down, and the two elements become increasingly integrated. There is a characteristic intensification of the head-motif toward the end of the movement. Beethoven wrote this piece after recovering from a serious illness which he had feared would be fatal because he had been afflicted with intestinal disorder during the entire winter of 1824–5. He thus headed the movement with the words, "Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der lydischen Tonart" ("Holy song of thanksgiving of a convalescent to the Deity, in the Lydian mode"). IV. Alla marcia, assai vivace This brief (2-minute) march in A major leads directly into the rondo-finale through a recitative-like passage. V. Allegro appassionato The movement is in sonata rondo form (A B A C A B A). Beethoven's sketches show that this theme was originally meant for an instrumental conclusion to the Ninth Symphony, but was abandoned for the now famous choral ending, the movement ends with a coda in A major. Reception Beethoven’s nephew Karl reported about the premiere to his uncle: "The quartet received a lot of applause, it went very well together and Linke played better than ever". Critic Mark Swed has argued that the quartet represents the "psychology of pain and illness" as it was written after Beethoven had recovered from a painful bowel inflammation. Influence Some credit this quartet as T. S. Eliot's impetus to write the Four Quartets; certainly he was recorded in a letter to Stephen Spender as having a copy of the A-minor quartet on the gramophone: 'I find it quite inexhaustible to study. There is a sort of heavenly or at least more than human gaiety about some of his later things which one imagines might come to oneself as the fruit of reconciliation and relief after immense suffering; I should like to get something of that into verse before I die.' In his novel Point Counter Point, Aldous Huxley makes extended reference and description of this quartet in the late chapter concerning the death/suicide of the character Maurice Spandrell. Colm Tóibín's 2021 novel The Magician depicts Thomas Mann’s reflections on his own work, as inspired by listening to this quartet. See also Late String Quartets (Beethoven) References Further reading Sessions, Roger. The Musical Experience of Composer, Performer, Listener. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1958. Paperback. External links Composers's Datebook Entry on the Work's Premiere Project Gutenberg – Score and MIDI of this