Hi Im trying to get my head around making a piece of music for a string quartet.
So I have 2 Violins,A Viola and A Cello.
I am reading that a piece of music for a String Quartet has a specific structure i.e 4 movements .Is this strictly true or a guideline?Is any piece played with 2 violins,A viola and a cello regarded as string qaurtet classical piece or does it have follow the movement patterns to be considered so.
Can you make a string quartet piece with 4 movements with BIAB?and/or how do the string quartet realtracks operate regarding this?If ur into classical maybe you could help,thanks in advance Hugh
p.s or if their is any other advice u can give appreciated as well

Hugh,

Musically, "String Quartet" literally means an ensemble made of four stringed instruments. They can play whatever music they want... popular, jazz, classical, bluegrass, etc. After all, music is music.

The usual instrumental setup for a string quartet consists of 2 x violins, 1 x viola, 1 x cello (as you mention). This doesn't have to be the case, though.


Here's Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling In Love"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7S5viqJT9o


The Tempations "My Girl" (I like this one)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhBeJ2-0bfs&index=24&list=PLS8_VsVDk9PiwJheMNI4sG095f2xOXG4S&t=0s


Jason Mraz "I'm Yours"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WfrXpcA3cM&index=46&list=PLS8_VsVDk9PiwJheMNI4sG095f2xOXG4S&t=0s


The standard "Fly Me To The Moon" (lots of skill on show here)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_HlghebuOs


Here's the jazz standard "Take Five' (an excellent arrangement)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lq-kSZ0IY8


If you want to spend an exciting day or two on Youtube, just search for STRING QUARTETS POPULAR COVERS or STRING QUARTETS JAZZ, etc.

Music with 4 movements is most likely those works based on what people loosely call 'classical music'.

With arranging for a string quartet, it is definitely useful to know some principles of classical harmony. This is based around writing arrangements in 4-parts. The reason I suggest this is because getting a full sound from just 4 instruments is a skill in itself.

Hope this information helps,
Noel Adams

Hi Noel Thanks for the reply much appreciated.One other question :Is it usual to give breaks during the piece or does all four instruments run right through from A to Z on a 4 to 6 minute piece? Will listen to the youtube pieces thanks again Hugh

Hugh,

The arranger is always free to do whatever they want and to go wherever creativity takes them.

There's no reason why a quartet couldn't be just a solo instrument for a while, a duet for a while or even a trio for while. Everything is possible.

In the 4 movement classical concepts you mentioned, there would be a small break between each section. This is because each section is its own self-contained musical work.

Regards,
Noel

Well..... you've tackled an interesting topic.

as the arranger/composer, you can do what you want..... BUT...

To put together interesting pieces, you really need to study the genre in depth to get a feel for how it's done.

A really good foundation in music theory as it's applied to classical music would be very, very useful in doing this.

You really need to be able to "think" like the 4 players would. 4 part harmonies and the chords you build with the instruments. Then, of course, the song structure. Modern pop converted to a chamber group is easy.... just arrange it. If you're working in the classical domain, structure is important.

Again, this isn't my strong point. I'm not a fan of this genre. I did study music theory for 2 years in high school. That was 2 years that convinced me I didn't want to study it or work with it in that manner on a daily basis. The teacher was pushing the 4 students in the class to become teachers of music. Yeah... that was a small class. But talk about one on one time.... we had a good time and I learned much.

Anyway.....I digress.... study the art form first.

one approach might be to take a well-known classical work and reproduce it from scratch. (I'm guessing you'll be using MIDI ?)

Using this approach, you'd have a reference from a skilled master... and if you reproduce the song note for note you'll get a feel for how the parts fit together musically.

After one or more such projects, then you might have a clear idea of how you'd like to pursue your own composition.

Adding to Pat's excellent suggestion you could DL some classical quartet MIDIs and study them. You google/bing classical quartet MIDIs. Here is one page that I found:

http://stringsound.com/Page11.html

I'd suggest having a look at Writing For String Quartet An Introduction to Composing for the Brodowski Quartet for a quick primer.

Hi Herb,
Thanks for info.At least you eliminated it in High School.Good basis though ,wasnt wasted urs Hugh

Hi Pat thanks ,I think like everything you need to get a feel for it and put some time in Hugh

Hi Mario,David,
Excellent links and a good starting point ,very interesting stuff, thanks it gives me some resources to look up urs Hugh