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The Cambridge companion to the string quartet / edited by Robin Stowell.

Contributor(s): Stowell, Robin [editor].
Material type: materialTypeLabelBookSeries: Cambridge companions to music: Publisher: Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, [2005]Description: xv, 373 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm.Content type: text Media type: unmediated Carrier type: volumeISBN: 0521000424 (paperback); 9780521000420 (paperback).Subject(s): String quartetDDC classification: 785.7194
Contents:
Part I. Social changes and organological developments: The string quartet and society / Christina Bashford -- Developments in instruments, bows and accessories / Robin Stowell -- Part II. Celebrated ensembles: From chamber to concert hall / Tully Potter -- The concert explosion and the age of recording / Tully Potter -- Part III. Playing string quartets: Playing quartets: a view from the inside / David Waterman -- Historical awareness in quartet performance / Simon Standage -- Extending the technical and expressive frontiers / Robin Stowell -- Part IV. The string quartet repertory: The origins of the quartet / David Wyn Jones -- Haydn, Mozart and their contemporaries / W. Dean Sutcliffe -- Beethoven and the Viennese legacy / David Wyn Jones -- The Austro-Germanic quartet tradition in the nineteenth century / Stephen E. Hefling -- Traditional and progressive nineteenth-century trends: France, Italy, Great Britain and America / Robin Stowell -- Nineteenth-century national traditions and the string quartet / Jan Smaczny --The string quartet in the twentieth century / Kenneth Gloag --The string quartet as a foundation for larger ensembles / Colin Lawson.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Status Barcode
General lending MTU Cork School of Music Library Lending 785.7194 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available 00197183
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This Companion offers a concise and authoritative survey of the string quartet by eleven chamber music specialists. Its fifteen carefully structured chapters provide coverage of a stimulating range of perspectives previously unavailable in one volume. It focuses on four main areas: the social and musical background to the quartet's development; the most celebrated ensembles; string quartet playing, including aspects of contemporary and historical performing practice; and the mainstream repertory, including significant 'mixed ensemble' compositions involving string quartet. Various musical and pictorial illustrations and informative appendixes, including a chronology of the most significant works, complete this indispensable guide. Written for all string quartet enthusiasts, this Companion will enrich readers' understanding of the history of the genre, the context and significance of quartets as cultural phenomena, and the musical, technical and interpretative problems of chamber music performance. It will also enhance their experience of listening to quartets in performance and on recordings.

Bibliography: (pages 348-354) and index.

Part I. Social changes and organological developments: The string quartet and society / Christina Bashford -- Developments in instruments, bows and accessories / Robin Stowell -- Part II. Celebrated ensembles: From chamber to concert hall / Tully Potter -- The concert explosion and the age of recording / Tully Potter -- Part III. Playing string quartets: Playing quartets: a view from the inside / David Waterman -- Historical awareness in quartet performance / Simon Standage -- Extending the technical and expressive frontiers / Robin Stowell -- Part IV. The string quartet repertory: The origins of the quartet / David Wyn Jones -- Haydn, Mozart and their contemporaries / W. Dean Sutcliffe -- Beethoven and the Viennese legacy / David Wyn Jones -- The Austro-Germanic quartet tradition in the nineteenth century / Stephen E. Hefling -- Traditional and progressive nineteenth-century trends: France, Italy, Great Britain and America / Robin Stowell -- Nineteenth-century national traditions and the string quartet / Jan Smaczny --The string quartet in the twentieth century / Kenneth Gloag --The string quartet as a foundation for larger ensembles / Colin Lawson.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

  • Part I Social Changes and Organological Developments
  • 1 The string quartet and society
  • 2 Developments in instruments, bows and accessories
  • Part II Celebrated Ensembles
  • 3 From chamber to concert hall
  • 4 The concert explosion and the age of recording
  • Part III Playing String Quartets
  • 5 Playing quartets: a view from the inside
  • 6 Historical awareness in quartet performance
  • 7 Extending the technical and expressive frontiers
  • Part IV The String Quartet Repertory
  • 8 The origins of the quartet
  • 9 The Classical style: Haydn, Mozart and their contemporaries
  • 10 Beethoven and the Viennese legacy
  • 11 The Austro-Germanic quartet tradition in the nineteenth century
  • 12 Traditional and progressive nineteenth-century trends: France, Italy, Great Britain and America
  • 13 Nineteenth-century national traditions and the string quartet
  • 14 The string quartet in the twentieth century
  • 15 The string quartet as a foundation for larger ensembles

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

This handsome collection of 15 essays on various aspects of string quartet history and performance aims "to provide a broad readership with a compact, authoritative survey of the string quartet in all its aspects." A book with a mission to be most things to most people could easily emerge as a book meaning nothing to anyone. This is not the case with this volume. The collection begins with essays on the social and cultural milieu that made quartets possible and the technical improvements in the instruments that both drew from and contributed to style changes in their music. The essays that follow survey distinguished professional quartets (1790-1985); offer advice on playing in a string quartet (interpretation, rehearsal strategies, intonation, becoming an ensemble, etc.); and finally treat the string quartet repertoire, focusing on particular geographical areas and times. Though neither particularly profound nor based on the most modern musical analysis, the essays have much to say and are written by recognized authorities in the field. Curiously, the essays in the last section offer no musical examples, whereas the earlier chapters include both examples and photos. ^BSumming Up: Essential. All music collections. K. Pendle emerita, University of Cincinnati