The Cambridge Companion to the String Quartet

Robin Stowell is Professor and Head of Music at the University of Wales College of Cardiff and a professional violinist who has written extensively on stringed instruments and performance. He is author of Violin Technique and Performance Practice in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries (1985), Beethoven: Violin Concerto (1998) and The Early Violin and Viola (2001), editor of Performing Beethoven (1994), The Cambridge Companion to the Violin (1992), The Cambridge Companion to the Cello (1999) and co-author of The Historical Performance of Music: An Introduction (1999), all published by Cambridge University Press.

Part I. Social Changes and Organological Developments: 1. The string quartet and society Christina Bashford; 2. Developments in instruments, bows and accessories Robin Stowell; Part II. Celebrated Ensembles: 3. From chamber to concert hall Tully Potter; 4. The concert explosion and the age of recording Tully Potter; Part III. Playing String Quartets: 5. Playing quartets: a view from the inside David Waterman; 6. Historical awareness in quartet performance Simon Standage; 7. Extending the technical and expressive frontiers Robin Stowell; Part IV. The String Quartet Repertory: 8. The origins of the quartet David Wyn Jones; 9. The Classical style: Haydn, Mozart and their contemporaries W. Dean Sutcliffe; 10. Beethoven and the Viennese legacy David Wyn Jones; 11. The Austro-Germanic quartet tradition in the nineteenth century Stephen E. Hefling; 12. Traditional and progressive nineteenth-century trends: France, Italy, Great Britain and America Robin Stowell; 13. Nineteenth-century national traditions and the string quartet Jan Smaczny; 14. The string quartet in the twentieth century Kenneth Gloag; 15. The string quartet as a foundation for larger ensembles Colin Lawson.