The String Quartet No. 12 in E-flat Major, opus 127 of Ludwig van Beethoven, was finished in 1825. There are four movements:

1. Maestoso — Allegro
2. Adagio, ma non troppo e molto cantabile
3. Scherzando vivace
4. Finale (without tempo marking, but with a coda marked Allegro con moto)

The first movement is interrupted several times — just before the development of the sonata form begins, and when that section is almost but not quite over — by the Maestoso which opened the work. The second, slow movement is a set of variations. The scherzo's trio is a Presto of a kind Beethoven did not use very often, though it is similar in sound and phrasing to some of his bagatelles from the contemporary opus 126 set.

External link

Project Gutenberg — Score and MIDI of this piece.