Beethoven: String Quartet in C# minor, Op. 131
Normally, string quartets have four discreet movements, but Beethoven wrote this one in seven connected movements to create one long arch of sound.
The first movement is the only slow fugue that he ever wrote, and it contains all the sorrows of the world.
The second movement is a Scottish highland fling done with humor.
The third movement is a short link intended to change key.
The fourth movement is a set of variations on a theme. One of the variations features the instruments throwing pizzicato (plucked) strings at each other in a hilarious effect.
The fifth movement is a wild scherzo that sounds like a music box run amok. Every time it winds down, it takes off again. He uses plucked strings tossed between instruments and finally has the musicians play on the bridges of their instruments to polish it off with a laugh.
The sixth movement starts abruptly with a radical change of key, and it sounds like it's going to be one of Beethoven's slow movements that function as a conversation with God. But it's too sad and contemplative. It's Beethoven writing a parody of a Beethoven slow movement!
The short slow movement slides into the seventh movement, the only movement in the quartet that is in sonata format. It's a wild ride leading to a flashy finish.
Am familiar with that work