String Quartet No. 13 (Schubert)

Last updated

Schubert in 1825 Hohenems-franz-schubert-museum 05.jpg
Schubert in 1825

The String Quartet No. 13 in A minor (the Rosamunde Quartet), D 804, Op. 29, was written by Franz Schubert between February and March 1824. It dates roughly to the same time as his monumental Death and the Maiden Quartet , emerging around three years after his previous attempt to write for the string quartet genre, the Quartettsatz, D 703, that he never finished.

Contents

History

Starting in 1824, Schubert largely turned away from the composition of songs to concentrate on instrumental chamber music. In addition to the A-minor String Quartet, the Quartet in D minor, the Octet, the Grand Duo and Divertissement a la Hongroise (both for piano duet), and the Sonata for Arpeggione and Piano all date from that year. With the exception of the Grand Duo, all of these works display cyclic elements—that is, two or more movements in each work are deliberately related in some way to enhance the sense of unity. In the case of the A-minor Quartet, a motive from the third-movement Minuet becomes the most important melodic figure for the following finale. [1]

Schubert dedicated the work to Schuppanzigh, who served as the first violinist of the string quartet appointed by Beethoven. Schuppanzigh himself played in the premiere performance which took place on 14 March 1824.

Structure

The quartet consists of four movements which last around 30 minutes in total.

  1. Allegro ma non troppo
    The first movement opens with a texture reminiscent of the melancholic theme from one of Schubert's earliest songs, "Gretchen am Spinnrade" and also quotes "Schöne Welt, wo bist du?" The reference to "Gretchen am Spinnrade" is not a direct quotation, but rather is a similarity in the second violin's restless accompanimental figuration, hovering around the mediant and underpinned by a repeated figure in cello and viola, which precedes the first thematic entrance. This also recalls the accompaniment to the first subject of the "Unfinished" Symphony. [2] [3]
  2. Andante
    It is the second movement, however, which has lent the Quartet its nickname, being based on a theme from the incidental music for Rosamunde (a similar theme appears in the Impromptu in B-flat written three years later). The dactylspondee rhythm pervading this movement unmistakably shows the influence of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. [4] The form of this slow movement uses the same modified exposition-recapitulation form found in the slow movement of Schubert's "Great" C-major Symphony, where an ambiguity of formal definition is created by the introduction of a developmental passage shortly after the return of the primary theme in the recapitulation. [5]
  3. Menuetto: Allegretto – Trio
    The minuet quotes the melody of another song by Schubert, Die Götter Griechenlandes , D. 677, from November 1819, a connection only first noticed by Willi Kahl, more than a century after the work's composition. [6] The opening of this melody recurs in inversion at the beginning of the trio, and is later echoed in the opening of the finale. [7]
  4. Allegro moderato

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franz Schubert</span> Austrian composer (1797–1828)

Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short life, Schubert left behind a vast oeuvre, including more than 600 secular vocal works, seven complete symphonies, sacred music, operas, incidental music, and a large body of piano and chamber music. His major works include the art songs "Erlkönig", "Gretchen am Spinnrade", and "Ave Maria"; the Trout Quintet; the Symphony No. 8 in B minor (Unfinished); the Symphony No. 9 in C major (Great); the String Quartet No. 14 in D minor ; the String Quintet in C major; the Impromptus for solo piano; the last three piano sonatas; the Fantasia in F minor for piano four hands; the opera Fierrabras; the incidental music to the play Rosamunde; and the song cycles Die schöne Müllerin, Winterreise and Schwanengesang.

Sonata form is a musical structure generally consisting of three main sections: an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation. It has been used widely since the middle of the 18th century.

The Takács Quartet is a string quartet founded in Budapest, Hungary, and now based in Boulder, Colorado, United States.

This article is about music-related events in 1824.

<i>Trout Quintet</i> Piano quintet by Franz Schubert

The Trout Quintet (Forellenquintett) is the popular name for the Piano Quintet in A major, D. 667, by Franz Schubert. The piano quintet was composed in 1819, when he was 22 years old; it was not published, however, until 1829, a year after his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">String Quartet No. 14 (Beethoven)</span> Late string quartet by Ludwig van Beethoven

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, 131.

Cyclic form is a technique of musical construction, involving multiple sections or movements, in which a theme, melody, or thematic material occurs in more than one movement as a unifying device. Sometimes a theme may occur at the beginning and end ; other times a theme occurs in a different guise in every part.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">String Quartet No. 14 (Schubert)</span> 1824 composition for string quartet by Schubert

The String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, D 810, known as Death and the Maiden, is a piece by Franz Schubert that has been called "one of the pillars of the chamber music repertoire". It was composed in 1824, after the composer suffered from a serious illness and realized that he was dying. It is named for the theme of the second movement, which Schubert took from a song he wrote in 1817 of the same title. But, writes Walter Willson Cobbett, all four movements of the quartet are welded "into a unity under the pressure of a dominating idea - the dance of death."

A minor is a minor scale based on A, A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has no flats and no sharps. Its relative major is C major and its parallel major is A major.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">String Quintet (Schubert)</span> String quintet composition by Franz Schubert

Franz Schubert's final chamber work, the String Quintet in C major is sometimes called the "Cello Quintet" because it is scored for a standard string quartet plus an extra cello instead of the extra viola which is more usual in conventional string quintets. It was composed in 1828 and completed just two months before the composer's death. The first public performance of the piece did not occur until 1850, and publication occurred three years later in 1853. Schubert's only full-fledged string quintet, it has been praised as "sublime" or "extraordinary" and as possessing "bottomless pathos," and is generally regarded as Schubert's finest chamber work as well as one of the greatest compositions in all chamber music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quartettsatz, D 703 (Schubert)</span> Composition by Franz Schubert

The Quartettsatz c-Moll D 703 was composed by Franz Schubert in December 1820 as the first movement, Allegro assai, of a string quartet he was never to complete. Upon publication it was nonetheless listed as his "String Quartet No. 12". The nine-minute work is regarded as an early product of the composer's mature phase of output.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ignaz Schuppanzigh</span> Austrian violinist

Ignaz Schuppanzigh was an Austrian violinist and friend of Beethoven, and leader of Count Razumovsky's private string quartet. Schuppanzigh and his quartet premiered many of Beethoven's string quartets, and in particular, the late string quartets. The Razumovsky quartet, which Schuppanzigh founded in late 1808, is considered to be the first professional string quartet. Until the founding of this quartet, quartet music was played primarily by amateurs or by professional musicians who joined together on an ad hoc basis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sonata in C major for piano four-hands, D 812 (Schubert)</span> 1824 piano sonata by Franz Schubert

Franz Schubert wrote his Sonata in C major for piano four-hands, D 812, in June 1824 during his second stay at the Esterházy estate in Želiezovce. The extended work, in four movements, has a performance time of around 40 to 45 minutes. It was published as Grand Duo, Op. 140, in 1837, nine years after the composer's death.

The String Quintet No. 3 in C major, K. 515 was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Like all of Mozart's string quintets, it is a "viola quintet" in that it is scored for string quartet and an extra viola.

The Symphony No. 4 in C minor, D 417, is a symphony by Franz Schubert completed in April 1816 when Schubert was 19 years old, a year after his Third Symphony However, it was not premiered until November 19, 1849, in Leipzig, more than two decades after Schubert's death. The symphony was called the Tragic by its composer.

Brian Newbould is an English composer, conductor and author who has conjecturally completed Franz Schubert's Symphonies D 708A in D major, No. 7 in E major, No. 8 in B minor ("Unfinished"), No. 10 ("Last") in D major, Piano Sonata in C major, D 840, Quartettsatz, D. 703 and String Trio, D. 471. He was educated at Gravesend Grammar School, and earned a BMus degree with top honors from the University of Bristol.

The Schuppanzigh Quartet was a string quartet formed in Vienna in the 1790s by the violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh. It continued, with breaks and changes of membership, for many years. Schuppanzigh was a close friend and admirer of Ludwig van Beethoven, and the quartet gave the first performances of many of Beethoven's string quartets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Linke</span> Cellist and composer (1783 - 1837)

Joseph Linke was a cellist and composer who had a distinguished career in Vienna, as a soloist and as a member of the Schuppanzigh Quartet. He took part in the first performances of string quartets and other chamber works of Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert.

In music, Op. 2 stands for Opus number 2. Compositions that are assigned this number include:

References

  1. Chusid 1964, 37.
  2. Westrup 1969, 31.
  3. Taylor 2014, 49.
  4. Temperley 1981, 149.
  5. Shamgar 2001, 154.
  6. Kahl 1930, 2:358.
  7. Wollenberg 2011, 201–202, n11.

Sources

Further reading