted in grey) that accompanies the original turn motif. Later, he recalls the whirling variation of the turn motif that we saw in the previous example. So to end the movement, Beethoven passes these five distinct motifs—the turn motif, the whirling variation of the turn motif, the skipping variation of the turn motif, the countermelody, and the countermelody extension—around the ensemble in a playful way. The music crescendos and of course a few statements of the original turn motif closes the movement with a bang.
What a fantastic first movement of this early Beethoven quartet! It combines elements that we’ll see Beethoven develop to even greater depth later in his life, such as motivic obsession, intense counterpoint, surprising key changes, sudden changes of mood, and more. Next week, we’ll look at the intensely emotional second movement of this quartet. In the meantime, check out our upcoming season premiere where we’ll play both the D major and this F major Op. 18 quartets.