Introduction -- Transformational processes in Beethoven's op. 18 quartets / William Kinderman -- Metrical dissonance and metrical revision in Beethoven's string quartets / Harald Krebs -- Peak experience : high register and structure in the Razumovsky quartets, op. 59 / Malcolm Miller -- Beethoven's Harp quartet : the sketches in context / Lewis Lockwood -- Haydn's Geist aus Beethovens Händen? : fantasy and farewell in the quartet in E, op. 74 / Nicholas Marston -- Aspects of the genesis of Beethoven's string quartet in F minor, op. 95 / Seow-Chin Ong -- So träumte mir, ich reiste ... nach Indien : temporality and mythology in op. 127/i / Birgit Lodes -- Plenitude as fulfillment : the third movement of Beethoven's string quartet in B, op. 130 / Robert Hatten -- The genesis of the countersubjects for the Grosse Fuge / William Caplin -- Opus 131 and the uncanny / Joseph Kerman -- Beethoven's last quartets : threshold to a fourth creative period? / William Kinderman -- Appendix : chronology and sources of the string quartets