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.

Vitamin String Quartet

Vitamin String Quartet (VSQ) is a musical group from Los Angeles, California that is widely known for its series of tribute albums to rock and pop acts. Their albums are released through Vitamin Records and primarily performed by a string quartet, though other instruments have been used. "Vitamin String Quartet is about applying rock n' roll attitude to classical technique," says Tom Tally, a violist and arranger who has performed on and produced over fifty Vitamin String Quartet albums.

Their albums honor a wide variety of genres, including pop and rock, metal, techno, country, and hip-hop, and a wide variety of groups, such as Simple Plan, Queen, Led Zeppelin, Michael Jackson, The Beatles, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Bruce Springsteen, Jimi Hendrix, The Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, System of a Down, The Killers, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Coldplay, Muse, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Slayer, Adele, Lady Gaga and many more. Their discography includes 261 albums.

The group began in 1999 "as an experiment in transforming rock songs with classical instruments." It later expanded to include a variety of popular music.

String

String is a flexible piece of twine which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects. A rope is made of six twines while a string is made up of less than 6 twines.

Examples of string use include:

String or strings may also refer to:

Music

Volume Two

Volume Two, Volume 2, or Volume II may refer to:

Music

See also

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.