GRMUS T616 — The Late Beethoven Quartets

2 credits
Fall
Kendall Briggs

Beethoven’s late string quartets are often considered the greatest body of literature ever written for that genre. These quartets (Op. 127 through Op. 135) were written in the last three years of the master’s life; their influence is unprecedented in music literature. Since their composition they have been the standard by which all composers must measure their creative efforts in this genre. This course will explore the late quartets in detail, marking their compositional significance in relation to Beethoven’s other works and examining their effect on the development of the quartet as a genre. The relationship of these works to extramusical events in Beethoven’s life, to his contemporaries, and to the future of quartet writing will be stressed. The history of the string quartet as well as performance practices will also be discussed.