Rage of Innocence Lost

This string quartet was created in response to a score call by the Delgani String Quartet for compositions that would be in response to Beethoven’s Opus 30, with the Grosse Fuge being a particular focus. A similar score call had been released in 2020 by the National Association of Composers USA (NACUSA), however that request was for a piano piece in response to Beethoven’s piano four/hands version of the Op. 30 fugue. My Homage to Beethoven for Piano was performed at the NACUSA Conference that year. When Delgani’s call went out, I transcribed the Homage for string quartet. It was performed on Delgani’s Oregon Tour in February 2025. The essay included here is an adaptation of an essay I wrote for the Homage in 2020.

Rage of Innocence Lost is inspired by the angularity, the exquisitely controlled chaos, and the agonized outrage I hear in Beethoven’s Grosse Fugue. This homage includes five main themes which overlap fugally to some degree, however the music is only intended to indirectly reflect the fugal aspects of the Great Fugue. Beethoven seems darkly determined in expressing his outrage towards a Divine power who has appeared to betray him in a profoundly cruel way. To me, Beethoven is playing with creative fire here, and risking his entire life’s trust of Divine favor by boldly flaunting his own self-determinism. He’s twisting the cerebral structure of the fugal form, shaping it to express bitterness as well as triumph in the face of a betrayal by God. Here, I believe we are hearing Beethoven claim his personal freedom from the limitations imposed by increasing deafness. I also hear wit within this unsettling enterprise. Wit, and a raw innocence that cannot accept the apparent waywardness of Divine power. It is to this combination of outrage, bitterness, triumph and dark wit that I pay tribute here. The closing Lento section is intended to express uneasy grief over the loss of innocence in the bargain.