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String Quartet

A String Quartet is a musical ensemble comprised of two violins, a viola, and a violoncello. The term also applies to a work composed for this ensemble. The form has its roots in the Classical period, particularly in the works of Haydn and Mozart.

General Background and History

The String Quartet is considered by many to be the most versatile ensemble in chamber music. At the same time, it is also among the most difficult to write for, owing to the fact that the four instruments share similar timbres and require careful balance.

The origins of the ensemble can be found in the Baroque trio sonata. This ensemble comprised of two treble instruments performing over a continuo, usually cello or viol and a keyboard instrument. Alessandro Scarlatti wrote a set of six works entitled "Sonata à Quattro per due Violini, Violetta [viola], e Violoncello senza Cembalo". This work is considered by many to be one of the earliest examples of the genre. It took time before the genre itself would be adopted by other composers. Joseph Haydn, considered to be the father of the symphony and modern string quartet, eventually would be the one to steer the form into its more mature fruition during the classical era, publishing several sets of quartets during his lifetime. These were usually composed with similar movements to that of symphonies in the period; a sonata-form first movement, a slow movement, followed by a minuet and a finale if the work was in four movements. This scale and layout was followed by Ludwig van Beethoven in his early quartets (a set of six, Op.18) but he later expanded the string quartet along similar lines to his symphonies, lengthening the piece and making increased technical demands on the players. After Beethoven, composers including Brahms, Mendelssohn and Dvorak wrote quartets in a Romantic style, again further expanding the form to equal the symphony in length and emotional depth. It is important to note that during this century chamber music was considered more a private pastime for wealthy amateurs than for public concert performance.

In the twentieth century the string quartet began to depart from the four-movement sonata plan that had been dominant in the nineteenth century. Greater use of special effects and extended techniques became common, to the extent that many quartet parts were only within the technical ability of professionals or very skilled amateurs. Composers such as Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern wrote serial music for the quartet, and others used tape tracks alongside the players.

Other uses

The string quartet as an ensemble has occasionally been used in other forms. Bohuslav Martinu wrote a concerto for string quartet, whilst Ralph Vaughan Williams and Charles Ives used a quartet as a unit in a bigger ensemble in the Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis and The Unanswered Question respectively.

Form

Haydn set the template for the string quartet form as so:

1st movement: Uses Sonata form, usually Allegro or a similar fast tempo, 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.

This form was adhered to throughout the classical era but began to become more modified in the Romantic era and past.

For example, some of Bartók's famous later quartets utilize five movements and are structured in a sort of symmetrical arch form. The fifth quartet:

1st movement -Allegro

2nd movement -Adagio molto

3rd movement -Scherzo: alla bulgarese

4th movement -Andante

5th movement -Finale: Allegro vivace

Both the first and last movement are quite fast while the second and fourth movements are slow.

Notable string quartets

Classical Era

Joseph Haydn's 68 String quartets particularly his Op. 33 and six late Erdody Quartets, op. 76.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's 23 String Quartets, in particular his six quartets dedicated to Haydn (K. 387, 421, 428, 458, 464, 465) are considered some of the best of the classical tradition

Ludwig van Beethoven's 16 String Quartets are considered by many to be the pinnacle of the form. The later works, in particular, were unique for their expansive treatment of the form and intimate nature.

Franz Schubert's 13th and 14th String Quartets are among two of his better known works.

Romantic Era

Mendelssohn's six string quartets
Schumann's three string quartets
Tchaikovsky's String Quartet No. 1 in D Major, Op. 11

Impressionist Era

Achille-Claude Debussy's String Quartet in G Minor

Maurice Ravel's String Quartet in F Major

20th century

Samuel Barber's First string quartet whose second movement was later arranged for string orchestra as the famous "Adagio for Strings"

Bela Bartok's Six String quartets, particularly No. 5

Alban Berg's Lyric Suite, which was originally composed for a string quartet.

- Early example of 12-tone composition in the string quartet medium

Dmitri Shostakovich's fifteen string quartets, in particular No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 110

- Anton Webern's early Five Movements for String Quartet, Op. 5 and later String Quartet, op. 28

- Latter being an early example of serialist composition in the string quartet medium.

Modern

Phillip Glass's five string quartets

- One of the few examples of minimalist composition in the string quartet medium.

Steve Reich: Different Trains for string quartet and tape

String quartet

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