String Quartet No. 3 (Beethoven)

String Quartet
No. 3
Early string quartet by Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven, c. 1796
Key	D major
Opus	18, No. 3
Composed	1798–1800
Dedication	Joseph Franz von Lobkowitz
Published	1801
Movements	Four

The String Quartet No. 3 in D major, Op. 18, No. 3, was written by Ludwig van Beethoven between 1798 and 1800 and published in 1801, dedicated to Joseph Franz von Lobkowitz. Although it is numbered third, it was the first quartet Beethoven composed.

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Transcription

Analysis

It consists of four movements:

Allegro (D major)
Andante con motor (B-flat major)
Menuetto Allegretto (D major)
Presto (D major)

According to Steinberg, this is "the gentlest, most consistently lyrical work [within Beethoven's Op. 18]",^[1] except for the fourth movement, in which "Beethoven first explores the idea of shifting the centre of gravity toward the end of a multimovement work".^[2]

The first movement starts with a gentle and unassuming theme:

However, its return at the start of the recapitulation shows the theme in an entirely different light. Philip Radcliffe (1965, p. 24) describes this moment as “beautifully contrived”.^[3] Burstein (1998, p. 295) describes the

First movement, bars 156-162

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dramatic and unusual harmonic progression at the end of the development section as “breathtaking”.^[4]

“The sudden reinterpretation of the C♯ creates a type of tonal crisis which has deep structural ramifications for the entire movement. Beethoven’s brilliant manner of dealing with the implications of this unusual strategy indicates a debt to his teacher, Haydn, and also reveals much about Beethoven’s own craft and artistic vision”.^[5] The final movement contains a theme that resembles the Mexican Hat Dance.

Notes

^ Steinberg, p. 159
^ Steinberg, p. 163
^ Radcliffe, P. (1965) Beethoven’s String Quartets. London, Hutchinson.
^ Burstein, L. P. (1998, p. 295) “Surprising returns: the VII# in Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 18 No.3, and its antecedents in Haydn”. Music Analysis, 17/3 pp. 295-312.
^ Burstein, L. P. (1998, p. 295) “Surprising returns: the VII# in Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 18 No.3, and its antecedents in Haydn". Music Analysis, 17/3 pp. 295-312.

References

Robert Winter, Robert Martin eds. (1994). The Beethoven Quartet Companion. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-08211-7.; especially the essay by Michael Steinberg (pp. 159–163)

External links

String Quartet No. 3: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
Performance of String Quartet no. 3 by the Borromeo String Quartet from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in MP3 format

v t e String quartets by Ludwig van Beethoven
Opus 18	No. 1 in F major No. 2 in G major No. 3 in D major No. 4 in C minor No. 5 in A major No. 6 in B♭ major
Opus 59 (Rasumovsky)	No. 7 in F major No. 8 in E minor No. 9 in C major
Other middle period quartets	No. 10 in E♭ major, Op. 74 (Harp) No. 11 in F minor, Op. 95 (Serioso)
Late quartets	No. 12 in E♭ major, Op. 127 No. 13 in B♭ major, Op. 130 No. 14 in C♯ minor, Op. 131 No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132 Große Fuge, Op. 133 No. 16 in F major, Op. 135
String quartet arrangement of Op. 14, No. 1 by Beethoven

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