The First Movement of Beethoven's Opus 132 and the Classical Style

A critical assessment of late works by Ludwig van Beethoven has not proven to be an easy task for musicologists. Two main schools of thought may be discerned. The first consists of scholars who try to sever the connection between Beethoven's late style and mainstream Classical style. The second consists of scholars who emphasize the influence of tradition on late Beethoven, not only of the recent past (i.e. the Classical style), but also of the Baroque era. Agawu assesses the status of thse conflicting viewpoints as they apply to the first movement of the String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 132, which dates from 1825. Using a Schenkerian concept of levels and Leonard Ratner's idea of "topic," a close reading of the content of the piece and its internal modes of signification is presented. Agawu shows that Beethoven, in this movement, retains both the procedural premises and material sources of the Classical style and that he calls into question one of its fundamental assumptions. Ironically, it is by means of Beethoven's radical questioning that the limits of the Classical style are affirmed.