String quartet

A string quartet is a group of four string musical instruments or a piece written to be performed by such a group.

Although any combination of four string instruments may be called a "string quartet", in practice, the term almost always refers to a group consisting of two violins (the "first" and "second" violin), one viola and one cello. This combination of instruments is widely seen as one of the most important forms in chamber music, with most major composers 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 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's four movements of a string quartet, with the addition of two oboes and a bassoon, provide the simplest kind of classical symphony: Haydn is "the father of the symphony" too. Haydn played his compositions in a string quartet of which Mozart was also a member.

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.

List of string quartet composers

Juan Crisostomo Arriaga (1806-1826) wrote three brilliant quartets before his abrupt death at age 19. Early 19th century Spanish composer.
Milton Babbitt (1916- ) wrote five abstract, densely serialistic quartets in the mid-20th century
Samuel Barber (1910-1981) - wrote the String Quartet No. 1 in B major, 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
Béla Bartók (1881-1945) - wrote six string quartets widely regarded as being the finest quartets of the first half of the 20th century
Arnold Bax (1883-1953) - wrote three string quartets
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) - wrote sixteen quartets regarded as among the finest quartets by any composer
Alban Berg (1885-1935)
- String Quartet, Op. 3 (1910)
- Lyric Suite (serial,1926) for string quartet, a work which influenced Bartók
Luciano Berio (1925-2003) - wrote three, plus other pieces for string quartet
Ernest Bloch (1880-1959) - wrote five string quartets
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
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
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)
Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) - wrote one string quartet (1862)
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)
Elliott Carter (1908- ) - wrote five string quartets in the second half of the 20th century
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
Gloria Coates (1938- ) - had written eight string quartets up to 2002
Henry Cowell (1897-1965) - wrote four
Ruth Crawford-Seeger (1901-1953) - String Quartet 1931
George Crumb (1929- ) - String Quartet, and Black Angels (Images I), for electric string quartet
Alvin Curran (1938- ) - VSTO (1993)
Claude Debussy (1862-1918) - wrote just one string quartet in 1893
Frederick Delius (1862-1934) - wrote three string quartets (1888, 1893 and 1916)
David Diamond (1915- )- wrote ten string quartets, from 1940 to 1974
Vincent D'Indy (1851-1931) - wrote three string quartets
Ernst von Dohnanyi (1877-1960) - wrote one string quartet (1903)
Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904) - wrote fourteen string quartets, with number twelve, the American, the best known
Edward Elgar (1857-1934) - wrote one string quartet (1918)
Morton Feldman (1926-1987) - wrote two string quartets in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the second being over six hours long
César Franck (1822-1890) - wrote one string quartet (1889)
Gabriel Faure (1845-1924) - wrote one string quartet (1924)
Peter Racine Fricker (1920-1990) - wrote three string quartets (1947 to 1975)
Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983) - four string quartets, 1948 to 1974, the last with baritone to a text from Beethoven's Heiligenstadt Testament
Philip Glass (1937- ) - wrote five string quartets
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".
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)
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)
Henryk Gorecki (1933- ) - String Quartet No. 1 ("Already It Is Dusk"), Op. 62, String Quartet No. 2 ("Quasi una Fantasia"), Op. 64
Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) - wrote two string quartets, the second being unfinished
Sofia Gubaidulina (1931- ) - wrote four string quartets (1971, 1987, 1987, 1994), the last with tape
Jonathan Harvey (1939- ) - wrote two
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)
Hans Werner Henze (1926- ) - wrote five
Lejaren Hiller (1924-1994) - wrote seven
Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) - a violist, wrote seven string quartets
Arthur Honegger (1892-1955) - wrote three string quartets, in C minor (1917), D major (1936), and E major (1937)
Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837) - wrote three string quartets, Op.30
Charles Ives (1874-1954) - wrote two string quartets (1896 and 1913), the first entitled "From the Salvation Army"
Leoš Janáček (1854-1928) - wrote two string quartets, known as The Kreutzer Sonata and Intimate Letters
Mauricio Kagel (1931- ) - wrote three
Zoltan Kodaly (1882-1967) - wrote two string quartets (1908 and 1917)
Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962) - wrote a string quartet in A minor (1919)
Ernst Krenek (1900-1991) - wrote seven
Paul Lansky (1944- ) - String Quartet No. 1 (1967), String Quartet No. 2 (1971-1978), Ricercare (2000)
György Ligeti (1923- ) - String Quartet No. 1 ("Métamorphoses nocturnes") (1953-1954) and String Quartet No. 2 (1968)
Witold Lutoslawski (1913-1994) - wrote one string quartet (1964)
Elisabeth Lutyens (1906-1984) - wrote 13
Ingram Marshall (1942- ) - Entrada (At the River) for string quartet amplified with processing, Evensongs, Voces Resonae (1984), and Fog Tropes II
Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959) - wrote seven string quartets
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.
Peter Mennin (1923-1983) - wrote two string quartets (1941 and 1951)
Darius Milhaud (1892-1974) - wrote eighteen, the fourteenth and fifteenth of which may be played as an octet
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
Thea Musgrave (1928- ) - wrote one string quartet (1958)
Conlon Nancarrow (1912-1997) - wrote three string quartets (1945, ca. 1948, 1987), second incomplete
Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) - wrote four string quartets
Bob Ostertag (1957- ) - All the Rage
Arvo Part (1935- ) - Psalom, Summa, and arranged Fratres for string quartet
Krzysztof Penderecki (1933- ) - wrote two string quartets (1960, 1968)
George Perle (1915- ) - wrote seven, of which five withdrawn
Walter Piston (1894-1976) - wrote five string quartets (from 1933 to 1962)
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) - wrote two string quartets (1930 and 1941)
Max Reger (1873-1916) - wrote six string quartets
Roger Reynolds (1934- ) - Tetra, Coconino . . . A Shattered Landscape
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) - wrote one string quartet (1903)
Steve Reich (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
Terry Riley (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
Dane Rudhyar (1895-1985) - Crisis and Overcoming (1978), Advent (1976)
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) - wrote two string quartets (1889 and 1918)
Giacinto Scelsi (1905-1988) - wrote five (1944, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1984)
Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998) - wrote four string quartets and a Canon in Memoriam Igor Stravinsky and Variations for string quartet
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
Franz Schubert (1797-1828) - traditionally reckoned to have written fifteen string quartets. The Death and the Maiden and Rosamunde quartets are particularly well known
Robert Schumann (1810-1856) - wrote three string quartets (opus number 41), not among his better known works
Peter Sculthorpe (1929- ) - many quartets
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) - wrote fifteen string quartets, often seen as being as significant, but more "private", works than his fifteen symphonies
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) - wrote three youthful quartets (1885, 1889 and 1890) and his much better known quartet "Voces Intimae" (1909)
Bedrich Smetana (1824-1884) - wrote two string quartets, with the first, From My Life, the better known
Richard Strauss (1864-1949) - wrote one string quartet
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) - Three Pieces for String Quartet (1914); Double Canon for String Quartet (1959)
Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) - wrote three string quartets (in 1871, 1873 and 1876), of which the first is the best-known
Virgil Thomson (1896-1989) - wrote two string quartets (1931 and 1932)
Michael Tippett (1905-1998) - wrote five numbered string quartets plus two unnumbered youthful works
Peteris Vasks (1946- ) - wrote four string quartets
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) - wrote two string quartets (1921 and 1944)
Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) - wrote a single string quartet (1873)
Lois V. Vierk (1951- ) - Into the brightening air and River Beneath the River
Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959) - wrote seventeen string quartets between 1915 and 1957
Kevin Volans (1949- ) - wrote six string quartets
William Walton (1902-1983) - wrote two string quartets (1922 and 1947)
Anton Webern (1883-1945) - his String Quartet is composed using the twelve tone technique
Hugo Wolf (1860-1903) - wrote one string quartet (1884) and a more famous Italian Serenade for string quartet (1892)
Julia Wolfe (1958- ) - released an album of string quartets, The String Quartets: Dip Deep, Four Marys, and Early that summer (1991)
Stefan Wolpe (1902-1972) - String Quartet (1968-1969)
Charles Wuorinen (1938- ) - wrote three
Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001) - Tetras for string quartet (1983)
John Zorn (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)

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:

List of string quartet composers

String quartets (ensembles)

External links