A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Beklemmt

by George Grove

BEKLEMMT, i. e. heavy at the heart, oppressed. A word which Beethoven has attached to the middle section of the Cavatina in his Quartet in B flat (op. 130), where he modulates into C flat; and where the choked and broken accents of the first violin fully bear out the expression. None of the old copies of the quartet give this interesting personal note of the composer's. It first appeared in Breitkopf & Härtel's complete edition. Correctly the word would be beklommen, but in words as in music Beethoven is always original and always right.

[ G. ]