The great contributions which Beethoven made to music in the year 1825, were the Quartets in A minor, Op. 132 and in B-flat major, Op. 130, which were composed in the order here mentioned; but the second, being published before its companion, received the earlier opus number. The A minor Quartet was the second of the three which Beethoven composed on invitation of Prince Galitzin, the first being that in E-flat, Op. 127, the third that in B-flat. It was taken up immediately on the completion of the E-flat Quartet. In March Beethoven had written to Neate that the first of the three quartets which he thought of bringing with him to London was written, that he was at work on the second and that it and the third would be finished “soon.” On the same day he wrote to Schott and Sons: “The violin quartets are in hand; the second is nearly finished.” The sketches of the A minor (as established by Nottebohm) date back to 1824. The work was originally to have the customary four movements; labor on it was interrupted by the illness of April and then the plan was changed to include the “Song of Thanksgiving in the Lydian mode,” the short march before the last movement, and the minuet. The work was finished by August at the latest. The passage in eighth-notes in the second part of the first movement is practically a quotation from one of the German dances written for the Ridotto balls fully thirty years before, with the bar-lines shifted so that the change of harmony occurs on the up-beats of the measures. In a Conversation Book used in May or June, 1825, Beethoven wrote _Dankeshimne eines Kranken an Gott bei seiner Genesung. Gefühl neuer Kraft und wiedererwachtes Gefühl_ (“Hymn of Thanksgiving to God of an Invalid on his Convalescence. Feeling of new strength and reawakened feeling”). In the original score this was changed to the reading: “Sacred Song of Thanksgiving of a Convalescent to the Divinity, in the Lydian Mode. N. B. This piece has always B instead of B-flat.” As has already been mentioned in the history of the Ninth Symphony, the principal theme of the last movement was originally conceived for the finale of that work. The B-flat Quartet was begun early in the year, as the letters to Neate and Schott indicate. On August 29, Beethoven wrote to his nephew that it would be wholly finished in ten or twelve days. In November he himself writes in the Conversation Book: “Title for the Quartet,” and a strange hand adds: “_31ème Quatuor. Pour deux Violons, Viola et Violoncello composé aux désirs de S. A. Monseigneur le Prince Nicolas Galitzin et dédié au même_,” to which Beethoven adds: “par L. v. B.” The Quartet, though more than half-promised to Schlesinger, who got the A minor Quartet, was sold to Artaria, and in January, 1826, Holz writes, “The Quartet will be printed at once; thus the third Quartet will appear before the first two.” This was the case, which accounts for the incorrect numbering of them. It had its first public