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This class uses Beethoven’s string quartets as a lens through which to consider larger issues of Beethoven scholarship. We will pair an in-depth study of the works themselves with an examination of a variety of issues important to Beethoven (and to musicological inquiry in general), such as the history and inherited traditions of the string quartet, music in an evolving capitalist marketplace, the notion of the individual Romantic composer-genius, deafness and the late style, and historical performance practice. Throughout, we will consider the specific roles and responsibilities that performers and scholars share in bringing these magnificent works to life.