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A concerto is, from the late Baroque era, mostly understood as an instrumental composition, written for one or more soloists accompanied by an orchestra or other ensemble. The typical three-movement structure, a slow movement preceded and followed by fast movements, became a standard from the early 18th century.
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 violinists, a violist, and a cellist. The double bass is almost never used in the ensemble mainly because it would sound too loud and heavy.
In classical music, a piano quintet is a work of chamber music written for piano and four other instruments, most commonly a string quartet. The term also refers to the group of musicians that plays a piano quintet. The genre flourished during the nineteenth century.
A string orchestra is an orchestra consisting solely of a string section made up of the bowed strings used in Western Classical music. The instruments of such an orchestra are most often the following: the violin, which is divided into first and second violin players, the viola, the cello, and usually, but not always, the double bass.
Ridolfo Luigi Boccherini was an Italian composer and cellist of the Classical era whose music retained a courtly and galante style even while he matured somewhat apart from the major European musical centers. He is best known for a minuet from his String Quintet in E, Op. 11, No. 5, and the Cello Concerto in B flat major. The latter work was long known in the heavily altered version by German cellist and prolific arranger Friedrich Grützmacher, but has recently been restored to its original version.
The Piano Quintet in E-flat major, Op. 44, by Robert Schumann was composed in 1842 and received its first public performance the following year. Noted for its "extroverted, exuberant" character, Schumann's piano quintet is considered one of his finest compositions and a major work of nineteenth-century chamber music. Composed for piano and string quartet, the work revolutionized the instrumentation and musical character of the piano quintet and established it as a quintessentially Romantic genre.
Exsultate, jubilate, K. 165, is a 1773 motet by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
E-flat major is a major scale based on E♭, consisting of the pitches E♭, F, G, A♭, B♭, C, and D. Its key signature has three flats. Its relative minor is C minor, and its parallel minor is E♭ minor,.
D minor is a minor scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B♭, and C. Its key signature has one flat. Its relative major is F major and its parallel major is D major.
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 called "sublime" and "extraordinary", been said to possess "bottomless pathos", and is generally regarded as Schubert's finest chamber work as well as one of the greatest compositions in all chamber music.
Antonín Vranický, Germanized as Anton Wranitzky, and also seen as Wranizky, was a Czech violinist and composer of the 18th century. He was the half brother of Pavel Vranický.
Anton Franz Josef Eberl was an Austrian composer, teacher and pianist of the Classical period. He was a student of Salieri and Mozart. He was also seen as an early friend and rival of Beethoven.
The String Quintet No. 3 in C major, K. 515 was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Like all of Mozart's string quintets, it is a "viola quintet" in that it is scored for string quartet and an extra viola.
The Quintet in E♭ major for Piano and Winds, K. 452, was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who entered it in his thematic catalogue of his works on March 30, 1784. It was premiered two days later at the Imperial and Royal National Court Theater in Vienna. Shortly after the premiere, Mozart wrote to his father that "I myself consider it to be the best thing I have written in my life." It is scored for piano, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon. Sarah Adams notes that "The four dissimilar wind timbres pitted against the piano in this extraordinary work must have posed Mozart with a compositional challenge. He contended with the instrumental balance by constructing themes easily divisible into small motifs and by changing textural groupings every few bars for a kaleidoscopic array of tone colours."
The String Quintet in E♭ major, Op. 97, B. 180, was composed by Antonín Dvořák during the summer he spent in Spillville, Iowa in 1893. It is a "Viola Quintet" in that it is scored for string quartet with an extra viola. It was completed in just over a month, immediately after he wrote his American String Quartet. Like the Quartet, the Quintet finely captures the inflection of Dvořák's Bohemian idiom with American inspirations. The Quintet was premiered by the Kneisel Quartet in New York on 13 January 1894 along with the second performance of the Quartet and very favorably reviewed, as comparable to Mozart. The reviewer noted that the Quintet was "of the kind about which a commentator may write a small volume without exhausting his admiration or fully describing their beauties".
The String Quintet No. 1 in B-flat major, K. 174, was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in December 1773. Unlike Mozart's other viola quintets, which are scored for two violins, two violas and cello, this early work is scored for two violins, two violas and basso. It is inspired by Michael Haydn viola quintets in C major and G major, written earlier in the same year.
The String Quintet No. 2 in C minor, K. 406/516b, was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1787. Like all of Mozart's string quintets, it is a "viola quintet" in that it is scored for string quartet and an extra viola. Unlike his other string quintets, however, the work was not originally written for strings. Having completed the two string quintets K. 515 and K. 516, Mozart created a third by arranging his Serenade No. 12 for Winds in C minor K. 388/384a, written in 1782 or 1783 as a string quintet. Although by then Mozart was entering each new work into his catalogue of compositions, he did not enter this quintet, perhaps because it was an arrangement rather than a new work.
An oboe quintet is a chamber music group of five individuals led by an oboist, or music written for this ensemble.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed his String Quartet No. 22 in B-flat major, K. 589 after a visit to the court of King Friedrich Wilhelm II, King of Prussia. Mozart traveled with his friend and piano student Prince Carl Lichnowsky, and during these travels they had the opportunity to stop in Potsdam and hold an audience for Mozart at the King's court. Mozart was under financial stress and hoped to hold a position at the court of King Wilhelm II. Wilhelm was an amateur cellist, which is why the set of Prussian Quartets, of which the String Quartet No. 22 is a part, features an unusually prominent role for the cello. Despite such compositional efforts by Mozart to gain employment from the king, these quartets were sold without any dedication and published by Artaria.
References
- ↑ Eisen, Cliff, ed. (2008). The Cambridge Mozart encyclopedia (Repr ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-521-85659-1.
- ↑ Keefe, Simon P. (2007). Mozart's Viennese instrumental music: a study of stylistic re-invention. Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK ; New York, NY: Boydell Press. p. 132. ISBN 978-1-84383-319-2. OCLC 124977095.
- ↑ Ratner, Leonard G. (2001). "Mozart's Parting Gifts". The Journal of Musicology. 18 (1): 200. doi:10.1525/jm.2001.18.1.189. ISSN 0277-9269.
- Melvin Berger, "Guide to Chamber Music", 2001, Dover
