Carter: Chamber Works
View all works by Carter in the main appExplore the complete catalog of Chamber compositions by Carter. This curated list includes composition years, historical Wikipedia context, and interactive audio to add specific tracks directly to your listening queue.
| Title | Year | Actions |
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| 4 Lauds, for violin |
The Violin Concerto is a concerto for violin and orchestra in three movements by the American composer Elliott Carter. The work was jointly commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony and the violinist Ole Bøhn. It was completed February 26, 1990 in Waccabuc, New York, and was premiered May 2, 1990 in San Francisco, with conductor Herbert Blomstedt leading Bøhn and the San Francisco Symphony. The piece won the 1994 Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition. |
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| 8 Etudes and a Fantasy, for woodwind quartet |
Roger John Goeb (October 9, 1914 – January 3, 1997) was an American composer. |
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| 8 Pieces for 4 Timpani |
The timpani (; Italian pronunciation: [ˈtimpani]) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper. Thus timpani are an example of kettledrums, also known as vessel drums and semispherical drums, whose body is similar to a section of a sphere whose cut conforms the head. Most modern timpani are pedal timpani and can be tuned quickly and accurately to specific pitches by skilled players through the use of a movable foot-pedal. They are played by striking the head with a specialized beater called a timpani stick or timpani mallet. Timpani evolved from military drums to become a staple of the classical orchestra by the last third of the 18th century. Today, they are used in many types of ensembles, including concert bands, marching bands, orchestras, and even in some rock bands. Timpani is an Italian plural, the singular of which is timpano, though the singular may also be referred to as a timpanum. In English the term timpano is only widely in use by practitioners: a single drum is often referred to as a timpani, leading many to incorrectly pluralize the word as timpanis. A musician who plays timpani is a timpanist. |
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| A 6 Letter Letter, for solo oboe or english horn |
The cor anglais (UK: , US: or original French: [kɔʁ ɑ̃ɡlɛ]; plural: cors anglais), or English horn (mainly North America), is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family. It is approximately one and a half times the length of an oboe, making it essentially an alto oboe in F. The cor anglais is a transposing instrument pitched in F, a perfect fifth lower than the oboe (a C instrument). This means that music for the cor anglais is written a perfect fifth higher than the instrument sounds. The fingering and playing technique used for the cor anglais are essentially the same as those of the oboe, and oboists typically double on the cor anglais when required. The cor anglais normally lacks the lowest B♭ key found on most oboes, and so its sounding range stretches from E3 (written B♮) below middle C to C6 two octaves above middle C. Some versions have a Low B♭ key to extend the range down one more note to sounding E♭3. |
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| A Sunbeam's Architecture, for chamber orchestra |
This is a list of works by the American composer Elliott Carter. |
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| Bariolage, for harp |
Bariolage is a musical technique used with bowed string instruments that involves rapidly playing alternated notes on adjacent strings, one of which is generally left open, thereby exploiting the different timbres of each string. Bariolage may involve quick alternation between a static note and changing notes that form a melody either above or below the static note. The static note is usually an open string note, which creates a highly resonant sound. In bluegrass fiddling the technique is known as "cross-fingering". The term bariolage appears to have been coined in the nineteenth century to denote an eighteenth-century violin technique requiring flexibility in the wrist and forearm, the mechanics of which are not discussed by nineteenth-century writers. Etymologically, in French, the term was taken from the noun bariolage meaning a 'disorderly mix of bright colors', which in turn derives from the verb barioler meaning 'to cover with a mix of bright colors'. The bowing technique most often used for bariolage is called ondulé in French or ondeggiando In Italian. Bariolage may also be executed with separate bow strokes. The French violinist-composer Pierre Baillot writes in his pedagogical treatise of 1834, L'Art du violon (perhaps looking back on what he considered an earlier, less advanced era), The name bariolage is given to the kind of passage which presents the appearance of disorder and oddness, in that the notes are not played in succession on the same string where one would expect this or when the notes e2, a1, d1, are played not on the same string but alternately with one stopped finger and the open string, or else finally when the open string is played in a position where a stopped note would normally be required. Joseph Haydn used this effect in the minuet of his Symphony No. 28, in the finale of the "Farewell" Symphony, No. 45, and throughout the finale of his String Quartet Op. 50, No. 6. The "croaking" or "gurgling" unison bariolage passages on D and A gives this quartet its nickname of The Frog. In the following example, from a violin sonata by Handel, the second measure is to be played with bariolage: In this passage, the repeated A is played on the open A string, alternating with Fs and Es fingered on the adjacent D string. The notes on the D string (E and F natural) would be fingered as normal (first finger and low second), but the fingerings given above the second measure would be [2040 1040 2040 1040], indicating the switch (bariolage) from open A string to the stopped fourth finger on the D string, also playing the note A. Another well-known example of bariolage is in Bach's Preludio to the E major Partita No. 3 for solo violin, where three strings are involved in the maneuver (one open string and two fingered notes). Bariolage is much more rarely employed during the Romantic period in the nineteenth century, but some notable examples of its use are found in Brahms's works. Brahms used this device in the String Sextet in G Major (where it occurs at the very beginning in the viola) and in the Third Violin Sonata, Op. 108. |
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| Brass Quintet |
Along with a concerted effort to commission new works for brass quintet since 1967 the bulk of any brass quintet's repertoire consists of arrangements of pre-existing music. Victor Ewald's four brass quintets are the first serious attempts at establishing a repertoire for the ensemble, though they do not stand up to typical string quartet repertoire of the same and preceding eras. The Chicago and New York Brass Quintets made sustained efforts to commission new works, and much of the original repertoire for brass quintet from the mid-20th century derives from their groundbreaking work. In the 1960s the mantle of creating a repertoire for brass quintet was taken up by the American Brass Quintet and the New York Brass Quintet, with both groups essentially establishing the brass quintet as a part of the chamber music field. Notably, only two brass quintets have ever been awarded the Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award, considered by many to be the highest achievement in brass chamber music: The Empire Brass Quintet in 1976 and The Saturday Brass Quintet in 1990. But it was Canadian Brass that developed the pragmatic approach to repertoire allowed the ensemble to reach a wider audience. They developed a two prong approach to performance, developing a masterpiece approach to repertoire that popularized the brass quintet as an ensemble into what was essentially a "pops" ensemble. Meanwhile, the ensemble has been pursuing an aggressive 45-year commissioning schedule. Though this ensemble is seldom recognized for its achievement in the contemporary sphere, they have created well over 100 newly composed works for brass quintet, though few of the Canadian Brass commissions of original compositions have taken hold in the repertoire of other brass quintets. It is generally agreed amongst brass players that the tuba is the dominant choice for brass quintets, with the ability to play smaller instruments such as bass trombone or baritone for certain repertoire such as Renaissance. The American Brass Quintet has always used bass trombone instead of tuba, and their extensive commissioning has validated use of this instrumentation. It is not uncommon for composers to write interchangeable parts for tuba and bass trombone to enable both types of quintets to perform their work. |
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| Canon for 3 Equal Instruments: in Memoriam Igor Stravinsky |
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (17 June [O.S. 5 June] 1882 – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century and a pivotal figure in modernist music. Born into a musical family in Saint Petersburg, Stravinsky grew up taking piano and music theory lessons. While studying law at the University of Saint Petersburg, he met Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and studied music under him until the latter's death in 1908. Soon after, Stravinsky met impresario Sergei Diaghilev, who commissioned him to write three ballets for the Ballets Russes's Paris seasons: The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911), and The Rite of Spring (1913), the last of which caused a near-riot at the premiere due to its avant-garde nature and later changed the way composers understood rhythmic structure. Stravinsky's compositional career is often divided into three main periods: his Russian period (1913–1920), his neoclassical period (1920–1951), and his serial period (1954–1968). During his Russian period, Stravinsky was heavily influenced by Russian styles and folklore. Works such as Renard (1916) and Les noces (1923) drew upon Russian folk poetry, while compositions like L'Histoire du soldat (1918) integrated these folk elements with popular musical forms, including the tango, waltz, ragtime, and chorale. His neoclassical period exhibited themes and techniques from the classical period, like the use of the sonata form in his Octet (1923) and use of Greek mythological themes in works including Apollon musagète (1927), Oedipus rex (1927), and Persephone (1935). In his serial period, Stravinsky turned towards compositional techniques from the Second Viennese School like Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique. In Memoriam Dylan Thomas (1954) was the first of his compositions to be fully based on the technique, and Canticum Sacrum (1956) was his first to be based on a tone row. Stravinsky's last major work was the Requiem Canticles (1966), which was performed at his funeral. While many supporters were confused by Stravinsky's constant stylistic changes, later writers recognized his versatile language as important in the development of modernist music. Stravinsky's revolutionary ideas influenced composers as diverse as Aaron Copland, Philip Glass, Béla Bartók, and Pierre Boulez, who were all challenged to innovate music in areas beyond tonality, especially rhythm and musical form. In 1998, Time magazine listed Stravinsky as one of the 100 most influential people of the century. Stravinsky died of pulmonary edema on 6 April 1971 in New York City, having left six memoirs written with his friend and assistant, Robert Craft, as well as an earlier autobiography and a series of lectures. |
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| Canon for Four: Hommage to William, for flute, bass clarinet, violin, and cello |
Among the fairly large repertoire for the standard piano trio (violin, cello, and piano) are the following works: Ordering is by surname of composer. |
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| Cello Sonata |
A cello sonata is a piece written in sonata form, often with the instrumentation of a cello taking solo role with piano accompaniment. Some of the earliest cello sonatas were composed in the 18th century by Francesco Geminiani and Antonio Vivaldi; subsequent famous cello sonatas include those by Johannes Brahms, Ludwig van Beethoven, Felix Mendelssohn, Fryderyk Chopin, and Richard Strauss. The following list contains cello sonatas with or without accompanying instruments. See the See also list for more comprehensive lists divided up into solo and accompanied works. |
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| Changes, for guitar |
Valerie June Carter Cash (June 23, 1929 – May 15, 2003) was an American country singer, songwriter, comedienne, actress, and author. A five-time Grammy Award winner, she was a member of the Carter Family and the second wife of singer Johnny Cash. Before her marriage, she performed as June Carter, a name she continued to use professionally, including on songwriting credits. She played guitar, banjo, harmonica, and autoharp, and acted in several films and television shows. In 2009, she was posthumously inducted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame, and in 2025, she was named a posthumous inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame. |
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| Con Leggerezza Pensosa, Omaggio a Italo Calvino, for clarinet, violin and cello | ||
| Double Trio, for chamber ensemble |
This is a list of works by the American composer Elliott Carter. |
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| Elegy |
James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924 – December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, Carter served from 1971 to 1975 as the 76th governor of Georgia and from 1963 to 1967 in the Georgia State Senate. He lived longer than any other president in US history, reaching age 100. Born in Plains, Georgia, Carter graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1946 and joined the submarine service before returning to his family's peanut farm. He was active in the civil rights movement, then served as a state senator and the 76th governor, one of the first of the "New South governors" committed to desegregation. After announcing his candidacy in 1976, Carter secured the Democratic nomination as a dark horse little known outside his home state before narrowly defeating Republican incumbent Gerald Ford in the general election. As president, Carter pardoned all Vietnam draft evaders and negotiated major foreign policy agreements, including the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal Treaties, and the second round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, and he established diplomatic relations with China. He created a national energy policy that included conservation, price control, and new technology. He signed bills that created the Departments of Energy and Education. The later years of his presidency were marked by several foreign policy crises, including the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (leading to the end of détente and the 1980 Olympics boycott) and the fallout of the Iranian Revolution (including the Iran hostage crisis and 1979 oil crisis). Carter sought reelection in 1980, defeating a primary challenge by Senator Ted Kennedy, but lost the election to Republican nominee Ronald Reagan. Polls of historians and political scientists have ranked Carter's presidency below average. His post-presidency—the longest in US history—is viewed more favorably. After Carter's presidential term ended, he established the Carter Center to promote human rights, earning him the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize. He traveled extensively to conduct peace negotiations, monitor elections, and end neglected tropical diseases, becoming a major contributor to the eradication of dracunculiasis. Carter was a key figure in the nonprofit housing organization Habitat for Humanity. He also wrote political memoirs and other books, commentary on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and poetry. |
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| Enchanted Preludes, for flute and cello |
This is a list of works by the American composer Elliott Carter. |
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| Esprit Rude; Esprit Doux, for flute and clarinet |
This is a list of works by the American composer Elliott Carter. |
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| Figment II, for cello |
This is a list of notable solo cello pieces. It includes arrangements and transcriptions. |
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| Figment IV, for viola |
This is a list of works by the American composer Elliott Carter. |
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| Figment no. 1, for cello |
This is a list of notable solo cello pieces. It includes arrangements and transcriptions. |
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| Figment no. 2, 'Remembering Mr. Ives', for cello |
This is a list of notable solo cello pieces. It includes arrangements and transcriptions. |
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| Figment no. 4, for viola |
This is a list of works by the American composer Elliott Carter. |
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| Figment V, for marimba |
Elliott Cook Carter Jr. (December 11, 1908 – November 5, 2012) was an American modernist composer who was one of the most respected composers of the second half of the 20th century. He combined elements of European modernism and American "ultra-modernism" into a distinctive style with a personal harmonic and rhythmic language, after an early neoclassical phase. His compositions are performed throughout the world, and include orchestral, chamber music, solo instrumental, and vocal works. Carter was the recipient of many awards – he was twice awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his string quartets. He also wrote the large-scale orchestral triptych Symphonia: sum fluxae pretium spei. Carter was born in New York City. He developed an interest in modern music in the 1920s. He was later introduced to Charles Ives, and he soon came to appreciate the American ultra-modernists. After studying at Harvard University with Edward Burlingame Hill, Gustav Holst and Walter Piston, he studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1930s, then returned to the United States. Carter was productive in his later years, publishing more than 40 works between the ages of 90 and 100, and over 20 more after he turned 100 in 2008. He completed his last work, Epigrams for piano trio, on August 13, 2012. |
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| Figment, for cello |
The violoncello ( VY-ə-lən-CHEL-oh, Italian pronunciation: [vjolonˈtʃɛllo]), commonly abbreviated as cello ( CHEL-oh), is a medium-low pitched bowed string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G2, D3 and A3. The viola's four strings are each an octave higher. Music for the cello is generally written in the bass clef; the tenor clef and treble clef are used for higher-range passages. Played by a cellist or violoncellist, the instrument enjoys a large solo repertoire with and without accompaniment, as well as numerous concerti. As a solo instrument, the cello uses its whole range, from bass to soprano, and in chamber music, such as string quartets and the orchestra's string section, it often plays the bass part, where it may be reinforced an octave lower by the double basses. Figured bass music of the Baroque era typically assumes a cello, viola da gamba or bassoon as part of the basso continuo group alongside chordal instruments such as organ, harpsichord, lute, or theorbo. Cellos are found in many other ensembles, from modern Chinese orchestras (as a replacement of Gehu 革胡)to cello rock bands. |
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| HBHH, for solo oboe |
This is a list of works by the American composer Elliott Carter. |
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| Hiyoku, for two clarinets |
This is a list of works by the American composer Elliott Carter. |
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| Immer Neu, for oboe and harp |
This is a list of works by the American composer Elliott Carter. |
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| Inner Song, in Memory of Stefan Wolpe, for oboe |
This is a list of composers of 20th-century classical music, sortable by name, year of birth, year of death, nationality, notable works, and remarks. It includes only composers of significant fame and importance. The style of the composer's music is given where possible, bearing in mind that some defy simple classification. Names are listed first by year of birth, then in alphabetical order within each year. The 20th century is defined by the calendar rather than by any unifying characteristics of musical style or attitude, and is therefore not an era of the same order as the classical or romantic. However, the century can be divided into modern and postmodern eras that overlap and can be defined more by differences in attitude than style. |
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| Luimen, for trumpet, trombone, vibraphone, mandolin, guitar and harp |
The following is a non-exhaustive list of notable compositions for the harp. |
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| Mnemosyne, for violin |
This is a list of works by the American composer Elliott Carter. |
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| Mosaic, for harp and 7 instruments |
The following is a non-exhaustive list of notable compositions for the harp. |
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| Oboe Quartet, for oboe and string trio |
The oboe ( OH-boh) is a type of double-reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common type of oboe, the soprano oboe pitched in C, measures roughly 65 cm (25+1⁄2 in) long and has metal keys, a conical bore and a flared bell. Sound is produced by blowing into the reed at a sufficient air pressure, causing it to vibrate with the air column. The distinctive tone is versatile and has been described as "bright". When the word oboe is used alone, it is generally taken to mean the soprano member rather than other instruments of the family, such as the bass oboe, the cor anglais (English horn), or oboe d'amore. Today, the oboe is commonly used as orchestral or solo instrument in symphony orchestras, concert bands and chamber ensembles. The oboe is especially used in classical music, film music, some genres of folk music, and is occasionally heard in jazz, rock, pop, and popular music. The oboe is widely recognized as the instrument that tunes the orchestra with its distinctive A. A musician who plays the oboe is called an oboist. |
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| Pastorale, for english horn and piano |
The cor anglais (UK: , US: or original French: [kɔʁ ɑ̃ɡlɛ]; plural: cors anglais), or English horn (mainly North America), is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family. It is approximately one and a half times the length of an oboe, making it essentially an alto oboe in F. The cor anglais is a transposing instrument pitched in F, a perfect fifth lower than the oboe (a C instrument). This means that music for the cor anglais is written a perfect fifth higher than the instrument sounds. The fingering and playing technique used for the cor anglais are essentially the same as those of the oboe, and oboists typically double on the cor anglais when required. The cor anglais normally lacks the lowest B♭ key found on most oboes, and so its sounding range stretches from E3 (written B♮) below middle C to C6 two octaves above middle C. Some versions have a Low B♭ key to extend the range down one more note to sounding E♭3. |
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| Quintet for Piano and Winds |
In classical music, a piano quintet is a work of chamber music written for piano and four other instruments, most commonly (since 1842) a string quartet (i.e., two violins, viola, and cello). The term also refers to the group of musicians that plays a piano quintet. The genre flourished during the nineteenth century. Until the middle of the nineteenth century, most piano quintets were scored for piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass. Following the success of Robert Schumann's Piano Quintet in E♭ major, Op. 44 in 1842, which paired the piano with a string quartet, composers increasingly adopted Schumann's instrumentation, and it was this form of the piano quintet that dominated during the second half of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century. Among the best known and most frequently performed piano quintets, aside from Schumann's, are Schubert's Trout quintet and the piano quintets of Johannes Brahms, César Franck, Antonín Dvořák and Dmitri Shostakovich. |
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| Retracing, for bassoon |
This is a list of works by the American composer Elliott Carter. |
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| Rhapsodic Musings, for violin |
This is a list of works by the American composer Elliott Carter. |
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| Riconoscenza, for violin |
This is a non exhaustive compilation of pieces for solo violin. See also the entries on violin and the List of compositions for violin and orchestra and list of compositions for violin and piano. Ordering is by surname of composer. |
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| Rigmarole, for bass clarinet and cello |
This is a list of works by the American composer Elliott Carter. |
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| Scrivo in Vento, for flute |
This is a list of works by the American composer Elliott Carter. |
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| Shard, for guitar |
This article lists the classical guitar music in the classical guitar repertoire. It includes baroque guitar and vihuela music, but not lute music. This music is most commonly performed by classical guitarists and requires the use of a variety of classical guitar techniques to play. During the Renaissance, the guitar was likely to have been used as it frequently is today in popular music, that is to provide strummed accompaniment for a singer or a small group. There also were several significant music collections published during the 16th century of contrapuntal compositions approaching the complexity, sophistication and breadth of lute music from the same period. Most Renaissance lute music has been transcribed for guitar (see List of composers for lute). The baroque guitar (c.1600–1750) was a string instrument with five courses of gut strings and moveable gut frets. The first (highest pitched) course was sometimes a single string. It replaced the Renaissance lute as the most common instrument found in the home. The romantic guitar, in use from approximately 1790 to 1830, was the guitar of the Classical and Romantic period of music, showing remarkable consistency in the instrument's construction during these decades. By this time guitars used six, sometimes more, single strings instead of courses. The romantic guitar eventually led to a different type of guitar in Spain: the fan-braced Spanish guitars of Torres, which may be seen as the immediate precursor of the modern classical guitar. In the 20th century, many non-guitarist composers wrote for the instrument, whereas previously only players of the instrument had done so. |
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| Sonata for Flute, Oboe, Cello and Harpsichord |
The harpsichord was largely obsolete, and seldom played, instrument during a period lasting from the early 19th century to the early 20th. The instrument was successfully revived during the 20th century, first in an ahistorical form strongly influenced by the piano, then with historically more faithful instruments. The revival was the joint work of performers, builders, and composers who wrote new harpsichord pieces. However the harpsichord never completely disappeared from the public eye as it was used through the mid-19th century for basso continuo because despite its low volume, it had considerable power to "cut through" the orchestra. The earliest revival efforts began in the mid-19th century due to its increasingly infrequent usage and there was concern that the instrument could become a forgotten relic of the past. |
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| Steep Steps, for clarinet |
This is a list of works by the American composer Elliott Carter. |
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| String Quartet no. 1 |
The String Quartet No. 1 by American composer Elliott Carter is a work for string quartet written during a year spent in the Sonoran Desert near Tucson, Arizona from 1950–51. To some extent, it can be said that this was his first major breakthrough work as a composer. The piece was premiered on 26 February 1953 at Columbia University, performed by the Walden Quartet of the University of Illinois. A primary compositional technique used in the quartet is the principle of metric modulation (temporal modulation)—one for which Carter was to become particularly renowned. Although he was not the first composer to use this device (such as Stravinsky's Symphonies of Wind Instruments, (1920)) he was seemingly the first to develop such complex transformations. It is said that Carter assigned to tempo the structural role that earlier composers gave to tonality. |
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| String Quartet no. 2 |
The Second String Quartet by American composer Elliott Carter was completed in 1959. This composition for string quartet was commissioned by the Stanley String Quartet of the University of Michigan, who decided not to play it upon seeing the score, and received its first performance in 1960 by the Juilliard String Quartet. The quartet is considerably influenced by the music of European avant-garde composers who were gaining celebrity at this time, particularly Pierre Boulez's Le Marteau sans maître. This is a much more fragmentary piece than his earlier quartet (1951): the four instruments play very individual roles and unpredictably bounce off one another. Indeed, Carter has instructed the players to sit as far apart as possible so that they appear to be playing different pieces simultaneously. |
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| String Quartet no. 3 |
The Third String Quartet by American composer Elliott Carter was completed in 1971. It is dedicated to the Juilliard String Quartet, and it was premiered in 1973. This quartet earned Carter his second Pulitzer Prize in Music in 1973. |
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| String Quartet no. 4 |
The Fourth String Quartet by American composer Elliott Carter was composed in 1985–86 in New York City and Rome, and completed in June 1986. It was premiered on September 17, 1986, at Festival Miami, University of Miami, Florida by the Composers String Quartet. |
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| String Quartet no. 5 |
American composer Elliott Carter's String Quartet No. 5 is a composition for string quartet. The work was composed between January and July 1995, as a commission for the Arditti Quartet by the city of Antwerp (in its year as City of Culture (1993)), by the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik, by the Festival d'Automne à Paris, and by Lincoln Center, New York. It was premiered by the Arditti Quartet (its dedicatee) in Antwerp at deSingel International Art Centre on September 19, 1995. |
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| String Trio |
The term string quartet is a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play the quartets. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists, a violist, and a cellist. The string quartet was developed into its present form by the Austrian composer Joseph Haydn, whose works in the 1750s established the ensemble as a group of four more-or-less equal partners. Since that time, the string quartet has been considered a prestigious form; writing for four instruments with broadly similar characteristics both constrains and tests a composer. String quartet composition flourished in the Classical era, and Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert each wrote a number of them. Many Romantic and early-twentieth-century composers composed string quartets, including Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, Dvořák, Janáček, and Debussy. There was a slight lull in string quartet composition later in the 19th century, but it received a resurgence in the 20th century, with the Second Viennese School, Bartók, Shostakovich, Babbitt, and Carter producing highly regarded examples of the genre, and it remains an important and refined musical form. The standard structure for a string quartet as established in the Classical era is four movements, with the first movement in sonata form, allegro, in the tonic key; a slow movement in a related key and a minuet and trio follow; and the fourth movement is often in rondo form or sonata rondo form, in the tonic key. Some string quartet ensembles play together for many years and become established and promoted as an entity in a manner similar to an instrumental soloist or an orchestra. |
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| Tintinnabulation, for percussion sextet |
This is a list of works by the American composer Elliott Carter. |
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| Trije glasbeniki, for flute, bass clarinet, and harp |
This is a list of works by the American composer Elliott Carter. |
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| Triple Duo, for ensemble |
A Pierrot ensemble is a musical ensemble comprising flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano. This ensemble is named after 20th-century composer Arnold Schoenberg’s seminal work Pierrot lunaire, which includes the quintet of instruments above with a narrator (usually performed by a soprano). |
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| Woodwind Quintet |
A wind quintet, also known as a woodwind quintet, is a group of five wind players (most commonly flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn and bassoon). Unlike the string quartet (of 4 string instruments) with its homogeneous blend of sound color, the instruments in a wind quintet differ from each other considerably in technique, idiom, and timbre. The modern wind quintet sprang from the octet ensemble favored in the court of Joseph II in late 18th century Vienna: two oboes, two clarinets, two (natural) horns, and two bassoons. The influence of Haydn's chamber writing suggested similar possibilities for winds, and advances in the building of these instruments in that period made them more useful in small ensemble settings, leading composers to attempt smaller combinations. It was Anton Reicha's twenty-four quintets, begun in 1811, and the nine quintets of Franz Danzi that established the genre, and their pieces are still standards of the repertoire. Though the form fell out of favor in the latter half of the 19th century, there has been renewed interest in the form by leading composers in the 20th century, and today the wind quintet is a standard chamber ensemble, valued for its versatility and variety of tone color. |