Ignaz Schuppanzigh (20 July Michael Lorenz
"Four more months for Ignaz Schuppanzigh"
13 August 2012] 1776 – 2 March 1830) was an Austrian violinist, friend and teacher of Ludwig van Beethoven, Beethoven, and leader of Count Razumovsky's private string quartet. Schuppanzigh and his quartet premiered many of Beethoven's string quartets, and in particular, the late string quartets. The Razumovsky quartet, which Schuppanzigh founded in late 1808, is considered to be the first professional string quartet. Until the founding of this quartet, quartet music was played primarily by amateurs or by professional musicians who joined together on an ''ad hoc'' basis.

Biography

Schuppanzigh was born in

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, son of a professor of Italian at the Theresian Military Academy. After abandoning his early preference for the

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, he established himself before his 21st birthday as a virtuoso violist and violinist, as well as a conductor. He gave violin lessons to Beethoven, and they remained friends until Beethoven's death. Schuppanzigh's dedication to quartet playing played a pivotal role in the transition of quartet performance and composition. Prior to Beethoven, the quartet repertoire could be performed successfully by either competent amateurs or professionals with few rehearsals. Beethoven's quartets, starting with the three of Op. 59 dedicated to Count Razumovsky, introduced many new technical difficulties that could not be completely overcome without dedicated rehearsal. These difficulties include synchronized complex runs played by two or more instruments together,

cross-rhythm In music, a cross-beat or cross-rhythm is a specific form of polyrhythm. The term ''cross rhythm '' was introduced in 1934 by the musicologist Arthur Morris Jones (1889–1980). It refers to when the rhythmic conflict found in polyrhythms is th ...

s and

hemiola In music, hemiola (also hemiolia) is the ratio 3:2. The equivalent Latin term is sesquialtera. In rhythm, ''hemiola'' refers to three beats of equal value in the time normally occupied by two beats. In pitch, ''hemiola'' refers to the interval of ...

s, and difficult harmonies that require special attention to intonation. When informed that Schuppanzigh had complained about a particularly difficult passage, Beethoven is said to have remarked, "Does he really believe that I think about his silly fiddle when the

muse In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in ...

strikes me to compose?" Razumovsky's quartet also premiered works by other composers.

Franz Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wo ...

dedicated his A minor "Rosamunde" quartet to Schuppanzigh. Schuppanzigh's was the first professional string quartet that gave concerts for subscription-paying audiences. Schuppanzigh is said to have brought Beethoven to a

brothel A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub p ...

, incurring the composer's wrath, after which he avoided Beethoven for several months afterward. Beethoven often joked about his corpulence, referring to him as 'Milord Falstaff', a comment aimed at both his weight and his propensity for food, drink and carousing. Beethoven wrote a short comical song dedicated to him, "Lob auf den Dicken – Schuppanzigh ist ein Lump" (Praise of the Fat One – Schuppanzigh is a rascal), WoO 100 (1801). Schuppanzigh was described as being handsome in his youth, but in adult life he became seriously obese. Toward the end of his life, his fingers reputedly grew so fat that he was unable to play in tune, and reputedly died of

paralysis Paralysis (also known as plegia) is a loss of motor function in one or more muscles. Paralysis can also be accompanied by a loss of feeling (sensory loss) in the affected area if there is sensory damage. In the United States, roughly 1 in 5 ...

in Vienna.

Biography

References

Further reading