The British musicologist David Wyn Jones cites the widespread practice of four players, one to a part, playing works written for string orchestra, such as divertimenti and serenades, there being no separate (fifth) contrabass part in string scoring before the 19th century. There had been examples of divertimenti for two solo violins, viola and cello by the Viennese composers Georg Christoph Wagenseil and Ignaz Holzbauer and there had long been a tradition of performing orchestral works one instrument to a part. The early history of the string quartet is in many ways the history of the development of the genre by the Austrian composer Joseph Haydn. From left to right: violin 1, violin 2, viola, cello History and development Early history A string quartet in performance. Some string quartet ensembles play together for many years and become established and promoted as an entity in a similar way to an instrumental soloist or an orchestra. The standard structure for a string quartet as established in the Classical era is four movements, with the first movement in sonata form, allegro, in the tonic key a slow movement in a related key and a minuet and trio follow and the fourth movement is often in rondo form or sonata rondo form, in the tonic key. There was a slight lull in string quartet composition later in the 19th century, but it received a resurgence in the 20th century, with the Second Viennese School, Bartók, Shostakovich, Babbitt, and Carter producing highly regarded examples of the genre, and it remains an important and refined musical form. Many Romantic and early-twentieth-century composers composed string quartets, including Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, Dvořák, Janáček, and Debussy. String quartet composition flourished in the Classical era, and Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert each wrote a number of them. Since that time, the string quartet has been considered a prestigious form writing for four instruments with broadly similar characteristics both constrains and tests a composer. ![]() The string quartet was developed into its present form by the Austrian composer Joseph Haydn, whose works in the 1750s established the ensemble as a group of four more-or-less equal partners. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists, a violist, and a cellist. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Musical ensemble of four string players The Fitzwilliam Quartet
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