The string quartet : from the private to the public sphere
Christian SPECK

The volume approaches the history and growing prestige of the string quartet from 1750 to 1850.

The String Quartet: From the Private to the Public Sphere approaches the history and growing prestige of the string quartet from the time of its emergence, in circa 1750, until the middle of the nineteenth century. The volume explores the historical, historiographical and biographical facets of the genre’s increasing dominance and ultimate supremacy. Various geographical regions of string-quartet production are encompassed, including Austria, Spain, Italy and Great Britain.

Specific issues raised by individual contributions include the concepts of ‘late style’; notions of sophistication, comprehensibility and popularity; repertoires and the dissemination of manuscript parts and editions; theoretical writing on the string quartet and concert programming. Several contributions include analytical studies of string quartets by ‘classical’ composers, such as Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert; others approach equivalent works by less canonical composers, including Luigi Boccherini, Gregorio Ballabene, Samuel Wesley and Feliks Janiewicz.

Christian Speck is Professor of Musicology at Universität Koblenz-Landau, Koblenz, Germany. His broad and diverse interests encompass the traditions of the First Viennese School of Composition, Boccherini, and the Baroque oratorio. This range of research interests  is reflected in Speck’s numerous books, scholarly articles, Festschriften, conference papers and collections of essays, as well as contributions to the New Grove Dictionary and MGG. He is President of the Italian National Edition of Boccherini’s Complete Works.