in the form of a scherzo, but it is more dark than jestful in mood, opening with a brisk, restless theme. Its rhythmic motif is inspired by Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, which had been premiered a few months earlier. The long coda is mostly pianissimo. In the C major trio, Beethoven parodies rigid counterpoint exercises. Shortly before, he had put together two exercise books for his student Archduke Rudolf, shortly before his flight from Napoleon's troops, "Materialien zum Thoroughbass" and "Materialien zum Counterpunkt". 4. Allegretto con variazioni The scherzo leads directly into the fourth movement, a set of six ornamental variations on an Allegretto theme in E major. While all instruments are involved in the first and fourth variations, the second variation is determined by the viola, the third by the second violin and cello, the fifth by the first violin, and finally the sixth variation by the cello. The coda is dominated by triplet pedal-points. The coda ends in an allegro stretta in which all instruments participate in a unison 'accelerando'. Analysis 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 in 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. The Harp quartet parallels many facets of the Fifth Symphony. The heroic quality pervading Beethoven's middle period is heard extensively in the first movement. Both the Fifth Symphony and Harp quartet have intense scherzi. Nevertheless, the grand entrance to the opening of the finale of the Fifth is noticeably absent in Op. 74. The fourth movement of the Harp quartet follows a highly traditional theme and variations form. The Classical style of the fourth movement juxtaposed against the Heroic nature of the first movement frustrates Beethoven scholars who seek to contextualize this piece in