String Quartet, Opus 59, no 3 – Beethoven
by richibi
“View from the Small Warmbrunn Sturmhaube“ (1811)
_____________
for Joselyn
because I hadn’t been that enthralled with
Beethoven’s Middle Period string quartets,
when Joselyn called and asked me what I
was up to, I answered, a hiatus, honey, I’m
experiencing a hiatus
I’d heard the first movement of Beethoven’s
Opus 59, no 3, the last Razumovsky, and had
been less than impressed, the next movement
could, if she could entice me, wait
well, she said, get your hiatus right down
here, let’s have a game of Scrabble, she
lives in the building a few floors down
she beat me, as she always does, often
trounces me, but it is a distraction from
my other more philosophical, intellectual,
pursuits, however much it might inform
them
the Opus 59, no 3, is not, for me,
especially convincing, as are none of the
string quartets until the 14th, but they are
historically significant, having changed
the very course of music since, they’re
worth, consequently, a visit
you’ll note that you don’t sit back to listen
to Beethoven, you sit up, this is not
entertainment, it is a proclamation,
Beethoven arrests your attention, doesn’t
court it, this is not, in the new era, chamber
music, as we call it still, it is music for the
stage, an audience, see Paganini for more
proof, if you need it, of that
Beethoven takes a trinket and explores it,
a motive, if you will, applies volume to it,
changes of pace, changes of tonality,
eccentric rhythms, to eventually lose one
in a world of, if not confusion,
enchantment, usually, with a few deft
musical turns, enchantment, a somnolent
adagio, for instance, becomes a profoundly
seductive tune, for an however brief moment
later, he will utterly, and constantly, inspire,
during his, indeed oracular, Late Period
but other miracles will transpire before that,
of which I’ll, assuredly, keep you posted
R ! chard
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