| String Quartet | |
|---|---|
| No. 14 | |
| Late string quartet by Ludwig van Beethoven | |
&sq=Envato&lang=en&file=File:Ludwig_van_Beethoven_-_Sketches_for_the_String_Quartet_Op._131._(BL_Add_MS_38070_f._51r).jpg) Beethoven's sketches for his Op. 131 quartet in the British Library | |
| Key | C-sharp minor |
| Opus | 131 |
| Composed | 1826 |
| Dedication | Baron Joseph von Stutterheim |
| Duration | c. 45 min |
| Movements | Seven |
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".[1] It is said that upon listening to a performance of this quartet Schubert remarked, "After this, what is left for us to write?"[2] 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 Beethoven's nephew Karl into the army after a suicide attempt. Beethoven died before the work's publication by Schott Music and before its first performance, the date of which is uncertain.
- ^ Steinberg, Michael (1994). Robert Winter; Robert Martin (eds.). The Beethoven Quartet Companion. University of California Press. p. 264. ISBN 0-520-08211-7.
- ^ Woolfe, Zachary (8 August 2011). "At Mozart Festival, Dvorak and Others Shine". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 May 2013.
- ^ Robert Schumann (1877). Music and Musicians: Essays and Criticisms. Translated and edited by Fanny Raymond Ritter. Oxford University Press. p. 391.