Fugues and Contrasting Forms in Five Beethoven String Quartets

Abstract

Although not common, fugues are sometimes found in Beethoven's string quartets. More specifically, they can be found in op.18, no 4, op. 59, no. 3, op. 95, op. 131 and the Grosse Fuge. The fugues range from fledglings to fully developed fugues, and none can be said to be pure fugue. On the contrary, they are interacting with a contrasting form, either a sonata or ternary form. In order to understand the quartets better, it is important that we understand these interactions. Our intention is to make one of Beethoven's little known and unusual techniques more available to music theorists and composers.

We call each of the movements experiments. Curiously, there was one in each of his early, middle, and late middle periods, and two in his late period. Although the experiments appeared only intermittently, Beethoven never forgot them. They were by no means exactly alike, and each one was stranger, and more complex, than the one before. Even so, they were not isolated events, and we were able to discern a pattern. In short, we found that fugue and contrasting form were progressively more entwined in each succeeding quartet, and increasingly difficult to pull apart. Moreover, the unique forms that emerged were progressively more complex, idiosyncratic, and even weird. Five new forms, each one different from the others, emerged. The work required a great deal of delicate maneuvering, and was not easy. In the essay, we see exactly how Beethoven went about it.

My string quartet was significantly influenced by the five quartets, and particularly by the Grosse Fuge. The idea that the present can only be understood retrospectively, that is, once it has become the past, may be said to be the same in both quartets. Without an established sense of form, and with seemingly unrelated sections continuously juxtaposed one against the other, we experience an urgency to carry earlier material forward, in order to relate the past to events that can only be revealed as the quartets unfold. Understanding this helps us understand the tense, idiosyncratic form, independent of any established texture or style, that characterizes quartets, and is critical to keep in mind if we are to understand either one.