String quartet

The term string quartet refers to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two <a href="/facts/Violin/0m2eLF3B">violinists</a>, a <a href="/facts/Viola/l869ofuf">violist</a>, and a <a href="/facts/Cello/IeYEXr96">cellist</a>.
The string quartet was developed into its present form by the Austrian composer <a href="/facts/Joseph_Haydn/z7NDdYag">Joseph Haydn</a>, whose works in the 1750s established the ensemble as a group of four more-or-less equal partners. Since that time, the string quartet has been considered a prestigious form; writing for four instruments with broadly similar characteristics both constrains and tests a composer. String quartet composition flourished in the <a href="/facts/Classical_music_era/HhEDbzVX">Classical era</a>, and <a href="/facts/Wolfgang_Amadeus_Mozart/2X5fm67T">Mozart</a>, <a href="/facts/Ludwig_van_Beethoven/eusBgBkA">Beethoven</a> and <a href="/facts/Franz_Schubert/M5UAjUp7">Schubert</a> each wrote a number of them. Many <a href="/facts/Romantic_era_music/Smlk40jm">Romantic</a> and <a href="/facts/20th-century_classical_music/zcKk0ANX">early-twentieth-century</a> composers composed string quartets, including <a href="/facts/Felix_Mendelssohn/vYF5sApb">Mendelssohn</a>, <a href="/facts/Robert_Schumann/tafbz8oo">Schumann</a>, <a href="/facts/Johannes_Brahms/wr1Qo5Jh">Brahms</a>, <a href="/facts/Anton%25C3%25ADn_Dvo%25C5%2599%25C3%25A1k/xsmVQEhs">Dvořák</a>, <a href="/facts/Leo%25C5%25A1_Jan%25C3%25A1%25C4%258Dek/PflqLl3v">Janáček</a>, and <a href="/facts/Claude_Debussy/m60RdNpr">Debussy</a>. There was a slight lull in string quartet composition later in the 19th century, but it received a resurgence in the 20th century, with the <a href="/facts/Second_Viennese_School/mvSBXD92">Second Viennese School</a>, <a href="/facts/B%25C3%25A9la_Bart%25C3%25B3k/C1DQu47U">Bartók</a>, <a href="/facts/Dmitri_Shostakovich/oTL9hCS8">Shostakovich</a>, <a href="/facts/Milton_Babbitt/JckTa6h5">Babbitt</a>, and <a href="/facts/Elliott_Carter/dXhMB2hQ">Carter</a> producing highly regarded examples of the genre, and it remains an important and refined musical form.
The standard structure for a string quartet as established in the Classical era is four <a href="/facts/Movement_(music)/cr9jYcUL">movements</a>, with the first movement in <a href="/facts/Sonata_form/xgVobu3o">sonata form</a>, allegro, in the <a href="/facts/Tonic_(music)/3YWh9zFV">tonic</a> key; a slow movement in a <a href="/facts/Closely_related_key/enRWly7y">related key</a> and a <a href="/facts/Minuet_and_trio/ry2xJ4ne">minuet and trio</a> follow; and the fourth movement is often in <a href="/facts/Rondo_form/TQWwaAop">rondo form</a> or <a href="/facts/Sonata_rondo_form/3REDwC8X">sonata rondo form</a>, in the tonic key.
Some string quartet ensembles play together for many years and become established and promoted as an entity in a manner similar to an instrumental soloist or an <a href="/facts/Orchestra/C5Ha0d0G">orchestra</a>.

String quartet open-in-new

String quartet