![]() | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Dmitri Shostakovich began work on his String Quartet No. 7 in F-sharp minor, Op. 108, in May 1959 and completed it in March 1960 [1] . He dedicated it to the memory of his first wife Nina Vassilyevna Varzar, who died in December 1954. This piece was composed in the year that would have marked her 50th birthday. This quartet was premiered in Leningrad Glinka Concert Hall by the Beethoven Quartet on May 15, 1960. [2]
Shostakovich wrote many chamber music works; as a result, he founded his characteristic approach to chamber music quite early in his career. [3] Of his many chamber works, the String Quartet No. 7 is Shostakovich's shortest string quartet, with a duration of 13 minutes. The work has a four-movement structure. However the "fourth" movement is not considered as a separate movement, therefore the piece counts as a three-movement work. This quartet also has no break in between movements with the attacca in between all movements that Shostakovich notated.
The first movement begins with a descending line by the first violin that emphasizes the key of F♯ minor as the central of tonality in this movement. The thematic material then gets an answer from a cello with three eight-notes. The counterpoint in this movement can be described as a conversation of two opposite characters starts at the beginning of the movement. In the opening, there are two distinct character through the rhythmic pattern. The first violin has two sixteenth-notes followed by an eight-note while the cello answer it with straight three eight notes in the lower register. The melodic material in the first violin always starts on F♯ until m. 39, when Shostakovich begins it on A♭.
The secondary theme (mm. 46), it introduces a new three eight-notes thematic material on cello. Instead of focusing on F♯ minor, Shostakovich shifted the attention to E♭ minor. Later on, the first violin also has the thematic material in the higher register. In this second theme, the second violin and viola have steady sixteenth-notes throughout the entire section. The recapitulation begins in mm. 106 with the recomposition of the first theme through pizzicato and straight eight-notes. The recapitulation also brings back the F♯ minor tonality again. In addition, Shostakovich also put the second theme in the recapitulation as well with unstable harmony. The coda restores the metric instability in the exposition. The movement ends in the major with one last espressivo on cello.
The second movement begins with four standalone measures of four-string arpeggiation on the second violin, an accompanimental figure which appears throughout the movement. The first violin enters at measure 5 in its high register; the viola and cello enter in m. 14 with a glissando and hold steady notes. In this movement, Shostakovich lightens the textures in comparison to the outer movements and indicates that the performers use mutes on their instruments.
The third movement opens fff , marking a contrast with previous movement. In measure 12, the viola introduces the theme, which also becomes the subject of a fugue throughout all four instruments. This "Allegro" section ends with pizzicato on cello.
The "Allegretto" section that follows is waltz-like in character. The section starts with the first violin introducing a new theme answered by the other instruments. Throughout the movement, the theme from the first movement recurs in-between statements of the "Allegretto" theme. The quartet ends with cello pizzicato leading to an F♯ major triad.
Sonata form is a musical structure generally consisting of three main sections: an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation. It has been used widely since the middle of the 18th century.
The Trout Quintet (Forellenquintett) is the popular name for the Piano Quintet in A major, D. 667, by Franz Schubert. The piano quintet was composed in 1819, when he was 22 years old; it was not published, however, until 1829, a year after his death.
The Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34, by Johannes Brahms was completed during the summer of 1864 and published in 1865. It was dedicated to Her Royal Highness Princess Anna of Hesse. As with most piano quintets composed after Robert Schumann's Piano Quintet (1842), it is written for piano and string quartet.
The String Quartet No. 6 in B-flat major, Op. 18, No. 6, was written between 1798 and 1800 by Ludwig van Beethoven and published in 1801, and dedicated to Joseph Franz von Lobkowitz.
Ludwig van Beethoven's String Quartet No. 11 in F minor, Op. 95, from 1810, was his last before his late string quartets. It is commonly referred to as the "Serioso," stemming from his title "Quartett[o] Serioso" at the beginning and the tempo designation for the third movement.
The Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68, is a symphony written by Johannes Brahms. Brahms spent at least fourteen years completing this work, whose sketches date from 1854. Brahms himself declared that the symphony, from sketches to finishing touches, took 21 years, from 1855 to 1876. The premiere of this symphony, conducted by the composer's friend Felix Otto Dessoff, occurred on 4 November 1876, in Karlsruhe, then in the Grand Duchy of Baden. A typical performance lasts between 45 and 50 minutes.
Franz Schubert's final chamber work, the String Quintet in C major is sometimes called the "Cello Quintet" because it is scored for a standard string quartet plus an extra cello instead of the extra viola which is more usual in conventional string quintets. It was composed in 1828 and completed just two months before the composer's death. The first public performance of the piece did not occur until 1850, and publication occurred three years later in 1853. Schubert's only full-fledged string quintet, it has been praised as "sublime" or "extraordinary" and as possessing "bottomless pathos," and is generally regarded as Schubert's finest chamber work as well as one of the greatest compositions in all chamber music.
Ludwig van Beethoven's String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat major, Op. 74, was written in 1809 and is nicknamed the "Harp" quartet.
The Symphony No. 3 in C major, Op. 52, is a three-movement work for orchestra written from 1904 to 1907 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius.
Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 1 in C major, Op. 49, was composed in six weeks during the summer of 1938. He began to work on the quartet on the morning of May 10, 1938. It carries no dedication. Shostakovich said that in this quartet he had "visualized childhood scenes, somewhat naïve and bright moods associated with spring."
Antonín Dvořák's Piano Quintet No. 2 in A major Op. 81, B. 155, is a quintet for piano, 2 violins, viola, and cello. It was composed between August 18 and October 8, 1887, and was premiered in Prague on January 6, 1888. The quintet is acknowledged as one of the masterpieces in the form, along with those of Schumann, Brahms and Shostakovich.
The six String Quartets, Op. 76, by Joseph Haydn were composed in 1797 or 1798 and dedicated to the Hungarian count Joseph Georg von Erdődy (1754–1824). They form the last complete set of string quartets that Haydn composed. At the time of the commission, Haydn was employed at the court of Prince Nicolaus Esterházy II and was composing the oratorio The Creation as well as Princess Maria Hermenegild Esterházy's annual mass.
The six string quartets Op. 20 by Joseph Haydn are among the works that earned Haydn the sobriquet "the father of the string quartet". The quartets are considered a milestone in the history of composition; in them, Haydn develops compositional techniques that were to define the medium for the next 200 years.
The Piano Quartet No. 3 in C minor, Op. 60, completed by Johannes Brahms in 1875, is scored for piano, violin, viola and cello. It is sometimes called the Werther Quartet after Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther. The premiere took place in Vienna on November 18, 1875, to an anxious public. Richard Wagner and his wife Cosima were in attendance.
The Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25, was composed by Johannes Brahms between 1856 and 1861. It was premiered in 1861 in Hamburg, with Clara Schumann at the piano. It was also played in Vienna on 16 November 1862, with Brahms himself at the piano supported by members of the Hellmesberger Quartet. Like most piano quartets, it is scored for piano, violin, viola, and cello.
String Quartet No. 3 by Walter Piston is a chamber-music work composed in 1947.
The String Quartet in D major is the only string quartet composed by César Franck. The work was written from 1889 to 1890.
The String Quartets, Op. 50, were composed by Joseph Haydn in 1787. The set of six quartets was dedicated to King Frederick William II of Prussia. For this reason the set is commonly known as the Prussian Quartets. Haydn sold the set to the Viennese firm Artaria and, without Artaria's knowledge, to the English publisher William Forster. Forster published it as Haydn's Opus 44. Haydn's autograph manuscripts for Nos. 3 to 6 of the set were discovered in Melbourne, Australia, in 1982.
String Quartet No. 4 in C minor, Stiles 1.2.3.3 SQ4, was completed by Alfred Hill on 25 July 1916 in Neutral Bay, Sydney. It is dedicated to Henri Verbrugghen and his Verbrugghen String Quartet. It is Hill's first non-program string quartet. The first two movements were transcribed for orchestra in 1955 forming the basis of the Symphony No. 4 "The Pursuit of Happiness" in which this music turns to have a program.
The String Quartet No. 4 in C minor, Op. 46, by Henrique Oswald was finished between July and August 1921. It is the composer's last major chamber work. Approximate duration is 15 minutes.