Looking at a wide variety of string quartets by composers such as Pleyel, Distler and Filtz, in addition to Haydn and Mozart, the book proposes a new way of describing the relationships between the four instruments in different works. Broadly speaking, these relationships follow one of four patterns: the 'lecture', the 'polite conversation', the 'debate', and the 'conversation'. In focusing on these musical discourses, it becomes apparent that each work is the product of its composer's stylistic choices, location, intended performers and intended audience. Instead of evolving in a strict and universal sequence, the string quartet in the latter half of the eighteenth century was a complex genre with composers mixing and matching musical discourses as circumstances and their own creative impulses required.
Parker (musicology and string performance, Widener College) looks at a wide range of string quartets by composers such as Haydn, Mozart, Pleyel, Distler, and Filtz, discussing the relationships between the four instruments in different works. Following chapters on the string quartet as chamber music and its private and public social aspects, she defines the four types of musical discourse as the lecture, the polite conversation, the debate, and the conversation, showing how each work is the result of the composer's stylistic choices, location, and intended performers and audience. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
