The rather tightly-knit exposition is followed by a five-part development in C major, characterized by the main theme and the pizzicati, which refrains from variations.

[2] According to musicologist Peter Schleuning, the violin solo in the coda with its broken chords is inspired by the final movement in Johann Sebastian Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No.

[3] The second movement is in rondo form, and is characterized by soft modulations and surprising chord turns.

The five-part third movement is in the form of a scherzo, but it is more dark than jestful in mood, opening with a brisk, restless theme.

The scherzo leads directly into the fourth movement, a set of six ornamental variations on an Allegretto theme in E♭ major.

The first movement, of about ten minutes duration, is one of the best examples of Beethoven's management of musical tension.

It is only in the last fifty bars that the listener discovers that Beethoven's true purpose is for them to be played simultaneously, beneath a frenetic violin part, to generate the climax of the movement.

The heroic quality pervading Beethoven's middle period is heard extensively in the first movement.

The fourth movement of the Harp Quartet follows a highly traditional theme and variations form.