The String Quartet, 1750-1797
Subtitle: Four Types of Musical Conversation
Publisher: Ashgate Pub Ltd
Published: October 2002
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 311
ISBN-13: 9781840146820
Subjects: Chamber ensembles; Classical music (c 1750 to c 1830); String instruments; c 1700 to c 1800; History & Criticism - General; Music; 18th century; String quartet
Description: "Looking at a wide variety of string quartets by composers such as Pleyel, Distler and Filtz, in addition to Haydn and Mozart, the book proposes a new way of describing the relationships between the four instruments in different works. Broadly speaking, these relationships follow one of four patterns: the 'lecture', the 'polite conversation', the 'debate', and the 'conversation'. In focusing on these musical discourses, it becomes apparent that each work is the product of its composer's stylistic choices, location, intended performers and intended audience.

Instead of evolving in a strict and universal sequence, the string quartet in the latter half of the eighteenth century was a complex genre with composers mixing and matching musical discourses as circumstances and their own creative impulses required."--Jacket.