String Quartet No. 13 (Schubert)

(Redirected from D. 804) 1824 composition by Franz Schubert "Rosamunde Quartet" redirects here. For the German musical quartet, see Rosamunde Quartett.

The String Quartet No. 13 in A minor (the Rosamunde Quartet), D 804, Op. 29, was written by Franz Schubert between February and March 1824. It dates roughly to the same time as his monumental Death and the Maiden Quartet, emerging around three years after his previous attempt to write for the string quartet genre, the Quartettsatz, D 703, that he never finished.

History

Starting in 1824, Schubert largely turned away from the composition of songs to concentrate on instrumental chamber music. In addition to the A-minor String Quartet, the Quartet in D minor, the Octet, the Grand Duo and Divertissement a la Hongroise (both for piano duet), and the Sonata for Arpeggione and Piano all date from that year. With the exception of the Grand Duo, all of these works display cyclic elements—that is, two or more movements in each work are deliberately related in some way to enhance the sense of unity. In the case of the A-minor Quartet, a motive from the third-movement Minuet becomes the most important melodic figure for the following finale.

Schubert dedicated the work to Schuppanzigh, who served as the first violinist of the string quartet appointed by Beethoven. Schuppanzigh himself played in the premiere performance which took place on 14 March 1824.

Structure

The quartet consists of four movements which last around 30 minutes in total.

Allegro ma non troppo (common time, A minor)
The first movement opens with a texture reminiscent of the melancholic theme from one of Schubert's earliest songs, "Gretchen am Spinnrade" and also quotes "Schöne Welt, wo bist du?" The reference to "Gretchen am Spinnrade" is not a direct quotation, but rather is a similarity in the second violin's restless accompanimental figuration, hovering around the mediant and underpinned by a repeated figure in cello and viola, which precedes the first thematic entrance. This also recalls the accompaniment to the first subject of the "Unfinished" Symphony.
Andante (cut time, C major)
It is the second movement, however, which has lent the Quartet its nickname, being based on a theme from the incidental music for Rosamunde (a similar theme appears in the Impromptu in B-flat written three years later). The dactyl–spondee rhythm pervading this movement unmistakably shows the influence of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. The form of this slow movement uses the same modified exposition-recapitulation form found in the slow movement of Schubert's "Great" C-major Symphony, where an ambiguity of formal definition is created by the introduction of a developmental passage shortly after the return of the primary theme in the recapitulation.
Menuetto: Allegretto – Trio (3/4, A minor, trio in A major)
The minuet quotes the melody of another song by Schubert, Die Götter Griechenlandes, D. 677, from November 1819, a connection only first noticed by Willi Kahl, more than a century after the work's composition. The opening of this melody recurs in inversion at the beginning of the trio, and is later echoed in the opening of the finale.
Allegro moderato (2/4, A major)

References

Chusid 1964, 37.
Westrup 1969, 31.
Taylor 2014, 49.
Temperley 1981, 149.
Shamgar 2001, 154.
Kahl 1930, 2:358.
Wollenberg 2011, 201–202, n11.

Sources

Chusid, Martin. 1964. "Schubert's Cyclic Compositions of 1824". Acta Musicologica 36, no. 1 (January–March): 37–45.
Kahl, Willi. 1930. "Schubert". In Cobbett's Cyclopaedic Survey of Chamber Music, vol. 2, edited by Walter W. Cobbett, 352–366. London: Oxford University Press.
Shamgar, Beth . 2001. "Schubert's Classic Legacy: Some Thoughts on Exposition–Recap. Form". The Journal of Musicology 18, no. 1 (Winter): 150–169.
Taylor, Benedict. 2014. "Schubert and the Construction of Memory: The String Quartet in A minor, D. 804 (Rosamunde)". Journal of the Royal Musical Association 139, no. 1:41–88. doi:10.1080/02690403.2014.886414
Temperley, Nicholas. 1981. "Schubert and Beethoven's Eight-Six Chord". 19th-Century Music 5, no. 2 (Fall): 142–154.
Westrup, Jack A., 1969. Schubert Chamber Music. BBC Music Guides 5. London: British Broadcasting Corporation; Seattle: University of Washington Press. Reprinted, : Ariel Music, 1986. ISBN 9780563205166 (pbk).
Wollenberg, Susan. 2011. Schubert's Fingerprints: Studies in the Instrumental Works. Farnham, Surrey and Burlington, Vermont: Ashgate. ISBN 9781409421221 (cloth); ISBN 9781409434016 (ebook).

External links

String Quartet No. 13, D 804: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
Christiansen, Kai (April 14, 2012). "Program Notes: Schubert, String Quartet No. 13 in A minor, Rosamunde". Earsense Chamberbase. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
Animated score on YouTube, Melos Quartet

v t e Chamber music by Franz Schubert
Duos	For violin and piano Sonat(in)as D 384, 385 and 408 Duo in A major, D 574 Rondo in B minor, D 895 Fantasy in C major, D 934 Arpeggione Sonata, D 821
Trios	Sonatensatz for piano trio, D 28 String Trios D 111A, 471 and 581 Notturno for piano trio, D 897 Piano Trio No. 1, D 898 Piano Trio No. 2, D 929 "The Shepherd on the Rock", D 965
String Quartets	No. 1, D 18 No. 2, D 32 No. 3, D 36 No. 4, D 46 No. 5, D 68 No. 6, D 74 No. 7, D 94 Quartettsatz, D 103 No. 8, D 112 No. 9, D 173 No. 10 (Haushaltung), D 87 No. 11, D 353 No. 12 (Quartettsatz), D 703 No. 13 (Rosamunde), D 804 No. 14 (Death and the Maiden), D 810 No. 15, D 887
Other	Rondo for violin and strings, D 438 Adagio and Rondo Concertante, D 487 Trout Quintet, D 667 Octet, D 803 String Quintet, D 956
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