Ludwig van Beethoven completed his String Quartet No. 12 in E major, Op. 127, in 1825. It is the first of his late quartets. Commissioned by Nicolas Galitzin over a year earlier, the work was not ready when it was scheduled to premiere. When it was finally premiered by the Schuppanzigh Quartet, it was not well received. Only with subsequent performances by the Bohm Quartet and the Mayseder Quartet did it begin to gain public appreciation.
Background
String Quartet No. 12, Op. 127, is the first of Beethoven's late quartets and was commissioned by the wealthy Russian prince Nicolas Galitzin, an enthusiast of Beethoven's music. A cellist himself, Galitzin strove to play Beethoven's music, waiting impatiently for him to compose at whatever price he saw fit. Galitzin's commission brought Beethoven back to composing in the string quartet genre after a 10-year absence, and suspended his financial woes. Beethoven replied to Galitzin on January 25, 1823, requesting 50 ducats for three quartets: Opp. 127, 132, and 130. He committed to completing the first quartet by the end of February or mid-March.
I. Maestoso – Allegro
{| class="wikitable"
|+Synopsis of form
!
!Bar
|-
|Introduction
|1–6
|-
|Exposition
|7–74
|-
|Development
|75–166
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|Recapitulation
|167–239
|-
|Coda
|240–282
|}
The first movement is in sonata form and opens with a six-bar chorale-like Maestoso. The Allegro ensues with the start of the exposition at bar 7 with a more committed tone. The Maestoso has an unusual rhythmic structure. Rhythms of two-bar groups fall in a 5+3 pattern in eighth notes. The metric pulse is in quarter notes. Each of its bars stresses a rising step until ultimately C is reached in the first violin with an elaborate trill leading to the Allegro. Episodic explosions or virtuosic passages occur toward the middle of the development. Contrapuntal texture ensues in the first half of the development. Canons come in with thematic material, leading to thematic material from the C major Maestoso.
The penultimate variation recapitulates the theme after a contrasting section in the submediant, while the final variation restores the tonic and basic thematic material after an episode in the subdominant. Beethoven based this tonal progression on the finale of the Ninth Symphony, where the orchestral double fugue episode in B is followed by the "grand" variation for full orchestra and choir in D major, followed by the "" episode in G major, which moves into the choral double fugue in the tonic D major.
- Op. 127: A → E (lowered submediant) – penultimate variation → D (subdominant) → final variation
- Op. 125: D → B (lowered submediant) – penultimate variation → G (subdominant) → final variation
III. Scherzando vivace
{| class="wikitable"
|+Synopsis of form The scherzo's trio is a Presto of a kind Beethoven did not use very often, though it is similar in sound and phrasing to some of his bagatelles from the contemporary Op. 126 set.
IV. Allegro
{| class="wikitable"
|+Synopsis of form