The first movement, of about ten minutes duration, is one of the best examples of Beethoven's management of musical tension. The short Adagio introduction (24 bars long) is not tightly thematically integrated with the rest of the movement; it serves a similar function to the Introduzione of the first movement of Op 59 No 3. The main motifs of the Allegro are the lyrical melody appearing several bars from the beginning, and the pizzicato arpeggios played by two instruments accompanied by repeating quavers played by the other two. At first, these two themes appear thematically and rhythmically unrelated. It is only the last fifty bars that the listener discovers that Beethoven's true purpose is for them to be played simultaneously, beneath a frenetic violin part, to generate the climax of the movement.

Date of composition 1809 in Vienna, Austria
First published 1810 (December) - Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel
Dedicated to Franz Joseph Maximilian Fürst von Lobkowitz (1772-1816)
Type Quartet
Tonality E-flat Major
Catalogue Op. 74
Instruments 2x Violin
Viola
Cello
Links
Autotranslations beta Ludwig van Beethoven: Quartet for Strings n°10 en mi bémol majeur, Op. 74 "Harp"
Ludwig van Beethoven: Quartet for Strings n. 10 in mi bemolle maggiore, Op. 74 "Harp"
Ludwig van Beethoven: Quartet for Strings Nr. 10 Es-dur, Op. 74 "Harp"