STRING QUARTET Definition & Meaning

string quartet

noun

a musical composition, usually in three or four movements, for four stringed instruments, typically two violins, viola, and cello.
a first violinist, second violinist, violist, and cellist forming a group for the performance of string quartets and similar music.

string quartet

noun

an instrumental ensemble consisting of two violins, one viola, and one cello
a piece of music written for such a group, usually having the form and commonest features of a sonata

string quartet

A musical group that includes two violins , a viola , and a cello . The term also refers to a composition written for these four instruments. Many composers, notably Franz Josef Haydn , Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , and Ludwig van Beethoven , have written string quartets.

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51�Թ� History and Origins

Origin of string quartet¹

First recorded in 1870–75

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Scribner: The string quartet plays from an empty dressing room for most of the show.

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Santa Monica High School’s Chamber Orchestra brought a lovely, lyric sheen to Mahler’s string orchestra arrangement of Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” string quartet.

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The instrumental ensemble is but a string quartet.

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But a few days before Christmas, a string quartet hauled its instruments up the hairpin stone pathway, into a Franklin Hills living room for amonthly house-show series.

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We are spoiled with great recordings of the Shostakovich string quartets, so you might wonder why we need yet another set.

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