Abstract
Why are we including this topic in a book on performance theory? Couldn’t one include any other topic relating to a specific musical genre as well? Solo piano music, operas, what not? The reason for the special role of the string quartet is that this genre has a theory, a re ection about why these four instruments—the two violins, the viola and the violoncello—merge to such a perfect harmony or collaborative music, a theory that is not only relevant sociologically, but also with respect to the intrinsic messaging of musical contents.
Bei der nämlichen Gelegenheit fragte ich Haydn, warum er nie ein Violinquintett geschrieben habe, und erhielt die lakonische Antwort, er habe mit vier Stimmen genug gehabt.1
Ferdinand Ries [116, p.287]
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References
Finscher L: Studien zur Geschichte des Streichquartetts. Bärenreiter, Kassel 1974
Mazzola G: Geometrie der Töne. Birkhäuser, Basel 1990
Mazzola G: The Topos of Music. Birkhäuser 2002
Schönberg A: Harmonielehre (1911). Universal Edition, Wien 1966
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Mazzola, G. (2011). String Quartet Theory. In: Musical Performance. Computational Music Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-11838-8_19
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-11838-8_19
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