String quartet

A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – two violin players, a viola player and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group. The string quartet is one of the most prominent chamber ensembles in classical music, with most major composers, from the mid to late 18th century onwards, writing string quartets.

The string quartet was developed into its current form by the Austrian composer Joseph Haydn, with his works in the 1750s establishing the genre. Ever since Haydn's day the string quartet has been considered a prestigious form and represents one of the true tests of the composer's art. With four parts to play with, a composer working in anything like the classical key system has enough lines to fashion a full argument, but none to spare for padding. The closely related characters of the four instruments, moreover, while they cover in combination an ample compass of pitch, do not lend themselves to indulgence in purely colouristic effects. Thus, where the composer of symphonies commands the means for textural enrichment beyond the call of his harmonic discourse, and where the concerto medium offers the further resource of personal characterization and drama in the individual-pitted-against-the-mass vein, the writer of string quartets must perforce concentrate on the bare bones of musical logic. Thus, in many ways the string quartet is pre-eminently the dialectical form of instrumental music, the one most naturally suited to the activity of logical disputation and philosophical enquiry.

String Quartet No. 6

String Quartet No. 6 may refer to:

No. 6

No. 6 is a nine-volume novel series written by Atsuko Asano and published by Kodansha between October 2003 and June 2011. A manga adaptation drawn by Hinoki Kino began serialization in the March 2011 issue of Kodansha's Aria magazine. An anime TV series adaptation by Bones began airing in Japan in July 2011.

Plot

The story takes place in the "ideal" and perfect city known as "No.6". Shion, a boy raised in the elite and privileged environment of his home, gives shelter to another boy, who only gives his name as "Rat" on the former's 12th birthday. What Shion soon discovers is how drastically life will change after meeting with the mysterious Rat, whom he had saved one unforgettable, stormy night.

Characters

Béla Bartók

Béla Viktor János Bartók (/ˈbɑːrtɒk/; Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈbeːlɒ ˈbɒrtoːk]; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Liszt are regarded as Hungary's greatest composers (Gillies 2001). Through his collection and analytical study of folk music, he was one of the founders of comparative musicology, which later became ethnomusicology. On 1 January 2016 his work entered the public domain in the European Union.

Biography

Childhood and early years (1881–98)

Béla Bartók was born in the small Banatian town of Nagyszentmiklós in the Kingdom of Hungary, Austria-Hungary (since 1920 Sânnicolau Mare, Romania) on 25 March 1881. Bartók had a diverse ancestry. On his father's side, the Bartók family was a Hungarian lower noble family, originating from Borsodszirák, Borsod county (Móser 2006a, 44). Although, his father's mother was of a Roman Catholic Serbian family (Bayley 2001, 16). Béla Bartók's mother, Paula (born Paula Voit), was an ethnic German, though she spoke Hungarian fluently (Bayley 2001, 16).

Quartet

In music, a quartet or quartette (French: quatuor, German: Quartett, Italian: quartetto, Spanish: cuarteto, Polish: kwartet) is an ensemble of four singers or instrumental performers; or a musical composition for four voices or instruments.

Classical

String quartet

In Classical music, the most important combination of four instruments in chamber music is the string quartet. String quartets most often consist of two violins, a viola, and a cello. The particular choice and number of instruments derives from the registers of the human voice: soprano, alto, tenor and bass. In the string quartet, two violins play the soprano and alto vocal registers, the viola plays the tenor register and the cello plays the bass register.

Composers of notable string quartets include Joseph Haydn (68 compositions), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (23), Ludwig van Beethoven (17), Felix Mendelssohn (6), Franz Schubert (15), Johannes Brahms (3), Antonín Dvořák (14), Alexander Borodin (2), Béla Bartók (6), and Dmitri Shostakovich (15). The Italian composer Luigi Boccherini (1743–1805), wrote more than 100 string quartets.