Classical Music for String Quartet

Primarily known as an opera composer, Donizetti nevertheless is the most important Italian representative of the string quartet genre. Whereas the first quartets can still be regarded as experiments o...

Primarily known as an opera composer, Donizetti nevertheless is the most important Italian representative of the string quartet genre. Whereas the first quartets can still be regarded as experiments o...

I grew up in a very beautiful part of the world, the Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, which used to be a center for copper mining but is now a wonderful wilderness of forests, lakes,...

Long Pond is a beautiful small lake in Cape Cod, where I have spent a lot of time. I wanted to write a piece that evoked a lovely few days in that specific place. It starts with the full moon rising o...

In March 2023 I heard a concert by the Boston Symphony Orchestra of Górecki’s Sorrowful Songs, and it reminded me of Barber’s famous Adagio for Strings. At the time I was writing my Eleventh String Q...

A suite of 5 short "excursions" inspired by the hiking trails and open land in the composer’s home town of New Canaan, Connecticut.  Selections of Henry David Thoreau texts have been included in the m...

Immerse yourself in the expressive sound world of the Romantic era with 'Romantic Pieces for String Quartet', published by the renowned Schott Musik. This exquisite collection brings together soulful...

Immerse yourself in the rich sonic world of the Baroque era: The sheet music edition "Barocke Stücke für Streichquartett" from the renowned publisher Schott Music revives the magnificent splendor of a...

A wonderful collection of romantic pieces arranged for intermediate string quartet, in which every instrument is given an opportunity to demand attention. The Schott String Quartet Series With the fir...

Having touched on the romantic era in 'To a Wild Rose' and the classical era in 'An die Musik', Kember moves forward to the twentieth-century with this thoughtfully chosen collection for string quarte...

Having touched on the romantic era in 'To a Wild Rose' and the classical era in 'An die Musik', Kember moves forward to the twentieth-century with this thoughtfully chosen collection for string quarte...

Author and arranger Barrie Carson Turner presents a selection of 8 Famous Opera themes arranged for string quartet. The collection includes: Non più andrai (Mozart), Intermezzo (Mascagni), Toreador So...

My 3rd String Quartet is in six contrasted movements. Certain musical figures recur across the work, but there are few themes as such. The main emphasis is on contrast of mood, texture, harmony, pacin...

Foreign Tongues explores a different way of looking at the standard string quartet setup. Envisaged as a work where the cello is pitted against the rest of the string players, the piece aims to explor...

Set across four movements, 'Quatre Tableaux’ (French for ‘Four Pictures') presents four vignettes that progressively build in intensity. The work begins with a luminous calmness that gradually escalat...

The piece opens with the strings swaying between two notes that are either right next to each other or 15 tones apart but the interplay of these two notes sets each instrument in sympathetic vibration...

This quartet is in five movements. I wrote the penultimate movement first. It is a personal reflection on William Byrd’s setting of the fifth century hymn ‘Christe, qui lux es et dies’. That ancient m...

This piece is made of a sequence of eight short movements. It begins with an ascent and a gradual unfurling. We hear a network of voices flowing, pulsating, revolving, crying out. The music moves betw...