What is "string quartet"

n. 1 (context music English) a group of four musicians playing string instruments, usually two violins, a viola and a cello 2 (context music English) a musical composition for such a group

n. an instrumental quartet with 2 violins and a viola and a cello [syn: string quartette]

A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – two violin players, a viola player and a cellist – 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, with most major composers, from the mid to late 18th century onwards, writing string quartets.

The string quartet was developed into its current form by the Austrian composer Joseph Haydn, with his works in the 1750s establishing the genre. Ever since Haydn's day the string quartet has been considered a prestigious form and represents one of the true tests of the composer's art. With four parts to play with, a composer working in anything like the classical key system has enough lines to fashion a full argument, but none to spare for padding. The closely related characters of the four instruments, moreover, while they cover in combination an ample compass of pitch, do not lend themselves to indulgence in purely colouristic effects. Thus, where the composer of symphonies commands the means for textural enrichment beyond the call of his harmonic discourse, and where the concerto medium offers the further resource of personal characterization and drama in the individual-pitted-against-the-mass vein, the writer of string quartets must perforce concentrate on the bare bones of musical logic. Thus, in many ways the string quartet is pre-eminently the dialectical form of instrumental music, the one most naturally suited to the activity of logical disputation and philosophical enquiry.

Quartet composition flourished in the Classical era, with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert following Haydn in each writing a number of quartets. A slight slackening in the pace of quartet composition occurred in the later 19th century, in part due to a movement away from classical forms by composers such as Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss, though it received a resurgence in the 20th with the Second Viennese School, Béla Bartók, Dmitri Shostakovich and Elliott Carter producing highly regarded examples of the genre. In the 21st century it remains an important and refined musical form.

The standard structure for a string quartet is four movements, with the first movement in Sonata form, Allegro, in the tonic key; second movement is a slow movement, in a related key; third movement is a Minuet and Trio, in the tonic key; and the fourth movement is often in Rondo form or Sonata rondo form, in the tonic key.

Some quartets play together for many years in ensembles which may be named after the first violinist (e.g. the Takács Quartet), a composer (e.g. the Borodin Quartet) or a location (e.g. the Budapest Quartet). Well-known string quartets can be found in the list of string quartet ensembles.

The String Quartet, Op. 28 by Anton Webern is written for the standard string quartet group of two violins, viola and cello. It was the last piece of chamber music that Webern wrote (his other late works include two cantatas Op. 29/31 and the Variations for Orchestra, Op. 30).

The work was initially planned in November 1936 and was premiered at the Coolidge Festival in Pittsfield, Massachusetts on September 22, 1938 in response to a commission that year from Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. It is in three movements:

1. Mässig (Moderately) – a movement in variation form.
2. Gemächlich (Leisurely) – in ternary form (ABA), the outer parts being a four-part canon with all the notes the same length (fluctuations in tempo aside).
3. Sehr fliessend (Very flowing) – a freer movement with numerous changes in texture and mood. In a letter to Erwin Stein, Webern described the middle part of this movement as a fugue.

The String Quartet is atonal, and is composed using the twelve-tone technique. The tone row on which the piece is based (B, A, C, B, D, E, C, D, G, F, A, G) is intricately constructed and based on the BACH motif (B, A, C, B):

The first four notes of the row are the BACH motif itself, followed by its inversion, followed by same motif transposed up a minor sixth. A special property of this row is that its inversion (G, A, F, G, D, C, E, D, B, C, A, B) is equivalent to its retrograde.

When Webern sent the score of the piece to Coolidge, he accompanied it with a letter saying that the piece was "purely lyrical" and comparing it to the two and three movement piano sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven.

The piece was first published in 1939 by Boosey & Hawkes, and was the last of Webern's works to be published in his lifetime. In 1955 another edition appeared from Universal Edition.

The String Quartet, Op. 3, by Alban Berg was composed in 1910. It was not published until 1920.

The two-movement quartet is among Berg's most original compositions. Reminiscent of Schoenberg's F# minor quartet, the sound owes more to Romanticism than to contemporary composers like Webern.

Along with the composer's Piano Sonata, it received its premiere on 24 April 1911 at the Vienna Musikverein.

Giuseppe Verdi's String Quartet in E minor was written in the spring of 1873 during a production of Aida in Naples. It is the only surviving chamber music work in Verdi's catalogue.

Claude Debussy wrote his sole String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10 in 1893.

Maurice Ravel completed his String quartet in F major in early April 1903 at the age of 28. It was premiered in Paris in March the following year. The work follows a four-movement classical structure: the opening movement, in sonata form, presents two themes that occur again later in the work; a playful scherzo second movement is followed by a lyrical slow movement. The finale reintroduces themes from the earlier passages and ends the work vigorously.

The structure of the quartet is modelled on that of Claude Debussy's String Quartet, written in 1893, although each composer's musical ideas were strongly contrasted with the other's. Debussy admired Ravel's piece rather more than did its dedicatee, Ravel's teacher Gabriel Fauré.

The String Quartet in C minor, Op. 35, was begun by Ernest Chausson in 1898 and the composer had fully scored all but part of the third and last movement before he died in a bicycle accident on 10 June 1899. He was engaged on writing the last movement on the very day of his fatal accident.

Relying on the drafts left behind by Chausson, Vincent d'Indy completed the final movement at the request of the composer's family. The string quartet was premiered on January 27, 1900, at the Société Nationale de Musique (SNM). The performers were Armand Parent, Lammers, Denoyers and Baretti.

The first movement is rather influenced by the impressionism of Debussy, while the second adopts a theme from Wagner's opera Das Rheingold.

The three movements are:

• Grave
• Très calme
• Gaiement et pas trop vite

The String Quartet in C minor WAB 111, was composed by Anton Bruckner's in 1862 during his tuition by Otto Kitzler.

The String Quartet in E minor, Op. 83, was one of three major chamber music works composed by Sir Edward Elgar in 1918. The others were the Violin Sonata in E minor, Op. 82, and the Piano Quintet in A minor, Op. 84. Along with the Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85 of 1919, these were to be his last major works prior to his death in 1934.

Gabriel Fauré's String Quartet in E minor, Op 121, is his last work, completed in 1924 shortly before his death at the age of 79. His pupil Maurice Ravel had dedicated his String Quartet to Fauré in 1903, and he and others urged Fauré to compose one of his own; he declined, on the grounds that it was too difficult. When he finally decided to write it, he did so in trepidation.

The quartet is in three movements, the last movement combining the functions of scherzo and finale. The work has been described as an intimate meditation on the last things, and "an extraordinary work by any standards, ethereal and other-worldly with themes that seem constantly to be drawn skywards."

The String Quartet in B minor, Op. 11 was written in 1935–36 by Samuel Barber. Barber arranged the middle movement for string orchestra as his well-known Adagio for Strings in 1936. Barber continued to revise the piece, particularly the finale, until 1943.

1. Molto allegro e appassionato
2. Molto adagio [attacca]
3. Molto allegro (come prima)

Begun while living in Austria with his partner Gian Carlo Menotti after Barber's Prix de Rome, Barber intended that the quartet be premiered by the Curtis String Quartet, but did not finish the piece in time for their concert tour. On September 19, 1936, Barber wrote their cellist Orlando Cole: "I have just finished the slow movement of my quartet today—it is a knockout! Now for a Finale." Having completed a finale, the string quartet was premiered in its provisional form by the Pro Arte Quartet on December 14, 1936, at the Villa Aurelia in Rome. Afterward Barber withdrew the finale so as to rewrite it, which he did by April 1937. He rewrote it again before it was published. The final form was premiered by the Budapest Quartet on May 28, 1943, at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

The opening movement is in sonata form, the second movement a famous adagio, and the final version of the finale, added to the second movement attacca, is shortened, lasting two-minutes, and revisits themes from the opening movement, thereby creating a cyclic form for the quartet. The opening movement has three theme areas, the first a dramatic motif stated in unison by all four instruments, the second slinky chorale like music, and the third a yearning lyrical melody. The quartet as a whole is in the key of B minor, however the central movement is in B minor. The materials of the second movement consist of "a very slow and extended melody built from stepwise intervals, slightly varied in its numerous repetitions, uncoiling over (or in the midst of) sustained chords that change with note-by-note reluctance, all of it building into a powerful climax at the high end of the instruments' range and then quickly receding to the contemplative quietude that ultimately defines this musical expanse."

Barber accepted a commission for a second string quartet in 1947, but never got past a few pages of sketches.

Salomon Jadassohn's String Quartet in C minor, Op. 10, is the composer's only work for the medium. Published in 1858, the quartet was dedicated to his teacher, Moritz Hauptmann.

Wilhelm Fitzenhagen's String Quartet in D minor, Op. 23, is the composer's only work for the medium. It was published in 1879 by Breitkopf & Härtel.

The String Quartet in D major is the only string quartet composed by César Franck. The work was written from 1889 to 1890.

Felix Blumenfeld's String Quartet in F major, Op. 26, is the composer's only work for the medium. Published in 1898, the quartet was dedicated to music publisher Mitrofan Belyayev.

Witold Lutosławski's String Quartet was commissioned by Sveriges Radio for the tenth anniversary of its new music program "Nutida Musik." It was completed in 1964 and its world premiere was performed by the LaSalle Quartet in Stockholm on March 12, 1965.