Opus 135 String Quartet in F major
I) Allegretto – II) Vivace – III) Assai lento, cantante e tranquillo – IV) Der schwer gefaßte Entschluß (Es muß sein?) Grave, ma non troppo
Opus 135 String Quartet in F major, Op. 135, dedicated to J. N. Wolfmayer, July–October 1826, published in Berlin and Paris by Schlesinger (full score and separate parts), September 1827. GA no. 52 (series 6/16) – B. 135 – KH. 135 – L. IV, p. 303 – N. 135 – T. 262.
The original manuscript of the first movement is held in Vienna (Wittgenstein collection); that of the second movement has been lost; the third movement is preserved in the Royal Library of Brussels, and the fourth in the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek in Berlin. Sketches are located in Berlin and in the library of the Paris Conservatory. While it is not impossible that some of these sketches, in whole or in part, date back to the final months of 1825—when the B-flat major Quartet, Op. 130 (the last of the three composed by Beethoven for Prince Galitzin) was nearing completion—the work as a whole belongs to the summer of 1826 and is reported as finished in a letter from the master to the publisher Haslinger dated 13 October.
As Thayer-Riemann writes, the work was originally conceived in three movements, that is, without the Adagio. The first movement (Allegretto) is, in the whole of its various sections, of a new type (in terms of expression), of a character that might be called “gracefully humorous.”
Certainly, one does not find here the depth or the expressive breadth of the previous quartets. There is a theme which at the beginning might be said to symbolize—analogous to the other one in the Finale, which bears the words: “Muss es sein?”—some sort of tragic question or proposition, or an appeal to fate, or whatever one might imagine to render its character serious, pensive; yet everything resolves itself into a play of light motifs, delicately polyphonic: even in the recapitulation, where some elements gain weight, some emotional hints are amplified, and some interjective voices become more dramatic.
The Vivace begins with a rhythmic phrase in the bass, integrated with the syncopations of the violins in piano and pianissimo, and then, after a sudden, strange forte call in E-flat (recall the sudden C-sharp following a natural C, with the same coloristic alternation, in the Finale of the Eighth Symphony), repeated with inverted parts, it is developed with alternatives of crescendo, forte, diminuendo to pianissimo. This development continues in the subsequent sections, for although the themes may at first appear differentiated, there is in fact only a single musical idea evolving through the various deductions.
From the convoluted formula mentioned above, a five-note launching rhythmic figure stands out, giving impetus and guidance to a repeatedly ascending passage, through the G and A tones, finally unfolding almost orgasmically in the reiterated rhythm for 47 measures on the same five notes, played by the three lower instruments in octaves, while the first violin insists on a dancing figure, frenetically elaborating it. In this final episode, in which, so to speak, the conceptual knot of the entire movement is untied, we pass from fortissimo, with sforzandi on the first beats of each measure, to forte, and then, toward the end, decreasing to piano, ever softer, pianissimo, ppp, before returning, modulating, to the repetition of the first section.
Other precedents for the entry of the melody in the third movement over a gradually strengthening harmony, equally beautiful, are found in the slow movements of the Op. 127 Quartet and the Ninth Symphony, with the difference that there it involves the gradual formation of a cadence chord, from the resolution of which, with the entry of the melody itself, the full and peaceful harmony of the key is formed; whereas here the harmony, which unfolds from the very beginning, is that of a perfect chord (D-flat major), which heightens the character of immobility, of absolute calm in the melodic position.
It asserts itself as singing and tranquil, with a restrained sweetness; gradually it becomes more animated through its chromaticism and the sforzandi alternating with the piano passages. A slower episode in C-sharp minor, hesitant, in short, jerky phrases reminiscent of the Arioso doloroso from the Piano Sonata Op. 110, interrupts the flow of the first effusion. This then returns more lively in its polyphonic motion, finally fragmenting into the broken phrasing of the first violin, supported by the three lower instruments with great delicacy, gradually fading away and retarding.
Beethoven titled the Finale: “Der schwer gefasste Entschluss”, explaining it with the words: “Muss es sein? Es muss sein”: written under the two themes respectively of the Grave, which serves as the introduction to the Allegro that immediately follows. Much has been discussed—perhaps too much—about the meaning of these words and their relationship to the music.
The character of the Allegro, and the very contrast between the gravity of the proposition (which, considered in itself, could, as mentioned earlier, be taken as a tragic questioning of fate—D’Indy notes the similarity of the Grave theme with the fundamental theme of Franck’s Symphony) and the lightness of the response, may suggest a playful intention. The words and music of the motto belong to the canon “Es muss sein!” listed as Biamonti No. 834. The motto might also be linked to a letter of October 30, 1826, in which Beethoven, sending the quartet to the bankers Tendler and Manstein (for delivery to the publisher Schlesinger), requested prompt payment of the agreed fee of 80 ducats.
Perhaps the master wished to make a musical caricature of some of those small, annoying miseries that so often tormented him, diverting him from the lofty work of creation. The way the movement is introduced, the very fact of the repeated introduction in its midst, and also the character of the light responses, as mentioned, in contrast to the grave question, recall another Finale—the melancholic one of Quartet Op. 18 No. 6; but here, twenty-six years of life and art intervene: the contrast, under the apparent guise of jest, is subtler, more pensive, and perhaps even more melancholic.
Moreover, had Beethoven not, only a few years earlier, forcibly wedged the semi-serious theme from Mozart’s Don Giovanni—“Notte e giorno faticar”—into the twenty-second variation on Diabelli’s waltz, as a piquant parody of his troubled daily life? Schering sees the first inspiration for the Quartet in certain scenes from Goethe’s Faust: First movement: Mephistopheles and the disciple; Second movement: Auerbach’s Cellar; Third movement: Faust’s monologue in Margaret’s chamber and Fourth movement: Faust and Margaret in the garden.
[By Biamonti Giovanni – Catalogo cronologico e tematico delle opere di Beethoven comprese quelle inedite e gli abbozzi non utilizzati, Torino, ILTE 1968]
Officil title: Opus 135 Quartett (F-dur) für zwei Violinen, Viola und Violoncello Widmung: Johann Nepomuk Wolfmayer NGA VI/5 AGA 52 = Serie 6/16
Creation and Publication: Drafted from around July to October 1826 and, according to Beethoven’s own statement, “bereits vollendet” (already completed) on October 13. On the autograph parts he copied immediately after finishing the score, he wrote: “Neuestes Quartett von L. v. Beethoven Gneixendorf am 30ten Oktober 1826.” On this date, or a few days later, Johann van Beethoven delivered the project to the engraver at Tendier & Manstein to forward it to Maurice Schlesinger in Paris. In August 1827, Adolph Martin Schlesinger published the original Paris edition in parts, followed in the autumn by the Berlin edition (in score and parts).
Beethoven’s first ideas for Op. 135 were written in the summer of 1826, while he was still completing the autograph score of Op. 131. During the composition of the new quartet, he also drew on material initially intended for Op. 131—for example, he used the theme of a postlude not employed in the seventh movement of the previous quartet. At the end of September 1826, Mathias Artaria asked the composer: “Sie haben ja ein neues kleines Quartett fertig?” But Beethoven likely only completed the composition during his stay with Johann van Beethoven in Gneixendorf at the beginning of the following month. On October 13, he wrote to Tobias Haslinger in Vienna: “[Das] Quartett für Schlesinger ist bereits vollendet, nur weiß ich [noch] nicht auf welchem Wege ich es Ihnen am sichersten senden soll, damit Sie die Güte haben, es bey Tendier u. Manstein abzugeben, u. auch das Geld dafür in Empfang zu nehmen” (BGA 2221). In a letter to Adolph Martin Schlesinger in Berlin on the same day, he also wrote: “Das Quartett ist vollendet, aber noch nicht ganz copirt, wird aber in wenigen Tagen abgegeben werden können” (BGA 2222).
Since Beethoven could not rely on his copyists in Gneixendorf, he copied the parts himself. According to the publisher, in a letter from Beethoven dated October 30, which Schlesinger said had been burned and was attached to the copy for the engraver, Beethoven confessed: “Sehen Sie, was ich für ein unglücklicher Mensch bin, nicht nur, dass es was schweres gewesen es zu schreiben, weil ich an etwas anderes viel grösseres dachte, und es nur schrieb, weil ich es Ihnen versprochen und Geld brauchte und dass es mir hart ankam können Sie aus dem es muss sein …. entziffern, aber nun kommt noch dazu, dass ich wünschte es Ihnen in Stimmen der Deutlichkeit für den Stich halber zu schicken und in ganz Mödlingen [!] finde ich keinen Kopisten, und da habe ich es selbst kopiren Müssen, das war einmahl ein sauber Stück Arbeit! Uf es ist geschehen. Amen” (BGA 2224).
It is not yet possible to verify whether Beethoven indeed found the composition of the final movement as difficult as reported by Schlesinger. The motto of the final movement likely has its roots in a planned performance of Quartet Op. 130 (with Op. 133) with Ignaz Anton Aloys Dembscher, who requested the parts from Beethoven and faced a monetary request from the composer.
Karl Holz relayed Beethoven’s response: “Dem Dembscher habe ich das Billett gegeben; er lachte recht, und fragte, ob es seyn muß?” (BKh 10 p. 63, end of July 1826). Beethoven then sent Dembscher a letter which presumably also contained the Canon WoO 196 “Es muss sein” (BGA 2174). He later reused this motif for the fourth movement of Op. 135. The connection Anton Schindler made with the housekeeper Barbara Holzmann, who worked for Beethoven only from the end of 1826, is fictitious. Rainer Cadenbach emphasizes that Beethoven may have conceived the quartet as the first of a new series. In a conversation notebook from the first week of July 1826, Karl Holz noted in relation to Op. 135: “Das wäre dann das 3tt in F,” “In D mol ist noch keines,” and “Es ist doch sonderbar, daß unter den vielen Quartetten Haydns keines in A mol ist.” Beethoven apparently recalled opening his series of Op. 18 and Op. 59 quartets with a quartet in F major. Cadenbach sees in this choice of key, and in the stylistic break from the previous Op. 131 quartet in C-sharp minor, a possible indication of a new beginning: it should be considered a link to the four “late” quartets that preceded it, which are famously cyclically interconnected.
Regarding the opus number: Maurice Schlesinger’s Paris edition bears the incorrect number 134, which had already been assigned in May 1827 to the four-hand arrangement of the Grosse Fuge.
Dedication: Johann Nepomuk Wolfmayer (1768–1841), a fabric merchant in Vienna, together with Alois Prigel, owner of the trading house “Johann Wolfmayer & Comp.” at Haarmarkt No. 639. Wolfmayer was a music enthusiast and a particular admirer of Beethoven. In September 1825, Karl Holz reported to the composer on a rehearsal of Quartet Op. 132: “Wolfmayer war auch dabey; er hat beym Adagio geweint wie ein Kind.” In 1814 Beethoven gave Wolfmayer his postal address (BGA 732, postscript). On April 9, 1818, Wolfmayer commissioned a Requiem from Beethoven for a guaranteed fee of 100 ducats, which was never performed (BGA 1252). Wolfmayer was originally the dedicatee of Op. 131. “Das würde sein glücklichster Augenblick seyn,” reported Ignaz Schuppanzigh to Beethoven in February 1827 (BKh 11 p. 220). The quartet was later dedicated to Freiherr von Stutterheim, while Wolfmayer received the dedication of Op. 135. The publisher was informed of the dedication only after Beethoven’s death by Anton Schindler (BGA 2292). Wolfmayer was one of the torchbearers at Beethoven’s funeral. At Beethoven’s estate auction in November 1827, Wolfmayer purchased the original manuscripts of works 48, 83, and 128, of WoO 129, and “ein Stück einer Sonate fürs Pianof und Flöte od Violin.”
First Performance: In a “Privat-Unterhaltung” by cellist Joseph Linke in the Musikverein Hall in Vienna on March 23, 1828, performed by the Schuppanzigh Quartet.
The sketches will be featured in an article specially created for the Beethoven Music Research Center, www.lvbeethoven.org
