Week 2: Comparing Haydn String Quartet Op. 33 “The Bird” and Beethoven String Quartet Op. 131

This week we are looking at the differences between a fairly early Haydn String Quartet and a Late Beethoven String Quartet.

Haydn: String Quartet Op. 33/3 in C Major “The Bird”

The Op. 33 String Quartets were written by Joseph Haydn in the summer and Autumn of 1781 for the Viennese publisher Artaria. This set of quartets has several nicknames, the most common of which is the “Russian” quartets, because Haydn dedicated the quartets to the Grand Duke Paul of Russia and many (if not all) of the quartets were premiered on Christmas Day, 1781, at the Viennese apartment of the Duke’s wife, the Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna.

Op. 33/3 in C Major
I Allegro moderato
II Scherzo: Allegretto,
III Adagio ma non troppo
IV Finale: Rondo – Presto

Beethoven: String Quartet Op. 131 No. 14 in C Sharp Minor

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 Opp. 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.”[3]

This work is dedicated to Baron Joseph von Stutterheim as a gesture of gratitude for taking his nephew, Karl, into the army after a suicide attempt. Beethoven did not live to hear the work’s first performance, the date of which is uncertain, nor did he see its publication by Schott Music.

I Adagio ma non troppo e molto espressivo, II Allegro molto vivace
III Allegro moderato – Adagio, IV Andante ma non troppo e molto cantabile – Più mosso – Andante moderato e lusinghiero – Adagio – Allegretto – Adagio, ma non troppo e semplice – Allegretto
V Presto, VI Adagio quasi un poco andante, VII Allegro

Alban Berg Quartet
Alban Berg Quartet
Some questions to consider:
  1. At the first hearing, how does the general “sound world” differ between the two quartets? Consider:
    * Range of Dynamics
    * Tone
    * Vibrato
    * Sound colours
    * Harmony and length of phrases
  2. How does the role of the instruments differ between the two quartets?
  3. How does the communication between the performers vary given that the recordings are both the Alban Berg Quartet?
  4. Why has the Haydn Quartet been nicknamed “The Bird”? And which other quartets also have names?
  5. Did Beethoven name any of his quartets?

Interesting Fact:

The movie “A Late Quartet”
was actually structured around Beethoven’s Op. 131.

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