The structure of a large work: Beethoven Op 131

I mentioned the necessary connections between movements of this work (Beethoven Quartet in C# Minor $14 Op. 131 ). The seven movements have an overall scheme which is described by Leonard Ratner of Stanford University:

I: Fugue (Ricercare) C# Minor.
II: Sonata-Allegro D Major
III: Recitative and Cadenza F# Minor
IV: Theme and Variations A Major
V: Scherzo E Major
VI: Adagio G# Minor
VII Sonata-Allegro C# Minor

The overall structure describes an arch of keys with a movement away from C# minor and back to it. This is reinforced by the contrasting forms and textures of each of the movements. The harmonic excursion is something that people with some tonal memory might feel, there is going to be wide personal variation in that ability, but it is cued by the textural elements and points of arrival or declaimation. Nowhere is this most obvious as the contrast between the dreamy adagio and the boistrous finale that follows it without interruption. The same is true of the scherzo and the same adagio which follows it, attacha.

Bella Bartok wrote six String Quartets that are regarded as nearly the equal of the Beethoven 17. The first quaret of Bartok was explicitly inspired by the Beethoven discussed here, beginning with a fugue and in the same key, but one can in addition trace Bartok's arch form as especially in the Forth String Quartet to this Beethoven. Beethoven's Quartet in B-Flat #13 Op. 130 has some similarities to this one and deserves comment later owing to its famous history.