string quartet

Chamber music written for two violins, viola, and cello. The term also refers to the group that performs such a composition. It is has always been the most popular of all the types of chamber works and is considered to be the most pure and abstract genre. Important composers for the string quartet include Haydn (more than 80 string quartets), Mozart (27), Schubert (20), Beethoven (17), Bartók (6), and Shostakovich (15). Recent important composers for the string quartet include US composer Elliott Carter (5 quartets) and English composer Brian Ferneyhough (4).

String-quartet music began as a decorative, vocal style of viol music but developed into a vigorously instrumental style that used the instruments' expressive potential to the full. The older grouping of solo and accompanying voices was gradually replaced by solo opportunities for each player, a trend that grew in the 19th century when shriller metal strings started to be used.