| Abstract |
For more than two hundred years the string quartet has had a special, unparalleled place in western music. At first it was a medium that allowed four amateurs to converse musically, and this aspect of the quartet as intimate and conversational--as the epitome of chamber music--has remained important. But it has for a long time been joined to a view of the string quartet as the appropriate medium for music of the deepest personal expression and contemplative profundity--the medium, too, for the most sophisticated wit. In this, the first comprehensive survey of the string quartet, the author follows the medium from its origins in the middle of the eighteenth century up to the present day. Naturally, a large proportion of the book is concerned with the classic period of the quartet and with the works of Haydn, probable inventor of hte genre, of Mozart, of Beethoven and of Schubert. But the author has much of interest to say too on the quartets of the later nineteenth century--those of Mendelssohn, Brahms, Dvorak, Debussy--and on the works of the post-1914 era, in which 'the quartet has died and been reborn in a myriad different guises.' The reader is guided skillfully and authoritatively through these more recent transformations of the medium by the leading composers of the century: Schoenberg and Bartok, Stravinsky and Shostakovich, Boulez and Carter. The book also includes a full chronology of quartets written between 1759 and 1984 and valuable information on editions and recordings of the repertory discussed. |
