View source for String Quartet No. 13 (Beethoven)

{{Short description|1826 composition designated Op. 130}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024}}
{{Infobox musical composition
| name = String Quartet
| subtitle = No. 13
| type = [[Late string quartets (Beethoven)|Late string quartet]]
| composer = {{nowrap|[[Ludwig van Beethoven]]}}
| image = Beethoven op 130.jpg
| image_upright = 1.1
| caption = Coversheet of Beethoven's Op. 130 as published in Berlin on 2 June 1827
| key = [[B-flat major|B{{music|flat}} major]]
| opus = 130
| composed = 1825
| dedication = [[Nikolai Borisovich Galitzin|Nikolai Galitzin]]
| published = 1827
| duration = c. 45 min
| movements = Six
| premiere_date = March 1826
| premiere_performers = [[Schuppanzigh Quartet]]
}}
The '''String Quartet No. 13''' in B{{music|flat}} major, [[opus number|Op.]] 130, by [[Ludwig van Beethoven]] was completed (in its final form) in November 1826.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ludwig0van0beethoven.tripod.com/beethtranscending.html|title=Transcending to Beyond (1824–1827)|website=ludwig0van0beethoven.tripod.com}}</ref> The number traditionally assigned to it is based on the order of its publication; it is actually Beethoven's 14th quartet in order of composition. It was premiered (in its original form) in March 1826 by the [[Schuppanzigh Quartet]] and dedicated to [[Nikolai Borisovich Galitzin|Nikolai Galitzin]] on its publication in 1827.

== Movements ==
Beethoven originally wrote the work in six [[movement (music)|movement]]s, lasting 42–50 minutes, as follows:
{{Ordered list|type=upper-roman
| Adagio, ma non troppo – Allegro (B{{music|flat}} major)
| Presto (B{{music|flat}} minor)
| Andante con moto, ma non troppo. Poco scherzoso (D{{music|flat}} major)
| Alla danza tedesca. Allegro assai (G major)
| Cavatina. Adagio molto espressivo (E{{music|flat}} major)
| Große Fuge (Grande Fugue op.133): Ouverture. Allegro – Meno mosso e moderato – Allegretto – Fuga. [Allegro] – Meno Mosso e moderato – Allegro molto e con brio – Allegro (B{{music|flat}} major)
}}

(Nomenclature: "danza tedesca" means "German dance", "Cavatina" a short and simple song, and "Große Fuge" means "Great [[Fugue]]" or "Grand Fugue".)

The work is unusual among quartets in having six movements. They follow the pattern of movements seen in the [[Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)|Ninth Symphony]] and occasionally elsewhere in Beethoven's work (opening, dance movement, slow movement, finale), except that the middle part of the cycle is repeated: opening, dance movement, slow movement, dance movement, slow movement, finale.

===New finale===
Negative reaction to the work's final movement at the first performance, and his publisher's urging, led Beethoven to write a substitute for the final movement, a [[Contra dance|contredanse]] much shorter and lighter than the enormous ''[[Große Fuge]]'' it replaced. This new finale was written in the late autumn of 1826, during a relapse into severe illness,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Marliave|first=Joseph de|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/337453|title=Beethoven's quartets|date=1961|publisher=Dover Publications|others=Jean Escarra, Hilda Andrews|isbn=0-486-20694-7|location=New York|oclc=337453}}</ref> and is the final complete piece of music Beethoven composed before his death in March 1827. It is marked: "Finale: Allegro in B{{music|flat}} major". Beethoven never witnessed a performance of the quartet in its final form; it was premiered on 22 April 1827, nearly a month after his death.

The original finale was published separately under the title ''Große Fuge'' as Opus 133. Modern performances sometimes follow the composer's original intentions, leaving out the substitute finale and concluding with the fugue.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kahn|first=Robert S.|title=Beethoven and the Grosse Fuge: Music, Meaning, and Beethoven's Most Difficult Work|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q2T99ZNA2E4C&q=1461664055|accessdate=16 September 2017|year=2010|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-1-4616-6405-5|pages=3–6}}</ref> British composer [[Robert Simpson (composer)|Robert Simpson]] argues that Beethoven's intentions are best served by playing the quartet as a seven-movement work, with the ''Große Fuge'' followed by the replacement finale.<ref name="The Robert Simpson Society – Dedicated to the music, writings and study of British composer Robert Simpson q939">{{cite web | title=Programme notes on the Beethoven string quartets – The Robert Simpson Society | website=The Robert Simpson Society – Dedicated to the music, writings and study of British composer Robert Simpson | url=https://robertsimpson.org.uk/writings/authored-by-robert-simpson/programme-notes-on-the-beethoven-string-quartets/ | access-date=22 February 2024}}</ref>

== Judgments ==

The [[cavatina]] that serves as the fifth movement is generally considered the quartet's pinnacle. According to [[Michael Steinberg (music critic)|Michael Steinberg]], it is "one of Beethoven's most inward and wonderful slow movements."<ref>[[Michael Steinberg (music critic)|Michael Steinberg]], in ''The Beethoven Quartet Companion'', ed. Robert Winter and Robert Martin (University of California Press, 1994) pp. 227–244</ref> Beethoven declared "that he had composed this cavatina truly in the tears of melancholy" and that "never had his own music made such an impression on him".<ref>Violinist [[Karl Holz (violinist)|Karl Holz]], quoted in [[Jean Massin|Jean]] and [[Brigitte Massin]], ''Ludwig van Beethoven'', Fayard, 1967, p. 718.</ref>

Some commentators also rank very high the freshness, grace and sensitivity<ref>"what this ''andante'' loses in solemnity, it does more than recover in freshness and grace, and it yields to no music from the last period for sensibility."{{harvnb|Kerman|1988|p=380}}</ref> of the third movement ({{lang|it|Andante con moto, ma non troppo. Poco scherzando}}). It was [[Theodor Helm]]'s favorite movement,<ref>[[Theodor Helm]], ''Beethovens Streichquarette'', Leipzig, 1921, quoted in {{harvnb|Kerman|1988|pp=380, 461}}.</ref> and [[Daniel Gregory Mason]] used four bars of this movement as the frontispiece of his study of Beethoven's quartets.<ref>[[Daniel Gregory Mason]], ''The Quartets of Beethoven'', New York, 1947, quoted in {{harvnb|Kerman|1988|pp=380–381, 461}}.</ref>

==In media==
The Cavatina (performed by the [[Budapest String Quartet]]) is the final piece on the [[Voyager Golden Record]], a [[phonograph record]] containing a broad sample of Earth's sounds, languages, and music sent into interstellar space in 1977 with the two unmanned [[Voyager program|Voyager]] probes.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/whats-on-the-record/music/|title=Voyager – Music on the Golden Record|website=voyager.jpl.nasa.gov}}</ref> It follows the [[gospel blues]] song "[[Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground]]" by [[Blind Willie Johnson]], a blind and a deaf musician.''[[Voyager 1]]'' entered interstellar space in 2012; ''[[Voyager 2]]'' followed suit in 2018.

The Cavatina also appears in "Love and War", an episode from the [[M*A*S*H season 6|sixth season of ''M*A*S*H'']], in the background as Hawkeye has dinner with an aristocratic Korean woman.

== Ownership of manuscript ==
Beethoven, who died in 1827, gave the score of opus 130's fourth movement to his secretary, [[Karl Holz (violinist)|Karl Holz]]. At least two private owners in Vienna are known to have later acquired it. In the early 20th century, it came into the possession of the Petscheks, a wealthy [[Czech Jewish]] family involved in banking and the mining industry.<ref name="k675">{{cite web | title=Bedeutendes Beethoven-Manuskript kommt nach Bonn | website=miz.org | date=8 January 2025 | url=https://miz.org/de/nachrichten/bedeutendes-beethoven-manuskript-kommt-nach-bonn | language=de | access-date=8 January 2025}}</ref>

Following the [[Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945)|Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia]] in 1938, the Petscheks fled to the United States. They attempted to send the score by post, but it was intercepted by the [[Gestapo]]. The Nazis asked an expert from The [[Moravian Museum]] in [[Brno]] to verify the score's authenticity. According to the current museum curator, Simona Šindelářová, the expert recognized Beethoven's handwriting, but in order to save the manuscript from being [[Nazi plunder|looted]] he lied to the Nazis and said it was not authentic. The museum was then allowed to keep it. It remained with the Moravian Museum for more than 80 years.<ref name="k675" />

The Nazis seized most of the Petscheks' assets and possessions, which Czechoslovakia's Communist regime nationalized after the war. Franz Petschek, who had run the family's mining businesses in Czechoslovakia, tried from his new home in the U.S. to get the manuscript back but got scant sympathy from the Communist government.<ref name="k675" />

In August 2022, the Moravian Museum returned the manuscript to the heirs of the Petschek family, adhering to the [[Terezin Declaration|Terezín Declaration]], which urged governments to make every effort to return former Jewish property confiscated by the Nazis, fascists, and their collaborators to its original owners.<ref name="k675" /><ref name="Janicek" />

Before returning the manuscript, the museum exhibited it for five days. It had not been exhibited during the museum's prolonged custody of it. "It's one of the most precious items in our collections", Šindelářová said. "We're sorry about losing it, but it rightly belongs to the Petschek family".<ref name="Janicek">{{cite news| last=Janicek | first=Karel | last2=Fabian | first2=Emanuel | last3=Fabian | first3=Emanuel | title=Czech museum to return original Beethoven score to family that fled Holocaust |newspaper=[[The Times of Israel]]| date=3 December 2022 | url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/czech-museum-to-return-original-beethoven-score-to-family-that-fled-holocaust/ | access-date=22 February 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=Czech museum to return Beethoven score saved from Nazis to its owners |publisher=[[Euronews]]| date=4 December 2022 | url=https://www.euronews.com/culture/2022/12/04/czech-museum-to-return-beethoven-manuscript-saved-from-the-nazis-to-its-rightful-owners | access-date=22 February 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | last=Goldstein | first=Caroline | title=A Czech Museum Is Returning a Prized Beethoven Score Looted from a Family During World War II | website=[[Artnet]] News | date=5 December 2022 | url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world-archives/a-czech-museum-is-returning-a-prized-beethoven-score-looted-from-a-family-during-world-war-ii-2222860 | access-date=22 February 2024}}</ref>

In 2024, the [[Beethoven House]] in [[Bonn]] acquired the original manuscript of the fourth movement.<ref name="k675" />

== See also ==
* [[Late string quartets (Beethoven)]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}
'''Sources'''
* {{cite book|last=Kerman|first=Joseph|author-link=Joseph Kerman|title=Les quatuors de Beethoven|trans-title=The Beethoven Quartets (1967)|language=fr|translator=[[Marcel Marnat]]|location=Paris|publisher=Seuil|year=1988}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book|last=Vernon|first=David|title=Beethoven: The String Quartets|date=2023 |location=Edinburgh|publisher=Candle Row Press, 2023|isbn=978-1-7396599-2-9|ref=none}}

==External links==
*{{IMSLP|work=String Quartet No.13, Op.130 (Beethoven, Ludwig van)|cname=String Quartet No. 13}}
*[https://traffic.libsyn.com/gardnermuseum/beethoven_op130.mp3 Performance of the quartet with the Große Fuge] by the [[Orion String Quartet]] from the [[Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum]] in [[MP3]] format

{{Beethoven string quartets|state=expanded}}
{{Voyager Golden Record}}
{{Portal bar|Classical music}}
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[[Category:String quartets by Ludwig van Beethoven|String quartet 13]]
[[Category:1825 compositions]]
[[Category:Compositions in B-flat major]]
[[Category:Commissioned music]]
[[Category:Music dedicated to nobility or royalty]]
[[Category:Music dedicated to benefactors or patrons]]
[[Category:Contents of the Voyager Golden Record]]