ABSTRACT
For lyrical intimacy, engaging drama, and immediate appeal, few treasures of the chamber repertoire rival Franz Schubert's String Quartet in A minor, Op. 29 (D804). Concision and coherence distinguish this masterpiece, as do confidence and determination, making it one of the composer's most thoroughly impressive instrumental essays. he Menuetto seems to begin from next to nothing, almost willing itself into being, and the initial, tentative impressions it imparts eventually give way to more tangible ones. Without bold rhetoric, without obvious artifice, it seduces us. It has been noted that the second section of the dance featured tonic/dominant alternation, as if to compensate for the attenuated tonality of the first. Unfolding over the four movements of the quartet, the process a dialectic involves the introduction and ongoing opposition of two distinct musical gestures that function as thesis and antithesis.
