Grosse Fuge

Grosse Fuge
String quartet by Ludwig van Beethoven
Title page of the first edition of the Grosse Fuge, published in Vienna by Matthias Artaria in 1827 (in French, with the title Grande Fugue and Beethoven's French name "Louis")
English	Great Fugue
Key	B♭ major
Opus	133
Form	Fugue
Composed	1825
Dedication	Archduke Rudolf of Austria
Duration	About 16 minutes
Scoring	String quartet
Premiere
Date	1826
Performers	Schuppanzigh Quartet
Live performance
Merel Quartet at Tonhalle, Zürich, 3 July 2013: Mary Ellen Woodside and Julia Schröder, violin; Ylvali Zilliacus, viola; Rafael Rosenfeld, cello file help

The Grosse Fuge (German spelling: Große Fuge, also known in English as the Great Fugue or Grand Fugue), Op. 133, is a single-movement composition for string quartet by Ludwig van Beethoven. An immense double fugue, it was universally condemned by contemporary music critics. A reviewer writing for the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung in 1826 described the fugue as "incomprehensible, like Chinese" and "a confusion of Babel".^[1] However, critical opinion of the work has risen steadily since the early 20th century and it is now considered among Beethoven's greatest achievements. Igor Stravinsky described it as "an absolutely contemporary piece of music that will be contemporary forever".^[2]

The Grosse Fuge was originally composed as the final movement of Beethoven's Quartet No. 13 in B♭ major, Op. 130, written in 1825; but Beethoven's publisher was concerned about the dismal commercial prospects of the piece and wanted the composer to replace the fugue with a new finale. Beethoven complied, and the Grosse Fuge was published as a separate work in 1827 as Op. 133. The work was composed when Beethoven was nearly totally deaf, and is considered to be part of his set of late quartets. The Grosse Fuge was first performed in 1826, as the finale of the B♭ quartet, by the Schuppanzigh Quartet.

Music analysts and critics have described the Grosse Fuge as "inaccessible",^[3] "eccentric",^[4] "filled with paradoxes",^[5] and "Armageddon".^[6] Critic and musicologist Joseph Kerman calls it "the most problematic single work in Beethoven's output and ... doubtless in the entire literature of music",^[7] and violinist David Matthews describes it as "fiendishly difficult to play".^[8]