# Beethoven's C#-Minor quartet op. 131, first movement



## Aurelian (Sep 9, 2011)

Why is the time signature 2/2? I have always associated cut time with fast music. Was this a way to say "Don't let it drag"?

The first key signature change is to Eb-Minor. Why did he choose this instead of the enharmonic D#-Minor?


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Time signatures, even if they have become associated with a genre at a tempo, are completely neutral as to indicating any tempo.

2/2 is then so the player does not render the second and fourth quarter notes as having any sort of metric accent (or at least a primary accent): instead they are the 'and' of the first and third quarter notes. [[You will find in the tempo 'Largo' etc, many a baroque movement in 3/2 or 2/2 -- whatever the tempo marked, many of those are anything but 'fast.']]

Tempo will be marked to, uh, indicate tempo 

While there are no 'theoretical' keys, D#, G#, etc. become so rapidly encumbered with double sharps on primary scale tones that they are wieldy to both write / print, and to read. Beethoven, for once, was here being 'polite' and giving his score the best chance of being rendered / played properly.


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