String quartet

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The term string quartet is a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play the quartets. 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 string quartet was developed into its present form by the Austrian composer Joseph Haydn, whose works from the 1750s onwards established the ensemble as a group of four more-or-less equal partners. Since that time, the string quartet has been considered a prestigious form, as writing for four instruments with broadly similar characteristics both constrains and tests a composer. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe described string quartet music as "four rational people conversing" (ein Gespräch unter vier vernünftigen Leuten). String quartet composition flourished in the Classical era, and Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert each wrote a number of masterpieces in the genre. Many Romantic and early-twentieth-century composers composed string...

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