String Quartet No. 14 (Beethoven)

String Quartet
No. 14
Late string quartet by Ludwig van Beethoven
Beethoven's sketches for his Op. 131 quartet in the British Library
Key	C-sharp minor
Opus	131
Composed	1826
Dedication	Baron Joseph von Stutterheim [de]
Duration	c. 45 min
Movements	Seven

The String Quartet No. 14 in C♯ minor, Op. 131, was completed by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1826. It is the last-composed of a trio of string quartets, written in the order Opp. 132, 130 (with the Große Fuge ending), 131.

It was Beethoven's favourite of the late quartets: he is quoted as remarking to a friend that he would find "a new manner of part-writing and, thank God, less lack of imagination than before".^[1] It is said that upon listening to a performance of this quartet Schubert remarked, "After this, what is left for us to write?"^[2] Schumann said that this quartet and Op. 127 had a "grandeur ... which no words can express. They seem to me to stand ... on the extreme boundary of all that has hitherto been attained by human art and imagination."^[3]

This work is dedicated to Baron Joseph von Stutterheim [de] as a gesture of gratitude for taking Beethoven's nephew Karl into the army after a suicide attempt. Beethoven died before the work's publication by Schott Music and before its first performance, the date of which is uncertain.