(“Appassionata”), in that both have a start-to-finish darkness. The two pieces were composed around the same time and Biss notes that although Beethoven wrote many pieces that begin in tragic mode, there are surprisingly few that end there as well. Both compositions also have an opening phrase that is repeated a 1/2 step higher. References Sources Joseph Kerman, The Beethoven Quartets. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1966. Alexander Wheelock Thayer, Life of Beethoven. Princeton, rev. 1964. Sir George Grove, "Beethoven" Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Volume I. New York: Macmillan. 1904. Jonathan Biss, "Exploring Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas," 2015. External links Performance of String Quartet No. 8 by the Borromeo String Quartet from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in MP3 format String quartet 08 1806 compositions Compositions in E minor