Progressive Quartets for Strings

Description

Cello 1, Cello 2, Cello 3, Cello 4 — During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, music lovers gathered in theirhomes in the evenings to make music. The music they played was typically calledchamber music. Sometimes they formed small orchestras. The typical stringorchestra had four string parts which were Violin I, Violin II, Viola and BassoContinuo. The basso continuo provided both the bass line of the piece and theindication of the chord structure for each of the bass line notes. Usually the bassline was played by a cello or a bass viol. The chords were played by a harpsichord,lute, organ or harp. In the eighteenth century the small chamber orchestragrew into a more formal performance orchestra. Eventually, woodwind, brassand percussion instruments were added to the orchestral parts and became thesymphonic orchestra that we are familiar with today.When any four instruments play together, the sound approximates the soundof the full harmonic structure of an orchestra. It is very satisfying to be ableto perform music that can be played by four instrumentalists and yet gives thesound of a much larger group of performers.Progressive Quartets is a collection of new arrangements of favorite pieces fromthe classical repertoire. It is published for violin, viola, cello and string bass andis arranged so that it can be performed by any combination of four of theseinstruments. The quartets are placed in the book in order of difficulty andcover a wide range of musical styles.It was a pleasure to compile and arrange this collection. I hope that it willprovide you with literature that will be enjoyable to work on and perform withyour friends, and that it will add a new dimension to your musical repertoire. Chamber music is an essential part of leaning to play an instrument, and these versatile quartets are written so that they can be performed by any combination of four string instruments. Arranged by prominent string pedagogue Doris Gazda, these pieces will sound full and satisfying with only four players all the way up to a full string orchestra. The selection of music in this collection covers a wide variety of musical styles that will provide hours of enjoyment and performance options. Progressively organized by level of difficulty as the performers advance in their skills, these quartets are a welcome addition to the repertoire of all string players.