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String quartet
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A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string instruments — usually two violins, a viola and cello — or a piece written to be performed by such a group. The string quartet is one of the most prominent chamber ensembles in classical music.
string quartet is widely seen as one of the most important forms in chamber music, with most major composers, from the late 18th century onwards, writing string quartets.
A composition for four players of stringed instruments may be in any form, but traditionally string quartets usually have four movements with a large-scale structure similar to that of a symphony.
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Encyclopedia
A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string instruments — usually two violins, a viola and cello — or a piece written to be performed by such a group. The string quartet is one of the most prominent chamber ensembles in classical music.
Background
The string quartet is widely seen as one of the most important forms in chamber music, with most major composers, from the late 18th century onwards, writing string quartets.
A composition for four players of stringed instruments may be in any form, but traditionally string quartets usually have four movements with a large-scale structure similar to that of a symphony. The outer movements were typically fast, the inner movements in classical quartet consisting of a slow movement and a dance movement of some sort (e.g., minuet, scherzo, furiant), in either order. Despite some notable examples to the contrary, the twentieth century saw this structure being increasingly abandoned by composers, although substantial modifications to the typical structure were already achieved in Beethoven's later quartets.
Many other chamber groups can be seen as modifications of the string quartet, such as the piano quintet, which is a string quartet with an added piano; the string quintet, which is a string quartet with an extra viola, cello or double bass; the string trio, which contains one violin, a viola, and a cello; and the piano quartet, a string quartet with one of the violins replaced by a piano.
History
The form first came to be used after the middle of the 18th century. Joseph Haydn's first works for string quartet have five movements and resemble the divertimento (a title which they carried in some editions) or serenade, but the opus 9 quartets of 1769–70 are in the form which was to become standard both for Haydn and for other composers: four movements; a fast movement, a slow movement, a minuet and trio and a fast finale (see below). Because his example helped codify a form that originated in the Baroque suite, Haydn is often referred to as "the father of the string quartet." Haydn occasionally played his quartets on social occasions in an impromptu quartet ensemble of which Mozart was also a member.
Ever since Haydn's day the string quartet has been prestigious and considered a true test of the composer's art. This may be partly because the palette of sound is more restricted than with orchestral music, forcing the music to stand more on its own rather than relying on tonal color; or from the inherently contrapuntal tendency in music written for four equal instruments.
Quartet composition flourished in the Classical era, with both Mozart and Beethoven writing famous series of quartets to set alongside Haydn's. A slight slackening in the pace of quartet composition occurred in the 19th century; here, a curious phenomenon was seen in composers who wrote only one quartet, perhaps to show that they could fully command this hallowed genre. With the onset of the Modern era of classical music, the quartet returned to full popularity among composers, and played a key role in the development of Arnold Schoenberg, Bela Bartók, and Dmitri Shostakovich especially. Most recently, the quartets of Elliot Carter, which span the length of his long and illustrious career, have been highly admired.
String quartet form
The main form for the string quartet was set out by Haydn:
- 1st movement: Sonata Form, Allegro, in the tonic key;
- 2nd movement: Slow, in the subdominant key;
- 3rd movement: Minuet and Trio, in the tonic key;
- 4th movement: Sonata-Rondo form, in the tonic key.
In the 19th century and onwards, this structure, tonal and otherwise, was increasingly abandoned.
Notable string quartets
Some of the most popular or widely acclaimed works for string quartet written between the 18th century and the 1980s, include:
- Joseph Haydn's 68 string quartets, in particular the six quartets Op. 33 and the six late Erdody Quartets, Op. 76
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's 23 string quartets, in particular the six quartets dedicated to Haydn (K. 387, 421, 428, 458, 464, 465) are often considered to be among the best of the "classical" quartet form.
- The sixteen quartets of Ludwig van Beethoven are highly acclaimed and considered the best among string quartets. The String Quartets Nos. 1-6, Opus 18 are thought to demonstrate his total mastery of the classical string quartet as developed by Haydn and Mozart. The next three, the Razumovsky Quartets greatly expanded the form and incorporated a new degree of emotional sensitivity and drama. These were followed by Opus 74 "Harp" and Opus 95 "Serioso". Finally, the late quartets, which include his last five quartets and the Große Fuge, are the composer's last completed works. Though these works are widely considered to be among the greatest musical compositions ever written, their uncompromising intellectual complexity and their apparent rejection of the romantic pathos which pervades Beethoven's middle period both ensure that they remain considerably less popular than the Razumovsky quartets.
- Franz Schubert's string quartets No. 13 in A Minor "Rosamunde", No. 14 in D Minor "Death and the Maiden" and his final No. 15 in G Major
- Felix Mendelssohn's six string quartets
- Robert Schumann's three string quartets
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's String Quartet No. 1 in D Major, Op. 11, known for its second movement "Andante cantabile"
- Bedrich Smetana's String Quartet No. 1 in E Minor "From my Life"
- Johannes Brahms's three string quartets
- Antonín Dvorák's String Quartet No. 12 in F Major "American"
- Alexander Borodin's String Quartet No. 2 in D Major, known for its third movement "Notturno"
- Giuseppe Verdi's only string quartet
- Claude Debussy's only String Quartet in G Minor, op. 10
- Hugo Wolf's Italian Serenade (he also arranged it for string orchestra)
- Arnold Schoenberg's four string quartets
- Maurice Ravel's only String Quartet in F major
- Jean Sibelius's String Quartet in D minor "Voces intimae", Op.56
- Wilhelm Stenhammar's six string quartets
- Leo Janácek's String Quartet No. 1 "Kreutzer Sonata", inspired by Tolstoy's The Kreutzer Sonata, which in turn was inspired by Beethoven's Violin Sonata No. 9, the "Kreutzer Sonata"
- Frank Bridge's String Quartet No. 3
- Béla Bartók's six string quartets
- Alban Berg's Lyric Suite, originally composed for string quartet
- Anton Webern's early Five Movements for String Quartet, Op. 5 and later serial String Quartet, op. 28
- Heitor Villa-Lobos's seventeen string quartets
- Bohuslav Martinu's eight surviving string quartets (Nos. 1-7 and the unnumbered "Three Horsemen") as well as his Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra
- Sergei Prokofiev's two string quartets, the String Quartet No. 1 of which was commissioned by the Library of Congress
- Dmitri Shostakovich's fifteen string quartets, in particular the String Quartet No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 110
- Elliott Carter's five string quartets are among the most widely acclaimed series in recent years
- Samuel Barber's String Quartet Op. 11, known for its second movement, which is commonly heard in its string orchestra arrangement, the Adagio for Strings.
- Witold Lutoslawski's String Quartet from 1964
- György Ligeti's String Quartet No. 2 from 1968
- Henri Dutilleux's String Quartet Ainsi la Nuit from 1976
- Luigi Nono's String Quartet Fragmente-Stille, An Diotima from 1980
- Robert Simpson's 15 String Quartets, including No.9 '32 Variations and a Fugue on a Theme of Haydn', where each variation, like the original theme, is a palindrome.
- Philip Glass' five string quartets.
- Peter Maxwell Davies' ten Naxos Quartets.
String quartets (ensembles)
For the purposes of performance, groups of string players sometimes group together to make ad hoc string quartets. Other groups continue playing together for many years, sometimes changing their members but retaining their name. Well-known string quartets can be found on the list of string quartet ensembles.
See also
Further reading
- David Blum (1986). The Art of Quartet Playing: The Guarneri Quartet in Conversation with David Blum, New York: Alfred A. Knopf Inc. ISBN 0-394-53985-0,
- Arnold Steinhardt (1998).Indivisible by four, Farrar, Straus Giroux. ISBN 0-374-52700-8
- Edith Eisler (2000). 21st-Century String Quartets, String Letter Publishing. ISBN 1-890490-15-6
- Paul Griffiths (1983). The String Quartet: A History, New York: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0-500-01311-X
- David Rounds (1999), The Four & the One: In Praise of String Quartets, Fort Bragg, CA: Lost Coast Press. ISBN 1-882897-26-9.
- Robin Stowell, ed (2003) The Cambridge Companion to the String Quartet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-00042-4. A general guide to the history of string quartet ensembles, their repertory, and performance.
External links
- works for string quartet by American composers
- E.G. Onslow, Viotti, Rheinberger, Gretchaninov, A.Taneyev, Kiel, Busoni & many more.
- String quartet recordings on copyright free Lp's at the European Archive (for non-American users only).
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