This should appeal to any one interested in deeping their understanding of Beethoven and his string quartets, from performers to audience members. The authors have selected three movements, the first movements of Op. 18 No. 1, Op 59 No 1 and Op 130. For each movement, Lockwood (who teaches at Harvard) provides an introduction to put the work in its historical context and an analysis of the selected movement. Then there is a transcription of a conversation between Professor Lockwood and the members of the venerable Juiilliard String Quartet, sometimes wide-ranging, but focusing on the things that they take into consideration in developing their interpretation. Each chapter ends with a score of the movement taken from the old standard collected edition, Beethoven's Werke: Vollstandige durchgesehene Gesamtausgabe (Leipzig: Breitkopf und Hartel, 1862-1865) with additional performance markings (explained in a note at the begining of the book) by the Quartet. A compact disc an envelope inside the back cover contains performances of each of the three movements.
The analysis sections give a fairly detailed breakdown of the movement complete with bar numbers. The also make much use of Beethoven's sketches where they are available (none have survived for Op 59 No 1) and autograph scores to show how Beethoven's ideas were developed into the finished work. The "Amenda:" version of Op 18 No 1 is also discussed and compared to the final version both here and in the corresponding converstion. The score of the "Amenda" movement is included from the Beethoven Werke edition published by G. Henle Verlag (1992) as an appendix and a performance is included on the CD.
The tone throughout is light and easy to read, rather than scholarly. No great knowledge of music theory is required and those sections can easily be skimmed over or skipped. There is a section of endnotes (that likewise can safely be ignored) gives some additonal details and bibliographic references for those who want to locate sources or find more information. There is also a very welcome index that includes entries with many subentries for each of the works discussed in detail as well as the usual names and works. There are even a few entries for topics such as "Programmatic titles", "Repeats", and "Silences".
Complaints are few and should deter no one who finds this appealing. A DVD (or website) with video records of the conversations and performances would have been particularly welcome. This becomes most obvious when a note in the text tells us that someone sings a particular theme. Complete performances of the works instead of just the first movements could have been included as well. The scores do not include any markings other than bar numbers to key them to the analyses. Many readers will probably want to mark up a copy of the scores to refer to while listening. Two middle period quartets, Opp 74 and 95 are not covered in the historical sections; a few paragraphs at the end of the section on the "Rozumovsky" quartets would have made the book complete in this regard. There is also no bibliography and no definitions of terms and symbols used in the analyses and scores.
Other books by Lewis Lockwood on Beethoven include:
The
Beethoven Violin Sonatas: History, Criticism, Performance.
(ed. with Mark Kroll)
University of Illinois Press (2004) 176 pp. Hardcover
(ISBN-13: 978-0-252-02932-5)
Beethoven: The Music and The Life.
W. W. Norton & Company (2002) 624 pp.
Paperback (ISBN-10: 0-393-32638-1)
Beethoven:
Studies in the Creative Process. Harvard University Press
(1992) 296 pp. Hardcover (ISBN-10: 0-674-06362-7
ISBN-13: 978-0-674-06362-4)
A discussion of performance considerations and masterclass
sessions is available online (broadband required, not to be missed!):
The Emerson String Quartet: The
Bartók Quartets: A Guide for Performers & Music
Lovers
The complete Breitkopf &
Härtel scores for all the Beethoven quartets (not including
the
"Amenda" version of Op 18 No 1) are available in this inexpensive
reprint:
The Complete String Quartets Dover
Publications (1970) 434 pp. Paperback (ISBN-10: 0-486-22361-2)
(Dover used to publish these in a series of smaller-format
volumes. These are no longer listed on their website but may still be
available through some dealers.)
While the Breitkopf & Härtel edition was long the standard and is still adequate for many purposes, the G. Henle Verlag urtext edition is now available from music dealers in seven relatively inexpensive paperback volumes, two for the early and middle quartets and separate volumes for the late ones, the Grosse Fuge being included with Op 130. The Op 18 volume includes both the complete "Amenda" version of Op 18 No 1 and Beethoven's quartet arrangement of the piano sonata Op 14 No 1. An urtext edition prepared by Jonathon Del Mar (who has also edited the symphonies) is being issued by Bärenreiter.
The standard guide to all of Beethoven's string quartets has
long been:
The Beethoven Quartet Companion.
Winter and Martin, eds. University of
California Press (1994) 300 pp. Paperback (ISBN-10: 0-520-20420-4;
ISBN-13:
978-0-520-20420-1)
For an excellent guide to virtually everything Beethoven
composed put in the context of his life, see:
Beethoven, by William Kinderman.
Oxford University Press (2nd Ed. 2008) 432 pp. Paperback
(ISBN-10: 0-195-32836-1; ISBN-13: 9-780-195-32836-3). This new and
expanded edition will be appearing in late January, 2009.
Send comments and suggestions to: randyf926@columbus.rr.com