The string quartet — perfect vehicle for absolute music?
The string quartet is maybe the most important formation in chamber music. The list of composers that contributed and contribute to the genre is long and the list of masterworks even longer. But what is the string quartet? Where did it come from? Why is it so important? How did it develop?
As a chamber music formation, the string quartet is a set of instruments consisting of two violins, a viola and a cello. As a genre, it is a work of music written for this set of instruments that is typically more than one movement long. It earned its importance in chamber music since its creation in the Classical period (ca. 1750–1820) and other important formations are simply extensions of the string quartet: piano quintet (string quartet + piano), string quintet (string quartet + one string instrument), clarinet quintet (string quartet + clarinet). Regarding the overall form in terms of movements, the string quartet usually presents itself in the tried and tested formula slow-fast-slow with the addition of a dance movement before the final movement. This is the same form of classic symphony and actually these two genres were developed simultaneously during the Classical period by the same man — Franz Joseph Haydn. Haydn was responsible for taking a fun little amateur genre and giving it the dignity and weight of the symphony, creating its equivalent in chamber music. The first string quartets were simple pieces written for the entertainment in noble homes and the performers were the court musicians or even amateur ones, including the patrons themselves. With the aristocracy’s decline and the appearance of a middle class, the concerts as we know them today started to appear, i.e. paid concerts performed by professional musicians. These concerts have been the main form of distribution of chamber music since the 19th century.
Part of the reason why the string quartet came to be so important is the idea that it constitutes the perfect vehicle for absolute music, i.e. music that does not involve any extra-musical factors. Genres such as opera, the symphonic poem or sacred music are not absolute music since they involve factors such as a dramaturgical text, an idea or concept or liturgical text. In contrast, the string quartet formation lends itself to exactly the opposite — music that is simply music and not a representation of anything but music itself. The four parts of the quartet is the ideal number for the harmonic system of the common practice period (from baroque to the start of 20th century, approximately), grounded essentially in three and four note chords. Besides that, the homogeneous timbre of the instruments makes it impossible for the composer to hide behind any effects that are available in an orchestra. The round and stable sound of a string ensemble expresses the written notes excellently and, while maintaining the homogeneity of the timbre along the whole register of the instrument, it is still able to articulate clearly and play pianissimo or fortissimo with great expressiveness. On the other hand, string instruments are able to use a wide variety of alternative techniques that produce various effects, such as the pizzicato (plucking the string instead of using the bow) or the spiccato (bouncing the bow on the string, producing a short and articulated sound).
This reputation as a perfect vehicle for absolute music and the evolution of the genre that ended up valuing the equality of the four parts in terms of importance and complexity, resulted in the act of composing a string quartet to be thought of as a kind of trial by fire for composers. A successful work in this genre is proof that the composer masters the fundamentals of musical composition. For this reason, there are several composers from the romantic period that dedicated their whole careers to other genres but nevertheless composed one string quartet as if to silence their peers. Examples of this are G. Verdi, C. Franck, C. Débussy and M. Ravel.
In this article we will explore where the string quartet came from, how it evolved and developed in the different periods until today, including some examples of relevant works.
Origins
The formal genre closest to the string quartet before it existed is the baroque trio sonata. This a multi-movement work composed for two melodic instruments and basso continuo¹. The two melodic instruments were very often two violins that were joined by the cello and harpsichord in the basso continuo. To obtain a string quartet, you would only have to replace the harpsichord with a viola, taking care to write a part for this new instrument that would complete the harmony together with the other melodic instruments, therefore replacing the harpsichord’s function.
A less formal practice that originated the string quartet is the performance of orchestral pieces by a string quartet. The foundation of the symphonic orchestra is the two sections of violins, the viola section and the cello section. It is rather obvious that in the 18th century there was no way to listen to orchestral music unless you had an orchestra at your disposal. In smaller gatherings, it was common to reduce the string sections to only one performer per section to perform orchestral pieces, therefore forming a string quartet.
It is in this context that Haydn composes his first works for string quartet. After being expelled from the Staphansdom choir in Vienna due to his difficulties dealing with his puberty voice change, Haydn struggled financially for a while, scoring a few freelance jobs here and there but nothing stable. One of his short term jobs was as a composer and performer at the estate of Baron Fürnberg. The baron often invited his pastor, his estate administrator (both amateur violinists) and the professional cellist Albrectsberger and Haydn himself who took up the viola, for musical evenings where this quartet would perform various works, including trios by Haydn, to entertain the baron’s family and guests. It wasn’t long before the baron asked Haydn to compose new music for the four performers and this request turned into his first string quartets Op. 1 and 2. These quartets are light, relatively easy to perform (let’s not forget they were meant for two amateur violinists) and rather simple texture where the first violin plays the melody and the other instruments are relegated to simple accompaniment. The general form is fast-slow-fast with two minuets as intermezzos after the first fast movement and before the last movement. All of these were quite short and simple in form. Nevertheless, these works are very interesting and full of the vivacity, elegance and clarity so characteristic of Haydn. One of my favorite movements is the Adagio from Op. 1, nr. 1 “La Chasse” where Haydn gives us a beautiful, wide and sensitive melody accompanied by relaxing harmonies in the other instruments.
Haydn stopped writing string quartets for several years and was later hired by the Esterházy house which was one of the most prominent and wealthy families in Hungary at the time. In the comfort and stability of his new job, Haydn wrote several symphonies and developed this genre. About ten years after his first quartets, the composer takes a hand at the string quartet again and this time the character is quite different, incorporating the drama of the symphony and the sonata-form in his new quartets. Besides that, the texture is now more contrapunctal, the four performers being more equal with frequent imitation passages where the melody jumps from one instrument to the other. These works are naturally more difficult to perform due to their complexity and they were actually written for the professional court musicians of Esterházy. The six quartets Op. 20 “Sun” clearly show the mature form of Haydn’s string quartet with four movements fast-slow-minuet-fast. The second work in the set is a good example of the contrapunctal texture and the increasing complexity in the genre, since the last movement is actually a fugue.
Classical period
Haydn’s string quartets gained popularity and were published a little all over Europe, although his influence was certainly greater in the area around Vienna which was the musical center of Europe at the time. The composer continued to develop the genre, experimenting with different forms and different ways to give more importance to the viola and cello parts. One of my favorite mature quartets is the Op. 76, nr. 4 “Sunrise” which gets its name from the main theme — a lonely rising line above a sustained chord. The constant rhythmic fluctuations between the static main theme and bustling activity that follows always catch me by surprise.
Mozart was one important figure that read, listened to and performed Haydn’s string quartets and was inspired to write a set of six string quartets known as “Haydn” quartets that were dedicated to the “father of the string quartet”. One of the most interesting of the set is certainly the String Quartet nr. 19 K. 465 “Dissonance” which gets its name from the slow introduction of the first movement where Mozart has some fun torturing us with very un-classical dissonances only to burst out into a luminous main theme.
One can’t talk about the musical Classical period without mentioning the three great composers of the time: Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. The latter was also a prolific composer of string quartets and, as with any genres he touched, he revolutionized it. The first quartets are in the style of Haydn and Mozart and served as a kind of warm-up for Beethoven, who later found his own voice with the Op. 59 “Razumovsky” string quartets, which were requested by the Russian ambassador in Vienna Count Andreas Razumovsky. As would come to be a common thing in Beethoven’s career, the Count’s reaction was one of shock, even saying something like “Certainly you don’t believe this is music!”. In fact, in these quartets one starts to hear the impulsive and passionate Beethoven who lacks elegance, subtlety and simplicity — key values of the classical style. The composer would come to revolutionize the genre, culminating in his “Great Fugue” Op. 133, a single movement work of extreme complexity and difficulty, that to this day makes our jaws drop in disbelief. You can probably imagine the typical reaction 200 years ago.
Romantic period
The Romantic period is the epoch of great passions and the great symphonic orchestra is a better vehicle to express them than a small chamber formation. Besides that, the piano was rising in importance and the expressiveness and individuality of a solo work for piano were favored in a chamber context. It is due to the importance of the piano that we start having a great number of formations where the piano is added to string instruments and maybe the most important is the piano quintet (string quartet + piano). The percussive timbre of the piano allows for an interesting contrast with the smoothness and sustain of the string instruments.
Despite the decreasing importance of chamber music, the more conservative composers that still had connections to the classical ideals continued to produce important works in the genre. Some works I can recommend is the String Quartet nr. 14 D. 810 by Schubert and the Op. 51, nr. 1 by Brahms as well as his Piano Quintet Op. 34 (2. I know this is not a string quartet but I’m going to bend the rules a bit here.). Other important composers are Dvořak, Franck and Schumann.
The pure romantics such as Wagner, Liszt or Verdi that dedicated themselves almost exclusively to the opera, solo piano music or programmatic symphonic music contributed very little to chamber music. Verdi, however, felt the pressure to prove that he was able to compose absolute music and decided to compose a string quartet to which he didn’t pay much attention:
“I’ve written a Quartet in my leisure moments in Naples. I had it performed one evening in my house, without attaching the least importance to it and without inviting anyone in particular. Only the seven or eight persons who usually come to visit me were present. I don’t know whether the Quartet is beautiful or ugly, but I do know that it’s a Quartet!”
Beyond the Romantic period
At the start of the 20th century Romanticism is still on fire in many composers such as Mahler, R. Strauss or Rachmaninoff. The symphonic grandiosity is amplified even further with works that demand hundreds of performers and Mahler even says “The symphony should be like the world. It should encompass everything!”. It is only natural that in this context, chamber music lost even more ground.
However, the 20th century was rich in new artistic currents and experimentalism. While the musical language became more complex, there was some preference for smaller ensembles in order to make the works easier to perform. Besides that, the Neoclassicism (an artistic current that tried to revive the formal ideals of the Classical period) brought to the mind of the musical community the chamber formations and their advantages as medium of more intimate and personal expression. One of the main persons responsible for the change in musical language in the 20th century was Schönberg who left us a vast work that includes four string quartets. Schönberg was a “conservative revolutionary”. He thought of himself as simply continuing the path traced by the classics that he admired so much but he ended up being labeled as a revolutionary because of his very important role in developing atonality. His first string quartet Op. 7 still uses the tonal system and is post-romantic in style but the third is already in atonal style.
Other important works are those from the disciples of Schönberg — Berg with his Lyric Suite and Webern with his various quartets. The 20th century is rich in string quartets, with examples from E. Carter, the minimalists P. Glass and S. Reich and even a work for string quartet and four helicopters by K. Stockhausen. If you still don’t think that the string quartet is all that important just know that a performance of this work costs approximately 150.000$ and it was performed on several occasions. One of my favorites from this period is the fantastic Tetras by I. Xenakis.
https://www.idagio.com/recordings/27915245?utm_source=pcl
The string quartet continues to be an important genre in the education of today’s composers and a good example of a work from our century is About Bach by C. Miller.
Since the first string quartets by Haydn ca. 1760 until today, the simplicity of the string quartet as a formation continues to provide a clear contrast with the vastness of the string quartet as a genre. It is one of my favorite genres in classical music and I hope that this article helped you understand the string quartet better in its evolution through time.
Footnotes
[1] The basso continuo (sometimes figured bass in English) is a form of accompaniment developed in the Baroque period wherein the composer writes the bass line and the chords that should played above it. It was usually performed by a low melodic instruments, most often the cello, and a harmonic instrument, most often the harpsichord.
