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Beethoven originally composed the massive Fugue as the final movement of his String Quartet No. 13 (Op. 130) . However, the Fugue was so demanding of contemporary performers and unpopular with audiences that Beethoven's publisher urged him to write a new finale for the string quartet. Beethoven, notorious for his stubborn personality and indifference to public opinion or taste, acquiesced to his publisher's request on this occasion and published the Fugue as a separate opus number, opus 133. He then wrote a finale that replaced the Fugue, which is considerably lighter in character, more akin to the other movements of the opus 130 quartet. Today, performances of the quartet sometimes include both the Fugue and its replacement movement. When the work was first performed the audience demanded encores of only two of the middle movements of the quartet. Beethoven, enraged, was reported to have growled, "And why didn't they encore the Fugue? That alone should have been repeated! Cattle! Asses!" Most 19th century critics dismissed the work. Daniel Gregory Mason called it "repellent", and Louis Spohr called it, along with the rest of Beethoven's late works, an "indecipherable, uncorrected horror." However critical opinion of the work has risen steadily since the beginning of the 20th century. The work is now considered among Beethoven's greatest achievements. Igor Stravinsky said of it, " is an absolutely contemporary piece of music that will be contemporary forever." ANALYSIS The quartet opens with a 24-bar ''Overtura'', which introduces one of the two themes of the fugue, a tune closely related to the one which opens the String Quartet Opus 132 . Beethoven then plunges into a violently dissonant double fugue, with a second subject of dramatically leaping tones, and the four instruments of the quartet bursting out in triplets, dotted figures, and cross-rhythms. Following this opening fugal section is a series of sections, in contrasting keys, rhythms and tempi. Sections often break off suddenly, without real preparation, to create a structural texture that is jagged and surprising. Toward the end, there is a slowing, with long pauses, leading into a recapitulation of the overture, and on to a rushing finale that ends the movement. Like some of Beethoven's other late finales, such as the form, Sonata Form , and fugue. The lyrical section in Gb has the weight of an independent slow movement; some commentators have even attempted to analyze the entire piece in terms of sonata form. REDISCOVERY OF MANUSCRIPT On October 13 , 2005 it was reported {Link without Title} {Link without Title} that an authentic catalogue and sold at an auction in Berlin to a Cincinnati , Ohio industrialist; His daughter gave it and other manuscripts including a Mozart ''Fantasia'' to a church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1952 . It is not known how the Beethoven manuscript came to be in the possession of the library. GROßE FUGE IN POPULAR CULTURE Remarkably, this arduous work has had echoes in popular culture. '' sonata at the same time, playing on different stereos in separate rooms, both cranked up to ear-splittingly high volumes. Alfred Schnittke integrated portions of the Große Fuge into his third string quartet. RESOURCES
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