# 6 Quartets (1764) by Georg Christoph Wagenseil (1715~1777)



## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Does anyone listen to these pieces? What are your thoughts on them?


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Three cellos and a double bass - low strings indeed. It's fine music for the period without sounding special.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Bulldog said:


> Three cellos and a double bass - low strings indeed. It's fine music for the period without sounding special.


I guess "2 violins, 1 viola, 1 cello" (the most "basic", "standardized" set of string instruments representing SATB) was the instrumentation composers would eventually conform to. That one isn't "rocket science" either. When composers of the period transcribed a 4-voiced fugue (for example) for strings, they used that instrumentation.

"It's not, after all, a particularly balanced group. Two violins, one viola (which is tuned a fifth lower), and one cello (which is an octave below that). We hear all sorts of quasi mystical stuff about the famed 'balance' and 'equality' of the group, but in fact the differences between the instruments make the ensemble in some ways extremely problematic. A viola is bigger than a violin, which makes it louder, but also harder to play in tune, particularly when the playing is fast. And the cello is so much larger still that the distances the left hand has to traverse necessitate a radically different fingering system. All this means that music played on one instrument will not always transfer easily to another. To take only the most obvious example: a rapid melody that may be a walk in the park for the violins can become a steep mountain path for the viola; for the cello, an oxygen mask and advanced climbing gear may be needed." https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lecture/transcript/print/mozart-quartet-in-c-major-k465-dissonance/


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

hammeredklavier said:


>


these days, I'm finding the first two movements memorable, especially the "melancholic" second movement:


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