A Short History of String Quartet Music
Posted: Thursday, October 11, 2007
by Tony Coogan
String Quartets Live
A string quartet can mean any combination of four-stringed instruments. However, traditionally a string quartet is a group of two violins - with the addition of one cello and one viola. Typically, the first violin will play in a higher note range than the melody line, while the second violin will harmonize on the lower notes. If a composer creates music to include stringed instruments, such as bass, other violins, cello or a guitar, the instrumentation indicates this explicitly.
It's the exclusive combination of flexibility and fullness that has contributed to the growth in demand for string quartets in recent years. Quartet music incorporates a great range of notes that have more in common with a full orchestra than any other format. At the same time many string quartet arrangements are easy to play and harmonize with. Hence the attraction amongst musicians and public alike.
String Quartets – The Early Years:
In the mid-18th century, musicians started to use the phrase 'string quartet'. The first musical arrangements for quartets by Joseph Haydn where made up of five movements and resembled the 'serenade' or 'divertimento'. Compare this to the form of the’ Opus 9’ quartets, written in 1769-70, which are in the accepted standard of Haydn and other composers. These quartets consisted of four movements; a slow movement, fast movement, a trio, minuet - followed by a fast finale. Haydn’s style originated with the Baroque suite and developed gradually since then.
The Hadyn & Mozart Connection:
There's no disputing the fact that Haydn is the father of the string quartet. Haydn played occasionally as a member of quartets at social occasions as well as in an impromptu string quartet that also included the classical master, Mozart.
The late eighteenth century set the standard of quality string quartets, as the premier form of chamber music and one which was adopted by virtually all future composers of string quartet music worldwide.
The composition of each of the four stringed instruments is normally in four distinct movements within a larger framework, similar to that found in a symphony. Typically, the outer movements are fast, while the inner movements are slow. Also, don't forget the dance style movements such as the minuet, furiant or scherzo, which can be in any order. These later movements provide vitality and variety to string quartet arrangements.
Modern String Quartet Music:
Nowadays you’ll find string quartets performing at wedding ceremonies as well as religious, civil and corporate functions. A string quartet adds an elegant atmosphere to any traditional or semi-formal occasion. Typically such modern ensembles consist of a cello, viola and two violins. Variations can include a stringed trio consisting of a viola, a cello and one violin, or indeed a piano quartet consisting of a violin, viola, cello and a pianist. String quartets frequently have been referred to as ‘chamber music’, ‘chamber ensembles’, ‘string ensemble’s and ‘classical ensembles’. All of these terms refer to the same classical grouping - the ‘string quartet’.
‘Air on the G String’ by Johann Sebastian Bach, ‘Canon in D’ by Johann and excerpts from The ‘Four Seasons’ by Antonio Vivaldi are just some of the most popular pieces associated with string quartet ensembles. Indeed, these and many more classical and contemporary recordings performed by well known string quartet groups can be purchased or downloaded from the major online music retail outlets.
String quartet music has come a long way since the days of Haydn and Mozart. In the first decade of the 21st century its popularity has certainly come of age.
Anthony Coogan
This needs a whole lot of work! You must have heard quartets only at weddings and receptions to think that Bach's Air (written for violin and orchestra) or Pachelbel's Canon (written for chamber orchestra) are string quartet works. The great quartet composers are Haydn, Beethoven, Bartok and Shostakovich. Mozart, Schubert, and Brahms are also extremely important.
This piece is a disaster. Aside from ignoring nearly 200 years worth of compositions (i.e., anything after Mozart), which makes it substantially useless as a 'history' of this musical form, factual errors abound. Terms such as "chamber music" and "chamber ensemble" do not refer exclusively to string quartets, nor even to other small all-string ensembles: piano trios and quartets; clarinet quintets; string trios, quintets, sextets, octets are but a few of the other forms that come under the much-more-vast-than-credited banner of "chamber music". And to relegate the current state of the string quartet to the (mostly) schlock performed at wedding receptions does an extreme disservice to the living composers (Phillip Glass, R. Murray Shafer, Elliott Carter...) and ensembles (The Lindsays, The Kronos Quartet, The Turtle Island String Quartet...) that continue to ensure excitement, artistry, and wonder abound in this most intimate of musical settings.
Calm your farms. The author clearly stated a "Short History". He may have left out numerous years, but you have no right to get abusive when it doesn't claim to be a "Long detailed history of the String Quartet and the famous composers".