Search

The Online Encyclopedia and Dictionary
 
     
 

Encyclopedia

Dictionary

Quotes
 

String quartet

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.

Contents
1 Background
2 History
3 List of string quartet composers

3.1 Born before 1800
3.2 Born 1801–1850
3.3 Born 1851–1900
3.4 Born 1901–1950
3.5 Born 1951 and later

4 String quartets (ensembles)
5 External links

Background

Although any combination of four string instruments can literally be called a "string quartet", in practice the term refers to a group consisting of two violins (the "first" and "second" violin), one viola and one cello. Should a composer create music for four other string instruments — for instance, three violins and bass, or violin, viola, cello and guitar — the instrumentation is indicated specifically. The standard 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 piece of music for four players of stringed instruments may be in any form, but if it is simply a String Quartet (with or without a subtitle) it is usually in four movements, with a large-scale structure similar to that of a symphony. The outer movements are typically fast, the inner movements in classical quartet form are a slow movement and a dance movement of some sort (e.g., minuet, scherzo, furiant), in either order.

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 or cello; the string trio, which is a string quartet with only one violin; 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. 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, considered a true test of the classical composer's art. This may result from the fact that 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 slackening (but only slight) in the pace of quartet composition occurred in the 19th century; here, a curious phenenomenon was seen in the 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, as the extensive listings below document.

List of string quartet composers

Born before 1800

  • Joseph Haydn (1732–1809): wrote sixty-eight string quartets (some of which he called Divertimenti), the last incomplete, plus Die Sieben letzten Worte unseres Erlösers am Kreuze (The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross), a sequence of eight slow movement plus a brief, rapid, finale (originally written for orchestra, but probably better known in its version for string quartet)
  • Roman Hofstetter (1742–1815): an Austrian monk and composer, now supposed to have composed the six string quartets known as Haydn's opus 3, including the well-known 'Serenade Quartet'.
  • Luigi Boccherini (1743–1805): A prolific composer in most chamber music genres, Boccherini wrote ninety-one (!) string quartets — but see his string quintets!
    • List of string quartets by Luigi Boccherini
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791): wrote twenty-three string quartets, including the six so-called Haydn quartets (1782–85), generally reckoned to be his best
  • Luigi Cherubini (1760–1842): wrote six string quartets (1814–1837)
  • Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827): wrote sixteen quartets widely regarded as among the finest quartets by any composer
  • Anton Reicha (1770–1836): at least one quartet
  • Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778–1837): wrote three string quartets, Op.30
  • Georges Onslow (1784–1853): thirty‐six quartets written between 1810 and 1845
  • Franz Schubert (1797–1828): traditionally reckoned to have written fifteen string quartets. The Death and the Maiden and Rosamunde quartets are particularly well known

Born 1801–1850

  • Mikhail Glinka (1804–1857): After attempting to compose a quartet in 1824 (a work that remained incomplete), Glinka wrote his only finished string quartet in 1830. While this piece is now seldom performed, it and its incomplete predecessor are notable as among the first attempts by a native Russian composer to work in this genre.
    • String Quartet in F major (1830)
  • Juan Crisostomo Arriaga (1806–1826): wrote three brilliant quartets before his abrupt death at age 19. Early 19th century Spanish composer.
  • Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847): wrote six numbered string quartets: Op. 12 (1829), Op. 13 (1827), Op. 44 (three quartets, 1838), and Op. 80 (1847); an early unnumbered string quartet in E-flat major (1823); Four Pieces ("Andante", "Scherzo", "Capriccio", "Fugue") for string quartet, Op. 81 (1847); a set of 15 fugues for string quartet, written when Mendelssohn was twelve (!); and another fugue (in E-flat major) for string quartet, written at age eighteen. Mendelssohn's early quartet music shows a remarkable mastery of (and dependence upon) the formal procedures of Beethoven's late quartets, but with a highly original transformation of their expressive significance.
  • Robert Schumann (1810–1856): wrote three string quartets (opus number 41), not among his better known works
  • Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901): wrote a single string quartet (1873)
  • César Franck (1822–1890): wrote one string quartet (1889)
  • Anton Bruckner (1824–1896): wrote one string quartet (1862)
  • Bedřich Smetana (1824–1884): wrote two string quartets, with the first, From My Life, the better known
  • Karl Goldmark (1830–1915): Goldmark's only string quartet was his "breakthrough" work, his first composition to receive very positive reviews in contemporary Viennese musical journals. Long neglected, it was recorded several times in the 1990's as part of a general revival of interest in Goldmark's chamber music.
    • String Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 8 (1860)
  • Alexander Borodin (1833–1887): wrote two string quartets (1879 and 1881)
  • Johannes Brahms (1833–1897): wrote three string quartets, the first two in 1879 and the final one in 1881
  • Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921): wrote two string quartets (1889 and 1918)
  • Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840–1893): wrote three string quartets (in 1871, 1873 and 1876), of which the first is the best-known
  • Antonin Dvorak (1841–1904): wrote fourteen string quartets, with number twelve, the American, the best known
  • Edvard Grieg (1843–1907): wrote two string quartets, the second being unfinished
  • Gabriel Faure (1845–1924): wrote one string quartet (1924)
  • Zdenek Fibich (1850–1900): wrote two string quartets (A major 1874, G major 1878) and a set of variations for quartet (B‐flat 1883) according to Orfeo CD label

Born 1851–1900

  • Vincent D'Indy (1851–1931): wrote three string quartets
  • Charles Villiers Stanford (1852–1924): wrote eight string quartets (1891–1919)
  • Leoš Janáček (1854–1928): wrote two string quartets, known as The Kreutzer Sonata and Intimate Letters
  • Ernest Chausson (1855–1899): wrote one string quartet in three movements; the third movement was completed by Vincent D'Indy after Chausson's death in 1899
  • Christian Sinding (1856–1915): wrote a string quartet, his opus 70
  • Edward Elgar (1857–1934): wrote one string quartet (1918)
  • Hugo Wolf (1860–1903): wrote one string quartet (1884) and a more famous Italian Serenade for string quartet (1892)
  • Claude Debussy (1862–1918): wrote just one string quartet in 1893
  • Frederick Delius (1862–1934): wrote three string quartets (1888, 1893 and 1916)
  • Richard Strauss (1864–1949): wrote one string quartet
  • Joseph Guy Ropartz (1864–1955): six quartets (1893–1951)
  • Alexander Glazunov (1865–1936): wrote seven string quartets, and numerous other compositions for string quartet (the Five Pieces of 1879–1881, the Five Novelettes Op.15, the Finale of the B-la-F Quartet and the first movement "Carol-singers" of the Name-day Quartet , the Suite Op.35, the Two Pieces of 1902, and the "Elegy for Belayev" Op.105). The Third Quartet (1888) is often nicknamed the "Slav Quartet", while the Seventh Quartet (1930) is subtitled "Hommage to the Past".
  • Carl Nielsen (1865–1931): wrote four published string quartets, also an early quartet and quartet movements
  • Jean Sibelius (1865–1957): wrote three youthful quartets (1885, 1889 and 1890) and his much better known quartet "Voces Intimae" (1909)
  • Hans Pfitzner (1869–1949): wrote four string quartets (in D minor without opus number- 1876?, D major opus 13 1903, C sharp minor opus 36 from 1925 - later arranged into a symphony, and C minor opus 50, 1942)
  • Vitezslav Novák (1870–1949): three quartets (1899–1938)
  • Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958): wrote two string quartets (1921 and 1944)
  • Max Reger (1873–1916): wrote six string quartets
  • Josef Suk (composer) (1874–1935): two string quartets — in B-flat, op. 11 from 1896, and op. 31 in one movement from 1911, tonal but from g -> D-flat. Also the Meditation on the Old Czech Chorale "St. Wenceslas", op. 35a, 1914.
  • Franz Schmidt (1874–1939): quartet 1 in A, quartet 2 in G
  • Charles Ives (1874–1954): wrote two string quartets (1896 and 1913), the first entitled "From the Salvation Army"
  • Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951): wrote four numbered string quartets, the second of which includes a part for soprano. Also composed an early, unnumbered, string quartet
  • Franco Alfano (1875–1954): wrote three string quartets
  • Fritz Kreisler (1875–1962): wrote a string quartet in A minor (1919)
  • Maurice Ravel (1875–1937): wrote one string quartet (1903)
  • Ernö Dohnányi (1877–1960): wrote three string quartets (1899, 1906, 1926)
  • Ernest Bloch (1880–1959): wrote five string quartets
  • Béla Bartók (1881–1945): wrote six string quartets widely regarded as being the finest quartets of the first half of the 20th century
  • Nikolai Myaskovsky (1881–1950): wrote thirteen (1907 – 1949)
  • Zoltán Kodály (1882–1967): wrote two string quartets (1908 and 1917)
  • Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971): Three Pieces for String Quartet (1914); Double Canon for String Quartet (1959)
  • Arnold Bax (1883–1953): wrote three string quartets
  • Anton Webern (1883–1945): his String Quartet is composed using the twelve tone technique. Also a string quartet, slow movement and rondo from 1905.
  • Alban Berg (1885–1935)
    • String Quartet, Op. 3 (1910)
    • Lyric Suite (serial,1926) for string quartet, a work which influenced Bartók and many others
  • Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887–1959): wrote seventeen string quartets between 1915 and 1957
  • Ernst Toch (1887–1964): 14 string quartets, the first five now lost
  • Fartein Valen (1887–1952): wrote two string quartets
  • Kurt Atterberg (1887–1974): three string quartets, only one, no. 2 in b minor, recorded
  • Bohuslav Martinu (1890–1959): wrote seven string quartets
  • Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953): wrote two string quartets (1930 and 1941)
  • Arthur Honegger (1892–1955): wrote three string quartets, in C minor (1917), D major (1936), and E major (1937)
  • Darius Milhaud (1892–1974): wrote eighteen, the fourteenth and fifteenth of which may be played as an octet
  • Walter Piston (1894–1976): wrote five string quartets (from 1933 to 1962)
  • Paul Hindemith (1895–1963): a violist, wrote seven string quartets
  • Dane Rudhyar (1895–1985): Crisis and Overcoming (1978), Advent (1976)
  • Roger Sessions (1896–1985): two string quartets (1938, 1951,) Canons to the memory of Stravinsky (1971)
  • Virgil Thomson (1896–1989): wrote two string quartets (1931 and 1932)
  • Erich Korngold (1897–1957): perhaps better known for his movie scores, his formal works include three string quartets, Op.16 in A (1923), Op.26 in E-flat (1933), Op.34 in D (1945)
  • Henry Cowell (1897–1965): wrote four
  • Ernst Krenek (1900–1991): wrote eight

Born 1901–1950

  • Ruth Crawford-Seeger (1901–1953): String Quartet (1931)
  • William Walton (1902–1983): wrote two string quartets (1922 and 1947)
  • Stefan Wolpe (1902–1972): String Quartet (1968–1969)
  • Alan Rawsthorne (1905–1971): four quartets (1935–1965)
  • Giacinto Scelsi (1905–1988): wrote five (1944, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1984)
  • Michael Tippett (1905–1998): wrote five numbered string quartets plus two unnumbered youthful works
  • Klaus Egge (1906–1979): wrote several
  • Elisabeth Lutyens (1906–1984): wrote 13
  • Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975): wrote fifteen string quartets, often seen as being as significant, but more "private", works than his fifteen symphonies
  • Elizabeth Maconchy (1907–1994): thirteen quartets
  • Elliott Carter (born 1908): wrote five string quartets in the second half of the 20th century
  • Grazyna Bacewicz (1909–1969): seven string quartets, the first two only recently published and recorded (the others from 1947 to 1965)
  • Vagn Holmboe (1909–1996): twenty mature string quartets from 1949 to 1985 (several discarded early works, one last Quartetto sereno completed by Per Nřrgĺrd)
  • Samuel Barber (1910–1981): wrote the String Quartet No. 1 in B minor, Op. 11 (1936), from which the Adagio for Strings was reorchestrated; the String Quartet No.2, Op. 27 (1948); Serenade for string quartet, Op.1 (1929), arranged for string orchestra in 1944; Dover Beach, for baritone (or mezzo-soprano) & string quartet, Op. 3; and a single quartet movement (1949) for a quartet whose other movements were never written
  • Evgeny Golubev (1910–1988): wrote at least 24 string quartets (1931 – 1986?)
  • William Schuman (1910–1992): wrote five string quartets (1936–1950)
  • John Cage (1912–1992): wrote one string quartet (1950), Thirty Pieces for String Quartet (1983), Music for Four for String Quartet (1987–1988), Four for String Quartet (1989)
  • Conlon Nancarrow (1912–1997): wrote three string quartets (1945, ca. 1948, 1987), second incomplete
  • Benjamin Britten (1913–1976): wrote three numbered string quartets (1941, 1945 and 1975) plus two early unnumbered ones (1928 and 1931) and a number of other works for string quartet (such as the three Divertimenti, 1933)
  • Witold Lutoslawski (1913–1994): wrote one string quartet (1964)
  • David Diamond (composer) (born 1915): wrote ten string quartets, from 1940 to 1974
  • Tikhon Khrennikov (born 1913): one quartet, his opus 33
  • George Perle (born 1915): wrote seven, of which five withdrawn
  • Milton Babbitt (born 1916) wrote five abstract, densely serialistic quartets in the mid-20th century, and a sixth premiered in 2002.
  • Alberto Ginastera (1916–1983): four string quartets, 1948 to 1974, the last with baritone to a text from Beethoven's Heiligenstadt Testament
  • George Rochberg (born 1918) wrote seven, one of which includes variations on Pachelbel's Canon
  • Peter Racine Fricker (1920–1990): wrote three string quartets (1947 to 1975)
  • Joonas Kokkonen (1921–1996): wrote three string quartets (1959, 1966, 1976)
  • Iannis Xenakis (1922–2001): wrote four works for string quartet: "st/4 — 1,080262" (1955–1962) which was written with the help of an IBM 7090 computer using stochastic algorithms, Tetras (1983), a work in nine sections, Tetora (1990), which means "four" in Dorian, Ergma (1994).
  • György Ligeti (born 1923): String Quartet No. 1 ("Métamorphoses nocturnes") (1953–1954) and String Quartet No. 2 (1968)
  • Peter Mennin (1923–1983): wrote two string quartets (1941 and 1951)
  • Mel Powell (1923–1998): String Quartet (1982)
  • Lejaren Hiller (1924–1994): wrote seven
  • Luciano Berio (1925–2003): wrote three, plus other pieces for string quartet
  • Morton Feldman (1926–1987): wrote two string quartets in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the second being over six hours long
  • Hans Werner Henze (born 1926): wrote five
  • Thea Musgrave (born 1928): wrote one string quartet (1958)
  • Ezra Sims (born 1928): String Quartet No. 2 (1962) (really a quintet), Third Quartet (1962)
  • Karlheinz Stockhausen (born 1928): Helikopter String Quartet (from "Mittwoch" from "LICHT"), for 4 helicopters & string quartet
  • George Crumb (born 1929): String Quartet , and Black Angels (Images I), for electric string quartet
  • Sofia Gubaidulina (born 1931): wrote four string quartets (1971, 1987, 1987, 1994), the last with tape
  • Peter Sculthorpe (born 1929): many quartets
  • Mauricio Kagel (born 1931): wrote four
  • Henryk Górecki (born 1933): String Quartet No. 1 ("Already It Is Dusk"), Op. 62, String Quartet No. 2 ("Quasi una Fantasia"), Op. 64
  • Krzysztof Penderecki (born 1933): wrote two string quartets (1960, 1968)
  • Roger Reynolds (born 1934): Tetra, Coconino . . . A Shattered Landscape
  • Alfred Schnittke (1934–1998): wrote four string quartets and a Canon in Memoriam Igor Stravinsky and Variations for string quartet
  • François-Bernard Mâche (1935): Eridan, String Quartet op. 57 (1986), written for the Arditti Quartet; Moires for string quartet and tape, Op. 73 (1994)
  • Arvo Part (born 1935): Psalom , Summa , and arranged Fratres for string quartet
  • Terry Riley (born 1935): String Quartet (1960), returned to pre-composed notated music at the request of the Kronos Quartet, Cadenza on the Night Plain , Mythic Birds Waltz , Salome Dances for Peace
  • Peter Schickele (born 1935): five string quartets, two quintets with piano
  • Steve Reich (born 1936): Different Trains, for string quartet & tape; and one Triple Quartet (1999), which may be performed by one quartet (with tape), three, or a 34 piece orchestra
  • Philip Glass (born 1937): wrote five string quartets
  • Gloria Coates (born 1938): had written eight string quartets up to 2002
  • John Corigliano (born 1938): String Quartet (1995), revised for string orchestra as Symphony No. 2 (2000)
  • Alvin Curran (born 1938): VSTO (1993)
  • John Harbison (born 1938): wrote three
  • Charles Wuorinen (born 1938): wrote three
  • Louis Andriessen (born 1939): wrote two
  • Jonathan Harvey (born 1939): wrote two
  • Ingram Marshall (born 1942): Entrada (At the River) for string quartet amplified with processing, Evensongs, Voces Resonae (1984), and Fog Tropes II
  • Brian Ferneyhough (born 1943): String Quartets Nos. 1–4.
  • Paul Lansky (born 1944): String Quartet No. 1 (1967), String Quartet No. 2 (1971–1978), Ricercare (2000)
  • Peteris Vasks (born 1946): wrote four string quartets
  • Kevin Volans (born 1949): wrote six string quartets

Born 1951 and later

  • Lois V. Vierk (born 1951): Into the brightening air (1994/1999), dedicated to Mel Powell and River Beneath the River (1993)
  • John Zorn (born 1953): The Dead Man (1990), Cat o' Nine Tails (Tex Avery Directs the Marquis de Sade) (1988), Forbidden Fruit for voice, string quartet & turntables (1987)
  • Bob Ostertag (born 1957): All the Rage (1992)
  • Julia Wolfe (born 1958): released an album of string quartets, The String Quartets: Dip Deep, Four Marys, and Early that summer (1991)

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 include:

External links

Last updated: 05-12-2005 23:25:22
The contents of this article are licensed from Wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License. How to see transparent copy
 
 
     
 
Arts and Culture Entertainment People Science Social Sciences Geography
Maths Nature Knowledge All Categories
Fact Archive.com, 2005. Legal info