String Quartet No. 16 (Beethoven)

{{Short description|1826 and final completed work by Beethoven}}

{{use dmy dates|date=August 2024}}

{{Infobox musical composition

| name = String Quartet

| subtitle = No. 16

| type = Late string quartet

| composer = {{nowrap|Ludwig van Beethoven}}

| image = Incipit of Beethoven's String Quartet No. 16.png

| caption = Incipit of Beethoven's String Quartet No. 16

| key = F major

| opus = 135

| composed = October 1826

| dedication = Johann Nepomuk Wolfmayer

| duration = {{c.|22 min}}

| movements = Four

| premiere_date = 23 March 1828

| premiere_performers = Schuppanzigh Quartet

}}

The String Quartet No. 16 in F major, Op. 135, by Ludwig van Beethoven was written in October 1826{{cite book |last= Steinberg |first= Michael|author-link=Michael Steinberg (music critic)|editor1=Robert Winter|editor2=Robert Martin| title= The Beethoven Quartet Companion | page = 274 | publisher= University of California Press | year= 1994 | isbn= 0-520-08211-7}} and was the last major work he completed. Only the final movement of the Quartet Op. 130, written as a replacement for the Große Fuge, was composed later. Beethoven dedicated the composition to his patron and admirer, Johann Nepomuk Wolfmayer. The Schuppanzigh Quartet premiered the work on 23 March 1828, one year after Beethoven's death.

The Op. 135 quartet is the shortest of Beethoven's late quartets. Under the introductory slow chords in the last movement, which is headed {{lang|de|Der schwer gefaßte Entschluß}} (The difficult decision), Beethoven wrote in the manuscript {{lang|de|Muß es sein?}} (Must it be?) to which he responds, with the faster main theme of the movement, {{lang|de|Es muß sein!}} (It must be!).

It is in four movements:

1. Allegretto (F major)
2. Vivace (F major)
3. Lento assai, cantabile e tranquillo (D-flat major)
4. {{lang|de|Der schwer gefaßte Entschluß}}. Grave, ma non troppo tratto ({{lang|de|Muss es sein?}}, F minor) – Allegro ({{lang|de|Es muss sein!}}, F major)

File:Muss is sein?.png

The autograph manuscript of the first movement of the work is preserved in the Beethoven House.

The performance of the work takes around 22–25 minutes.

The work features in Czech author Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being, where the character Tomas uses the phrases {{lang|de|Muß es sein?}} and {{lang|de|Es muß sein!}} to describe his approach to fate.{{Cite journal |last=Allsup |first=Randall Everett |date=2001 |title=Music Education as Liberatory Practice: Exploring the Ideas of Milan Kundera|journal=Philosophy of Music Education Review |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=3–10 |jstor=40327157 |issn=1063-5734}}