Piano quartet

In European classical music, piano quartet denotes a chamber music composition for piano and three other instruments, or a musical ensemble comprising such instruments. Those other instruments are usually a string trio consisting of a violin, viola and cello.

Piano quartets for that standard lineup were written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Robert Schumann, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Antonín Dvořák and Gabriel Fauré among others. In the 20th century, composers have also written for more varied groups, with Anton Webern's Quartet, opus 22 (1930), for example, being for piano, violin, clarinet and tenor saxophone, and Paul Hindemith's quartet (1938) as well as Olivier Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps (1940) both for piano, violin, cello and clarinet. An early example of this can be found in Franz Berwald's quartet for piano, horn, clarinet and bassoon (1819), his opus 1.

A rare form of piano quartets consist of two pianos with two players at each piano. This type of ensemble is informally referred to as "8 hand piano", or "2 piano 8 hands". 8 hand piano was popular in the late 19th century before the advent of recordings as it was a mechanism to reproduce and study symphonic works. Music lovers could hear the major symphonic works all in the convenience of a parlour or music hall that had two pianos and four pianists. Many of the popular works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Antonín Dvořák were transcribed for two piano eight hands. The majority of 8 hand piano music consists of transcriptions, or arrangements.

List of works

The following is an incomplete list of piano quartets by famous composers.

• Henk Badings
  • Piano Quartet (1973)
• Béla Bartók
  • Piano Quartet in C minor (1898)
• William Bolcom
  • Piano Quartet (1976)
• Ludwig van Beethoven
  • Opus 16/b: Piano Quartet in E-flat (1797) (arrangement of Quintet for Piano and Winds, Op. 16)
  • Piano Quartet WoO 36, No. 1 in E-flat major (1785)
  • Piano Quartet WoO 36, No. 2 in D major (1785)
  • Piano Quartet WoO 36, No. 3 in C major (1785)
• Arthur Bliss
  • Piano Quartet in A minor (1915)
• Léon Boëllmann
  • Piano Quartet in F minor, Op. 10 (c. 1890)
• Johannes Brahms
  • Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25 (1859)
  • Piano Quartet No. 2 in A major, Op. 26 (1862)
  • Piano Quartet No. 3 in C minor, Op. 60 (1875)
• Frank Bridge
  • Phantasy Piano Quartet in F-sharp minor, H. 94 (1910)
• James Francis Brown
  • Piano Quartet (2004)
• Ernest Chausson
  • Piano Quartet in A major, Op.30 (1897)
• Aaron Copland
  • Piano Quartet (1950)
• Vincent D'Indy
  • Piano Quartet in A minor, Op.7 (1878–88)
• Morton Feldman
  • Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello (1987)
• Antonín Dvořák
  • Piano Quartet No. 1 in D major, Op. 23 (1875)
  • Bagatelles, Op. 47 (for two violins, cello and harmonium (or piano); 1878)
  • Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat major, Op. 87 (1889)
• George Enescu
  • Piano Quartet No. 1 in D major, Op. 16 (1909)
  • Piano Quartet No. 2 in D minor, Op. 30 (1943–1944)
• Gabriel Fauré
  • Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 15 (1876–79, Finale rev. 1883)
  • Piano Quartet No. 2 in G minor, Op. 45 (1885–86)
• John Harbison
  • November 19, 1828 (1988)
• Robert Helps
  • Piano Quartet (1997)
• Alfred Hill
  • The Sacred Mountain (1932)

• Guillaume Lekeu
  • Piano Quartet in B minor - (incomplete, first and second movement only; 1893)
• Lowell Liebermann
  • Piano Quartet Op.114 (2010)
• Gustav Mahler
  • Piano Quartet in A minor (only 1st movement completed; 1876)
• Heinrich Marschner
  • Piano Quartet No. 1 in B-flat major, Op. 36 (1827)
  • Piano Quartet No. 2 in G major, Op. 158 (1853)
• Bohuslav Martinů
  • Piano Quartet, H. 287 (1942)
• Felix Mendelssohn
  • Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 1 (1822)
  • Piano Quartet No. 2 in F minor, Op. 2 (1823)
  • Piano Quartet No. 3 in B minor, Op. 3 (1825)
• Olivier Messiaen
  • Quatuor pour la fin du temps (for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano; 1941)
• Darius Milhaud
  • Piano Quartet, Op. 417 (1966)
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  • Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, K. 478 (1785)
  • Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat major, K. 493 (1786)
• Walter Piston
  • Piano Quartet (1964)
• Max Reger
  • Piano Quartet No. 1 in D minor, Op.113 (1910)
  • Piano Quartet No. 2 in A min, Op.133 (1914)
• Camille Saint-Saëns
  • Piano Quartet in E major, Op. post (1851–53)
  • Serenade in E-flat major, Op. 15 (for violin, viola (or cello), organ, and piano; 1865)
  • Piano Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 41 (1875)
  • Barcarolle in F major, Op. 108 (for violin, cello, harmonium, and piano; 1898)
• Franz Schubert
  • Adagio and Rondo concertante in F major, D487 (1816)
• Robert Schumann
  • Piano Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 47 (1842)
• Nikos Skalkottas
  • Scherzo for piano quartet (1939)
• Josef Suk
  • Piano Quartet in A min, Op.1 (1891)
• Sergei Taneyev
  • Piano Quartet in E major, Op. 20 (1906)
• Joaquín Turina
  • Piano Quartet in A minor, Op. 67 (1931)
• William Walton
  • Piano Quartet in D minor
• Carl Maria von Weber
  • Piano Quartet in B-flat major, J. 76 (1809)
• Eric Sessler
  • Piano Quartet (2004)

See also

• Chamber music
• Quartet
• Piano quintet
• Classic 100 chamber (ABC)

Further reading

• Basil Smallman (1994) The Piano Quartet and Quintet: Style Structure, and Scoring, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-816640-0.

External links

• Piano Quartet Repertoire — A Comprehensive Listing of the piano quartet repertoire by major composers at the New Zealand Piano Quartet website
• Ames Piano Quartet
• Public Domain Piano Quartet Scores from IMSLP