The analytical significance of Beethoven's sketches for the string quartet in F major, opus 135

Abstract

The thesis is an analysis and transcription of the surviving sketches and autographs of Beethoven's String Quartet in F major, opus 135 from the point of view of analytical theory. Music analysis contains both explicit and implied assumptions and statements over a range of issues which can, in part, be tested in the composers own working drafts and sketches. Important among these assumptions are those which concern themselves with intentionality and unity. The aim of the thesis is neither to discredit nor validate analysis but to contextualise it in a way which makes the origins of its thought more transparent. This process, in tum, serves to contextualise the composer's own view of his work. Analysis of the sketches of each of the four movements of the quartet and also of the joke canon, WoO 196, "Es mu/3 sein", generates particular analytical issues. For the first movement, the generation of the principal theme suggests combinatorial strategies, while the drafts for the development raise issues of large-scale voice leading and the structural significance of register. Discussion of the sketches for the second movement revolves around phrase structure and hyperrhythm, while those for the third movement are pertinent to analytical discussion of motivic unity and, again, the structural function of register. The sketches for WoO 196 suggest a tension between the demands of motivic identity and voice-leading which was carried over into the finale of opus 135. Those for the finale engage with the notion of unity in many analytical manifestations: voice-leading, motivic links and the issue of stylistic self-parody. Careful analysis of compositional procedures suggests a model for the compositional process based on a diverse range of circumstances. The thesis concludes that the unity of this work is most usefully seen, not in terms of its immanent integrity, nor in terms of its contribution to the organicist narratives describing a succession of masterpieces, but ·rather as the result of a set of responses by its composer to the interaction of sometimes conflicting compositional habits, aesthetic values and circumstances.