History exam

4. String Quartet:

A string quartet is both a piece of music written for an ensemble

of four string instruments and also the name given to the
ensemble itself. String quartet is an ensemble of four same solo
strings, traditionally two violins, viola and cello.

String quartets were the most popular genre of chamber music in

the Classical era and are always written for the same four
instruments. As with the Symphony, Haydn plays a critical role in
elevating the genre to the position of prominence it enjoyed in the
18th century and beyond.

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.

Quartet composition flourished in the Classical era, with Mozart,

Beethoven and 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 Liszt, Wagner and
Richard Strauss, though it received a resurgence in the 20th with
the Second Viennese School, Bartók, Shostakovich and Elliot
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 1st movement in Sonata form, Allegro, in the tonic key; 2nd
movement is a slow movement, in the subdominant key; 3rd
movement is a Minuet and Trio, in the tonic key; and the 4th
movement is often in Rondo form or Sonata rondo form, in the tonic
key.
History and Development:

The string quartet in its now accepted form came about with
Haydn. If the combination of two violins, viola and cello was not
unknown before Haydn, when it occurred in chamber music it was
more likely through circumstance than conscious design; certainly
the sting quartet enjoyed no recognized status as an ensemble in
the way that two violins with basso continuo – the so-called ‘trio
sonata’ – had for more than a hundred years. Even the composition
of Haydn’s earliest string quartets owed more to chance than artistic
imperative. During the 1750s, when the young composer was still
working mainly as a teacher and violinist in Vienna, he would
occasionally be invited to spend time at the nearby castle of one
Baron Carl von Joseph Edler von Fürnberg. There he would play
chamber music in an ad hoc ensemble consisting of Fürnberg’s
steward, a priest and a local cellist, and when the Baron asked for
some new music for the group to play, Haydn’s first string quartets
were born. It is not clear whether any of these works ended up in
the two sets published in the mid-1760s and known as Haydn’s
Opp.1 and 2 (‘Op.0’ is a quartet included in some early editions of
Op.1, and only rediscovered in the 1930s), but it seems reasonable
to assume that they were similar in character.

The string quartet in its now accepted form came about with
Haydn. If the combination of two violins, viola and cello was not
unknown before Haydn, when it occurred in chamber music it was
more likely through circumstance than conscious design; certainly
the sting quartet enjoyed no recognized status as an ensemble in
the way that two violins with basso continuo – the so-called ‘trio
sonata’ – had for more than a hundred years. Even the composition
of Haydn’s earliest string quartets owed more to chance than artistic
imperative. During the 1750s, when the young composer was still
working mainly as a teacher and violinist in Vienna, he would
occasionally be invited to spend time at the nearby castle of one
Baron Carl von Joseph Edler von Fürnberg. There he would play
chamber music in an ad hoc ensemble consisting of Fürnberg’s
steward, a priest and a local cellist, and when the Baron asked for
some new music for the group to play, Haydn’s first string quartets
were born. It is not clear whether any of these works ended up in
the two sets published in the mid-1760s and known as Haydn’s
Opp.1 and 2 (‘Op.0’ is a quartet included in some early editions of
Op.1, and only rediscovered in the 1930s), but it seems reasonable
to assume that they were similar in character.

After these early efforts Haydn did not return to the string quartet for
several years, but when he did so, it was to make a significant step
in the genre’s development. The intervening years saw Haydn
begin his lifelong employment as Kapellmeister to the Esterhazy
princes, for who he was required to compose numerous
symphonies and dozens of trios for violin, viola and the curious
bass instrument called the baryton (played by Prince Nikolaus
Esterhazy himself). The opportunities for experiment which both
these genres offered Haydn perhaps helped him in the pursuit of
the more advanced quartet style found in the eighteen worked
published in the early 1770s as Opp.9, 17 and 20. These are written
in a form that became established as standard both for Haydn and
for other composers. Clearly composed as sets, these quartets
feature a four-movement layout with more broadly conceived,
moderately paced first movements and, in increasing measure, a
democratic and conversational interplay of parts, close-knit thematic
development, and skilful though often self-effacing use of
counterpoint. The convincing realizations of the progressive aims of
the Op.20 set, in particular, makes them the first major peak in the
history of the string quartet. Certainly they offered to their own time
state-of-the art models to follow for the best part of a decade; the
teenage Mozart, in his early quartets, was among the composers
moved to imitate many of their characteristics, right down to the vital
fugues with which Haydn sought to bring greater architectural
weight to the finales of nos. 2, 5 and 6.
After Op.20 it becomes harder to point to similar major jumps in the
string quartet’s development in Haydn’s hands, though not due to
any lack of invention or application on the composer’s part. As
Donald Tovey put it: “with Op.20 the historical development of
Haydn’s quartets reaches its goal; and further progress is not
progress in any historical sense, but simply the difference between
one masterpiece and the next.”
Ever since Haydn’s day the string quartet has been prestigious and
considered one of the true tests of a composer’s art. This may be
partly because 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 Mozart,
Beethoven and Schubert each writing a number of quartets to set
alongside Haydn’s. Beethoven in particular is credited with
developing the genre in an experimental and dynamic fashion,
especially in his later series of quartets written in the 1820s up until
his death. Their forms and ideas inspired and continue to inspire
musicians and composers, such as Richard Wagner and Béla
Bartok. Schubert’s last musical wish was to hear Beethoven’s
Op.131 in C♯ minor quartet, which he did on 14 November 1828,
just five days before his death. Upon listening to an earlier
performance of this quartet, Schubert had remarked, “After this,
what is left for us to write?” Wagner, when reflecting on Op. 131’s
first movement, said that it “reveals the most melancholy sentiment
expressed in music”. Of the late quartets, Beethoven cited his own
favorite as Op. 131, which he saw as his most perfect single work.
A slight slackening in the pace of quartet composition occurred in
the 19th century; here, composers often wrote only one quartet,
perhaps to show that they could fully command this hallowed genre,
although Antonín Dvořák wrote a series of 14. With the onset of the
Modern era of classical music, the quartet returned to full popularity
among composers, and played a key role in the development of
Arnold Schoenberg, Béla Bartók, and Dmitri Shostakovich
especially. After the Second World War, some composers, such as
Pierre Boulez and Olivier Messiaen questioned the relevance of the
string quartet and avoided writing them. However, from the 1960s
onwards, many composers have shown a renewed interest in the
genre. During his tenure as Master of the Queen’s Music, Peter
Maxwell Davies produced a set of ten entitled the Naxos Quartets
(to a commission from Naxos Records) from 2001–2007.

String Quartet Traditional Form

A composition for four players of stringed instruments may be in

any form. Quartets written in the classical period usually have four
movements with a large-scale structure similar to that of a
symphony:
• 1st movement: Sonata form, Allegro, in the tonic key;
• 2nd movement: Slow, in the subdominant key;
• 3rd movement: Minuet and Trio, in the tonic key;
• 4th movement: Rondo form or Sonata rondo form, in the tonic
key.
Substantial modifications to the typical structure were already
achieved in Beethoven’s later quartets, and despite some notable
examples to the contrary, composers writing in the twentieth
century increasingly abandoned this structure.

Variations of String Quartet

Many other chamber groups can be seen as modifications of the

string quartet: the string quintet is a string quartet with an
extra[clarification needed] viola, cello or double bass.Mozart’s string quintets
used an additional viola, while Schubert’s string quintet in C major
(D.956, 1828) utilized two cellos. Boccherini wrote a few quintets for
string quartet with a double bass included as the fifth instrument.
The string trio has one violin, a viola, and a cello; the piano quintet
is a string quartet with an added piano; the piano quartet is a string
quartet with one of the violins replaced by a piano; and the clarinet
quintet is a string quartet with an added clarinet, such as those by
Mozart and Brahms. Brahms also wrote a pair of String sextets.
Further expansions have also been produced such as the String
octet by Mendelssohn.