Piano quartet
Encyclopedia
In European classical music
, piano quartet denotes a chamber music
composition for piano
and three other instruments, or a musical ensemble
comprising such instruments. Those other instruments are usually a string trio
--that is a violin
, viola
and cello
.
Piano quartets for that standard lineup were written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
, Robert Schumann
, Ludwig van Beethoven
, Johannes Brahms
, Antonín Dvořák
and Gabriel Fauré
among others. In the 20th century
, composers have also written for more varied groups, with Anton Webern
's Quartet, opus 22 (1930
), for example, being for piano, violin, clarinet
and tenor saxophone
, and Paul Hindemith
's quartet (1938) as well as Olivier Messiaen
's Quatuor pour la fin du temps
(1940
) both for piano, violin, cello and clarinet. An early example of this can be found in Franz Berwald
's quartet for piano, horn, clarinet and bassoon (1819
), his opus
1.
A rare form of piano quartets consist of two pianos with two players at each piano. This type of ensemble is informally referred to as "8 hand piano", or "2 piano 8 hands". 8 hand piano was popular in the late 19th century before the advent of recordings as it was a mechanism to reproduce and study symphonic works. Music lovers could hear the major symphonic works all in the convenience of a parlour or music hall that had two pianos and four pianists. Many of the popular works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
, Robert Schumann
, Johannes Brahms
, Antonín Dvořák
were transcribed for two piano eight hands. The majority of 8 hand piano music consist of transcriptions, or arrangements.
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
, piano quartet denotes a chamber music
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
composition for piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
and three other instruments, or a musical ensemble
Musical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...
comprising such instruments. Those other instruments are usually a string trio
String trio
A string trio is a group of three string instruments or a piece written for such a group. The term is generally used with reference to works of chamber music from the Classical period to the present.-History:...
--that is a violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
, viola
Viola
The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
and cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
.
Piano quartets for that standard lineup were written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
, Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
, Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
, Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
, Antonín Dvořák
Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
and Gabriel Fauré
Gabriel Fauré
Gabriel Urbain Fauré was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th century composers...
among others. In the 20th century
20th century classical music
20th century classical music was without a dominant style and highly diverse.-Introduction:At the turn of the century, music was characteristically late Romantic in style. Composers such as Gustav Mahler and Jean Sibelius were pushing the bounds of Post-Romantic Symphonic writing...
, composers have also written for more varied groups, with Anton Webern
Anton Webern
Anton Webern was an Austrian composer and conductor. He was a member of the Second Viennese School. As a student and significant follower of Arnold Schoenberg, he became one of the best-known exponents of the twelve-tone technique; in addition, his innovations regarding schematic organization of...
's Quartet, opus 22 (1930
1930 in music
-Events:*February 16 - al which opens to rave reviews. Of the film's song, "When The Little Red Roses Get The Blues For You", becomes a hit. Al Jolson records this song from the picture for Brunswick Records....
), for example, being for piano, violin, clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
and tenor saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
, and Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher, music theorist and conductor.- Biography :Born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Hindemith was taught the violin as a child...
's quartet (1938) as well as Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist and ornithologist, one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex ; harmonically and melodically it is based on modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations...
's Quatuor pour la fin du temps
Quatuor pour la fin du temps
Quatuor pour la fin du temps, also known by its English title Quartet for the End of Time, is a piece of chamber music by the French composer Olivier Messiaen. It was premiered in 1941...
(1940
1940 in music
-Events:*July 20 - Billboard magazine publishes its first "Music Popularity Chart".*May 27 - Quartetto Egie make their debut performance.*August - Edmundo Ros forms his own rumba band.*November 23 - Dmitri Shostakovich's Piano Quintet is premièred....
) both for piano, violin, cello and clarinet. An early example of this can be found in Franz Berwald
Franz Berwald
Franz Adolf Berwald was a Swedish Romantic composer who was generally ignored during his lifetime. He made his living as an orthopedic surgeon and later as the manager of a saw mill and glass factory....
's quartet for piano, horn, clarinet and bassoon (1819
1819 in music
-Events:*Soprano Giuditta Pasta makes her stage début in Venice.*Christoph Ernst Friedrich Weyse is appointed composer to the court of Denmark.- Classical music :*João Domingos Bomtempo – Requiem in C Minor...
), his opus
Opus number
An Opus number , pl. opera and opuses, abbreviated, sing. Op. and pl. Opp. refers to a number generally assigned by composers to an individual composition or set of compositions on publication, to help identify their works...
1.
A rare form of piano quartets consist of two pianos with two players at each piano. This type of ensemble is informally referred to as "8 hand piano", or "2 piano 8 hands". 8 hand piano was popular in the late 19th century before the advent of recordings as it was a mechanism to reproduce and study symphonic works. Music lovers could hear the major symphonic works all in the convenience of a parlour or music hall that had two pianos and four pianists. Many of the popular works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
, Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
, Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
, Antonín Dvořák
Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
were transcribed for two piano eight hands. The majority of 8 hand piano music consist of transcriptions, or arrangements.
List of works
The following is an incomplete list of piano quartets by famous composers.- Ludwig van BeethovenLudwig van BeethovenLudwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
- Piano Quartet WoO 36, No. 1 in E-flat major (1785)
- Piano Quartet WoO 36, No. 2 in D major (1785)
- Piano Quartet WoO 36, No. 3 in C major (1785)
- Johannes BrahmsJohannes BrahmsJohannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
- Piano Quartet No. 1Piano Quartet No. 1 (Brahms)The Piano Quartet in G minor, Op. 25, was composed by Johannes Brahms between 1856 and 1861. It was Clara Schumann who owned this masterpiece, as she was the pianist for the first performance in 1861 in Hamburg. It was also played in Vienna on November 16, 1862 with Brahms himself at the piano...
in G minor, Op. 25 (1859) - Piano Quartet No. 2 in A major, Op. 26 (1862)
- Piano Quartet No. 3Piano Quartet No. 3 (Brahms)The Piano Quartet in C minor, opus 60, by Johannes Brahms is scored for piano, violin, viola and cello.The quartet is in four movements:#Allegro non troppo#Scherzo: Allegro#Andante#Finale: Allegro Comodo...
in C minor, Op. 60 (1875)
- Piano Quartet No. 1
- Frank BridgeFrank BridgeFrank Bridge was an English composer and violist.-Life:Bridge was born in Brighton and studied at the Royal College of Music in London from 1899 to 1903 under Charles Villiers Stanford and others...
- Phantasy Piano Quartet in F-sharp minor, H. 94 (1910)
- Aaron CoplandAaron CoplandAaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
- Piano Quartet (1950)
- Antonín DvořákAntonín DvorákAntonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
- Piano Quartet No. 1 in D major, Op. 23 (1875)
- Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat major, Op. 87 (1889)
- George EnescuGeorge EnescuGeorge Enescu was a Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, conductor and teacher.-Biography:Enescu was born in the village of Liveni , Dorohoi County at the time, today Botoşani County. He showed musical talent from early in his childhood. A child prodigy, Enescu created his first musical...
- Piano Quartet No. 1 in D major, Op. 16 (1909)
- Piano Quartet No. 2 in D minor, Op. 30 (1943–1944)
- Gabriel FauréGabriel FauréGabriel Urbain Fauré was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th century composers...
- Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 15 (1876–79, Finale rev. 1883)
- Piano Quartet No. 2 in G minor, Op. 45 (1885–86)
- Gustav MahlerGustav MahlerGustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
- Piano QuartetPiano Quartet (Mahler)The Piano Quartet in A minor by Gustav Mahler was written around 1876. Only the first movement survives, and it is unlikely that Mahler completed any other movements.-Origin:...
in A minor (only 1st movement completed; 1876)
- Piano Quartet
- Heinrich MarschnerHeinrich MarschnerHeinrich August Marschner , was the most important composer of German Romantic opera between Carl Maria von Weber and Richard Wagner, and is remembered principally for his operas Hans Heiling , Der Vampyr , and Der Templer und die Jüdin...
- Piano Quartet No. 1 in B-flat major, Op. 36 (1827)
- Piano Quartet No. 2 in G major, Op. 158 (1853)
- Felix MendelssohnFelix MendelssohnJakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
- Piano Quartet No. 1Piano Quartet No. 1 (Mendelssohn)Felix Mendelssohn's Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 1, for piano, violin, viola and cello was completed on 18 October 1822 and dedicated to Prince Antoni Radziwiłł...
in C minor, Op. 1 (1822) - Piano Quartet No. 2Piano Quartet No. 2 (Mendelssohn)Felix Mendelssohn's Piano Quartet No. 2 in F minor, Op. 2, for piano, violin, viola and cello was completed on 3 December 1823 and published two years later. The work was dedicated to Mendelssohn's teacher, Carl Friedrich Zelter...
in F minor, Op. 2 (1823) - Piano Quartet No. 3Piano Quartet No. 3 (Mendelssohn)Felix Mendelssohn began composing his Piano Quartet No. 3 in B minor, Op. 3, for piano, violin, viola and cello in late 1824 and completed on 18 January 1825, just before his sixteenth birthday. The quartet was published later that year and was dedicated to Goethe whom Mendelssohn had met a few...
in B minor, Op. 3 (1825)
- Piano Quartet No. 1
- Olivier MessiaenOlivier MessiaenOlivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist and ornithologist, one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex ; harmonically and melodically it is based on modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations...
- Quatuor pour la fin du tempsQuatuor pour la fin du tempsQuatuor pour la fin du temps, also known by its English title Quartet for the End of Time, is a piece of chamber music by the French composer Olivier Messiaen. It was premiered in 1941...
(1941)
- Quatuor pour la fin du temps
- Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
- Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, K. 478Piano Quartet No. 1 (Mozart)Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, K. 478, is considered the first major piece composed for piano quartet in the chamber music repertoire.-Composition and reception:...
(1785) - Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat major, K. 493Piano Quartet No. 2 (Mozart)Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat major, K. 493, was written after Franz Anton Hoffmeister released Mozart from the obligation of writing three piano quartets.-Composition and reception:...
(1786)
- Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, K. 478
- Walter PistonWalter PistonWalter Hamor Piston Jr., , was an American composer of classical music, music theorist and professor of music at Harvard University whose students included Leroy Anderson, Leonard Bernstein, and Elliott Carter....
- Piano Quartet (1964)
- Camille Saint-SaënsCamille Saint-SaënsCharles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony...
- Piano Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 41 (1875)
- Franz SchubertFranz SchubertFranz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
- Adagio and Rondo concertante in F major, D487 (1816)
- Robert SchumannRobert SchumannRobert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
- Piano Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 47Piano Quartet (Schumann)The Piano Quartet in E flat major, Op. 47, by Robert Schumann was written in 1842. It has been described as the "creative double" of Schumann's Piano Quintet, also in E-flat Major...
(1842)
- Piano Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 47
- Joaquín TurinaJoaquín TurinaJoaquín Turina was a Spanish composer of classical music.-Biography:Turina was born in Seville but his origins were in northern Italy . He studied in Seville as well as in Madrid...
- Piano Quartet in A minor, Op. 67 (1931)
- William WaltonWilliam WaltonSir William Turner Walton OM was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera...
- Piano Quartet in D minor
- Carl Maria von WeberCarl Maria von WeberCarl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school....
- Piano Quartet in B-flat major, J. 76 (1809)
External links
- Piano Quartet Repertoire — A Comprehensive Listing of the piano quartet repertoire by major composers at the New Zealand Piano Quartet website
- Ames Piano Quartet
External links
Further reading
- Basil Smallman (1994) The Piano Quartet and Quintet: Style Structure, and Scoring, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-816640-0.