Grosse Fuge

The Große Fuge is a chamber music composition by Ludwig Van Beethoven famous for its demanding performative quality and its unrelentingly introspective nature, even by the standards of his late period. It was written between 1822 and 1826, when the composer was totally deaf.

Beethoven originaly composed the massive fugue as the final movement of the string quartet opus 130. However, the Fuge was deemed so demanding of contemporary performers and audiences that his publisher urged him to write a new finale to opus 130. Beethoven, notorious for his stubborn personality and indifference to public opinion or taste, acquiesced to his publisher's request and published the Fuge as a separate opus number, opus 133. The finale that replaced the Fuge is considered to be redundant and out of place; ironically, it was also the last piece of music Beethoven ever published. Today, performances usually include both movements.

When the work was first performed, the audience demanded encores of two of the movements of the quartet. "Why not the fugue?" Beethoven demanded. "Cattle! Asses!"

Analysis

The quartet opens with an Overtura, which introduces one of the two themes of the fugue - the same haunting melody that Beethoven uses to introduce the string quartet opus 132. Beethoven then plunges into a violently dissonant double fugue, with a second subject of dramatically leaping tones, and the four instruments of the quartet bursting out in triplets, dotted figures, and cross-rhythms.

Following this opening fugal section is a series of sections, in contrasting keys, rhythms and tempi. Sections often break off suddenly, without real preparation, to create a structural texture that is jagged and surprising. Toward the end, there is a slowing, with long pauses, leading into a recapitulation of the overture, and on to a rushing finale that ends the movement.

Resources

The Beethoven Quartet Companion, edited by Robert Winter and Robert Martin (1994: University of California Press) is an excellent reference for information on Beethoven's quartets. Another source of information is Beethoven's Quartets by Joseph de Marliave (originally published in 1928; republished in 1961 by Dover Press).