Beethoven's Theatrical Quartets

Contents

• Introduction;
• 1. Setting the scene: theories, practices, and the early nineteenth-century string quartet;
• 2. Curtain up: performing the middle-period quartets in Beethoven's time;
• 3. 'Not generally comprehensible': Op. 59 No. 1 and the drama of becoming;
• 4. 'With much feeling': song, sensibility, and rhapsody in Op. 59 No. 2;
• 5. 'Helden-Quartett': genre, innovation, and 'heroic' voices in Op. 59 No. 3;
• 6. Freudvoll und leidvoll: songful impetus and dualistic voice in the 'Harp' Quartet;
• 7. 'The quick-witted brevity of the genuine dramatist': Op. 95 and the idea of the fragment;
• 8. A tale of heroic emancipation? Reception narratives for the middle-period string quartets.