String Quartets Volume 2

Abstract

Mendelssohn's String Quartet No. 1 in E flat major, Op. 12, was brewing in his mind during a visit to Coed-du, the estate of the Taylor family, a business acquaintance of Mendelssohn's father. The Quartet was completed on September 14, 1829, and published later that year.

In general, it is more lyrical than the earlier String Quartet in A minor, Op. 13, and is more controlled and masterfully composed. However, the influence of Beethoven is still clear. As in the Quartet in A minor the String Quartet No. 1 features the cyclic recurrence of themes. The slow introduction, Adagio non troppo, to the first movement is similar to that of Beethoven's String Quartet in E flat major, Op. 74 ("Harp"), but the ensuing Allegro non tardante is stylistically unlike music by the older composer. The material is song-like in this sonata-form structure, into the beginning of the development of which Mendelssohn works a new theme that, in a procedure mirroring Beethoven, appears in the coda. Mendelssohn's master stroke in the movement is in the contrast between the main theme at the beginning of the movement and its reprise at the start of the recapitulation. At the outset of the Allegro, the harmony is somewhat vague and there isn't a tonic chord in root position for several measures. At the beginning of the recapitulation, however, Mendelssohn underscores the theme with a strong E flat in the cello from the beginning. Paradoxically, however, this firm presentation of the main theme enters pianissimo and is not introduced by a dominant chord, making it a very anti-climactic moment. Mendelssohn replaces the expected scherzo with a canzonetta. This amiable movement is popular apart from the quartet. An Andante fills the third spot in the quartet. It is a brief movement with two aggressive, recitative-like passages marked con fuoco.

The Andante leads without break into the lively finale, much of which is in G minor. The "new theme" from the development section of the first movement appears both in the middle of the finale and the coda, which contains a near complete reprise of the coda of the first movement. The appearance of the first-movement coda seems inevitable as Mendelssohn alternates the finale's main theme with the "new theme" from the first movement, just as he does with the "new theme" in the coda of the first movement. Ending the first and last movements of a multi-movement work with the same music was not a new idea for Mendelssohn; he had used the same procedure in his Piano Sonata in E major, Op. 6, composed in early 1826.

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