| 1685 |
Johann Sebastian Bach is born on March 21 in Eisenach, Germany. |
| 1732 |
Joseph Haydn is born on March 31 in Rohrau, Lower Austria. |
| 1748–50 |
BACH The Art of Fugue
Bach was one of the leading composers of the Baroque era; his contrapuntal mastery influenced Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven, all of whom wrote fugues—perhaps the most famous being Beethoven’s Große Fuge. |
| 1756 |
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is born on January 27 in Salzburg. |
| 1770 |
Ludwig van Beethoven is born in Bonn, Germany, baptized on December 17. His father, a musician, became his first teacher. |
| 1781 |
HAYDN String Quartet in C Major, Op. 33, No. 3, “The Bird”
With Mozart and Beethoven, Haydn was one of the three greatest representatives of the Viennese Classical school and is often regarded as the founding father of the string quartet. |
| 1783 |
A magazine praises the talent of a young pianist, “Louis van Betthoven,” whose repertoire includes selections from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier. |
| 1785 |
MOZART String Quartet in C Major, K. 465, “Dissonance”
The famous introduction to the “Dissonance” Quartet, one of a set of six that Mozart dedicated to Haydn, represents an extreme of apparently free counterpoint and chromaticism. |
| 1797 |
Franz Schubert is born on January 31 in Vienna. |
| 1798–1800 |
BEETHOVEN The Six Op. 18 String Quartets
Though stylistically similar to Haydn’s and Mozart’s quartets, Beethoven’s first essays in the genre, published as his Op. 18, already show the presence of a distinct musical personality. |
| 1802 |
In October, Beethoven writes his Heiligenstadt Testament, in which he expresses near-suicidal despair at his growing deafness. |
| 1804 |
Napoleon is crowned emperor. “Now he, too, will trample on all the rights of man, and indulge only his ambition,” Beethoven laments on hearing the news, according to one famous anecdote. Disgusted, he mutilates the tribute to Napoleon on the dedication page of his “Eroica” Symphony. |
| 1806 |
BEETHOVEN The Three Op. 59 String Quartets, “Razumovsky”
This set of three quartets—challenging and expanding the possibilities of the genre—derives its nickname from the Russian ambassador in Vienna, Count Razumovsky, who commissioned them. |
| 1809 |
BEETHOVEN String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 74, “Harp”
This quartet, called the “Harp” because of an intricate pizzicato passage in the first movement, is a genial example of middle-period Beethoven. |
| 1809 |
Felix Mendelssohn is born on February 3 in Hamburg. |
| 1810–11 |
BEETHOVEN String Quartet in F Minor, Op. 95, "Serioso"
This “serious” quartet, as Beethoven called it, is remarkable for its compression, exaggerated articulation, and sense of extreme tension. |
| 1812 |
Beethoven writes a passionate love letter to an unnamed “Immortal Beloved,” probably in July of this year. |
| 1824 |
SCHUBERT String Quartet in D Minor, D. 810, "Death and the Maiden"
Called “Death and the Maiden” because the theme of the second movement draws on a Schubert song of that name, Schubert’s most famous quartet ranges from charming lyricism to Beethovenian violence. In its dramatic intensity and unrestrained emotion, Schubert’s quartet is characteristic of the Romantic movement. |
| 1824–25 |
BEETHOVEN String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 127
In the last two and a half years of his life, Beethoven wrote exclusively in the genre of the string quartet and composed music that many consider his greatest. This quartet shows the broad variety of styles, tempos, themes, and harmonic innovations that distinguish the late quartets. |
| 1825 |
BEETHOVEN String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 132
The composition of this quartet was interrupted by a serious illness in April of 1825, and an extraordinary “Convalescent’s Holy Song of Thanksgiving to the Divinity” forms its central movement. |
| 1825 |
BEETHOVEN Große Fuge, Op. 133
During the first performance of the Große Fuge—the original finale of Op. 130—Beethoven waited in a nearby tavern to hear reports of its reception. When he learned that the audience requested encores of inner movements but not of the Große Fuge he was furious. “Cattle!” he reportedly roared. “Asses!” |
| 1825–26 |
BEETHOVEN String Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 130
A friend of Beethoven recalled that the cavatina of the fifth movement “cost the composer tears in the writing and brought out the confession that nothing he had written [previously] had so moved him.” |
| 1825–26 |
BEETHOVEN String Quartet in C-sharp Minor, Op. 131
After hearing this quartet, Schubert is said to have remarked, “After this, what is left for us to write?” |
| 1826 |
BEETHOVEN String Quartet in F Major, Op. 135
The last movement of this deceptively uncomplicated quartet contains a playful question-and-answer motif. Beethoven marked in the score the question Muss es sein? (“Must it be?”) and the resounding answer Es muss sein! (“It must be!”). |
| 1827 |
MENDELSSOHN String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor, Op. 13, “Ist es wahr?”
Composed just after the last Beethoven quartets, this quartet shows a deep familiarity with Beethoven’s late style. Thematic material is drawn from Mendelssohn’s song “Frage.” |
| 1827 |
Beethoven dies in Vienna on March 26 at the age of 56 of what some experts have diagnosed as lead poisoning; 20,000 Viennese citizens lined the streets on the day of his funeral, and Schubert was a torchbearer. |
| 1833 |
Johannes Brahms is born on May 7 in Hamburg. |
| 1873 |
BRAHMS String Quartet in C Minor, Op. 51, No. 1
Brahms, who was all-too aware of Beethoven’s towering achievements in the genre, had already disposed of 20 exploratory quartets before he was satisfied enough to publish this one. |
| 1874 |
Charles Ives is born on October 20 in Danbury, Connecticut. |
| 1881 |
Béla Bartók is born March 25 in Nagyszentmiklós, Hungary (now Sînnicolau Mare, Romania). |
| 1883 |
Anton Webern is born on December 3 in Vienna. |
| 1905 |
WEBERN Langsamer Satz
The opening bars and various transitions within Webern’s “slow movement” are modeled on the “Muss es sein?” motif of Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 135, but now the motif is heard in the heavy and hazy context of early Expressionism. |
| 1906 |
Dmitri Shostakovich is born on September 25 in St. Petersburg. |
| 1909 |
WEBERN Five Pieces, Op. 5
These pieces are minimalist in nearly every respect. Stravinsky would later write of Webern’s “dazzling diamonds,” while Schoenberg wrote of a “novel in a single gesture, a joy in a breath.” |
| 1913–15 |
IVES String Quartet No. 2
Ives, an American original whose mature works fit into the broad category of Modernism, considered his music a continuation of the spirit of Beethoven. In this quartet he even mixes in a bit of the famous theme from the finale of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. |
| 1927 |
BARTÓK String Quartet No. 3
The score abounds with unusual sonic effects—glissando, pizzicato, muted passages, exaggerated vibrato, and guitar-like strumming—all of which contribute to its innovative quality. |
| 1945 |
While enjoying an after-dinner cigar during curfew shortly after the end of World War II, Webern is mortally shot by a US soldier. |
| 1952 |
Wolfgang Rihm is born on March 13 in Karlsruhe, Germany.
Kaija Saariaho is born on October 14 in Helsinki. |
| 1974 |
SHOSTAKOVICH String Quartet No. 15 in E-flat Minor, Op. 144
Written just before Shostakovich’s death, this quartet is suffused by a spirit of impending doom. Though utterly original, its six-movement conception and dark introspection are reminiscent of the late Beethoven quartets. |
| 1979–81 |
WOLFGANG RIHM String Quartet No. 4
Though Rihm has described himself as a “pathless wanderer,” his string quartets show a composer deeply connected to the tradition of Beethoven. |
| 2006–07 |
KAIJA SAARIAHO Terra Memoria
About her new work, Saariaho writes: “The title Terra Memoria refers to two words which are full of rich associations: to earth and memory. Here earth refers to my material, and memory to the way I’m working on it.” |