String Quartet in A Major, Opus 18, no 5 – Beethoven
by richibi
“Adagio“ (1899)
________
for especially Kathy, who,
according to a mutual friend,
needs our prayers
please be generous
from his Opus 18, among which there
are six, according to the Classical
tradition, is still steeped in Classical
conditions, tonality, tempo, and
reiteration, but is revolutionary for
its brashness, its personal
manifestation – hey, it says, I’m the
Pied Piper, I’m not hiding in the
courtly shadows any longer, my
stage is now the concert hall, no
more the aristocratic, however
stately, chamber music, which has
ceded, until now, to propriety and
deference rather than, in a word,
genius, I’m Beethoven, Beethoven
says, watch me
he doesn’t disappoint
his 5th String Quartet, Opus 18, note,
written in 1801, is a very early work of
Beethoven, it’s nearly easy to confuse
incidentally, earlier studied
the era is still extricating itself from the
Classical model, the Classical imperatives
are there, tempo, tonality, and repetition
remain rigid elements of musical
obsessive, though each movement
imprints itself, by constant reiteration,
on our minds, much like pop music
but I miss an adagio, the moral ground,
I think, of a piece of music, the place
where your heart really takes over and
begins to incorporate the work‘s
humanity, I ascribe this unfortunate
omission to Beethoven’s youthful
exuberance, he would’ve been around
30, and setting out, with verve and
ambition, and he would be performing
before general now, rather than
aristocratic, audiences, he had a show
to put on, not just background chamber
music
note that the second movement is a
minuet, a sure sign of the Classical
Period, extinct in only a few further
years
note that the third movement, the
andante cantabile, a leisurely walking
pace, stepped up, rather than down,
to a veritable clippety-clop in some
instances, is a set of variations, to,
incidentally, settle its theme into
one’s very consciousness, I’ve been
humming these movements for the
past several days, not at all
unprofitably
note also that you’ll probably soon
they are utterly captivating, after,
Richibi's Weblog 