String quintet

Typical layout

Cello quintet

Viola quintet

A string quintet is a musical composition for five string players. As an extension to the string quartet (two violins, a viola, and a cello), a string quintet includes a fifth string instrument, usually a second viola (a so-called "viola quintet") or a second cello (a "cello quintet"), or occasionally a double bass.

Notable examples of classic "viola quintets", in four movement form include those of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Other examples were written by composers including Johannes Brahms and Felix Mendelssohn.

A famous "cello quintet" is Franz Schubert's Quintet in C major. Antonín Dvořák's Quintet Op. 77 uses a double bass, and Mozart's famous Eine kleine Nachtmusik may be performed with this instrumentation (the double bass being optional).

Alternative additions include clarinet or piano (see clarinet quintet, piano quintet); and other closely related chamber music genres include the string quartet (much more common), the string trio, and the string sextet. A more unusual form of string quintet is the violin quintet composed of 3 violins, a viola and a cello (thus a string quartet with an additional violin).

The term string quintet may refer to a group of five players that performs such works. The ensemble was standard in 17th century Italy and can be seen as early as 1607 in Claudio Monteverdi's opera, L'Orfeo.^[1] It can also be applied to the standard five-part orchestral string section: first violins, second violins, violas, cellos, and double basses.

List of viola quintets

• Arnold Bax – Quintet (1933)^[2]
• Frank Bridge – Quintet in E minor (H15, 1901)
• Ludwig van Beethoven – Quintet, Op. 29, sometimes called the Storm Quintet; a Fugue in D major for viola quintet, Op. 137; an arrangement of his Octet for Viola Quintet, Op. 4 (the original Octet was later published as Op.103); an arrangement of his Piano Trio Op. 1 No. 3 for Viola Quintet, Op. 104
• Luigi Boccherini – twelve original Quintets, arrangements of all twelve of his Piano Quintets (Op.56 and Op.57) for Viola Quintet.
• Johannes Brahms – two Quintets, Op. 88 and Op. 111; the Clarinet Quintet Op. 115 may be performed with a viola substituting for the clarinet
• Max Bruch – Quintet in A minor
• Anton Bruckner – String Quintet in F major (1879); Intermezzo in D minor (substitute for the scherzo)
• Carson Cooman – Quintet (Unquiet Parables, 2009): (
• Brett Dean – Epitaph for string quintet (2010)
• Antonín Dvořák – two Quintets, Op.1 in A minor and Op. 97 in E♭ (the American Quintet)
• Victor Ewald – a Quintet Op. 4 in A major^[3]
• Eduard Franck – two Quintets, Op. 15 in E minor and Op. 51 in C Major
• Friedrich Gernsheim – Quintet Op. 9 in D
• Roy Harris – Quintet (1940)
• Heinrich von Herzogenberg – Quintet in C minor, Op.77 (1892)
• Heinrich Kaminski – Quintet in F♯ minor (two versions, first 1916)^[4]
• Franz Krommer – fifteen String Quintets
• Bohuslav Martinů – Quintet (1927)
• Felix Mendelssohn – two Quintets: No. 1 in A major, Op. 18 (1826, revised 1832) and No. 2 in B-flat major, Op.87 (1845)
• Ernst Mielck – Quintet in F major (1897)
• Darius Milhaud – Quintet Op. 325
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – six Quintets: K174, K406/516b, K515, K516, K593, K614
• Carl Nielsen – Quintet in G major (1888)
• George Onslow – five out of his thirty-four Quintets are with two violas; four are with double bass and the rest with two cellos (see below)^[5]
• Hubert Parry – Quintet in E flat (1909^[6])
• George Perle – Quintet (1958)
• Josef Rheinberger – Quintet in A minor, Op. 82 (1874)^[7] (Carus-Verlag)
• Ferdinand Ries – Seven Quintets, op. 37 in C, Op. 68 in D minor, Op. 167 in A minor, Op. 171 in G, Op. 183 in E-flat, and two published without opus in A major and F minor (published in a series "Samtliche Streichquintette" edited by Jürgen Schmidt between 2003-5 for Accolade Musikverlag.)
• Franz Schubert – "Quintet-Overture" for Quintet, D 8
• Roger Sessions – Quintet (1958)
• Robert Simpson – Quintet (1987)
• Louis Spohr – seven Quintets
• Charles Villiers Stanford – Two Quintets^[8]
• Johan Svendsen – Quintet in C, Op. 5^[9] (1868)
• Sergei Taneyev – Quintet in C, Op. 16
• Ralph Vaughan Williams – Quintet (the Phantasy Quintet – 1912) and Nocturne and Scherzo (1904-1906)
• Felix Weingartner – Quintet, his Op. 40
• Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari - Quintet in C, Op. 24 (1939)
• John Woolrich – The Death of King Renaud (1991)
• Alexander von Zemlinsky – Quintet (1894–1896): 2 movements are lost

List of cello quintets

• Arnold Bax – Quintet in G major (1908), whose second movement was rescored by the composer for Viola Quintet and published as the Lyrical Interlude (1923);
• Wilhelm Berger – Quintet in E minor, Op. 75 (1911)^[10]
• Luigi Boccherini – one hundred ten Quintets. The third movement Minuet of the Cello Quintet Op.11 No.5 is extremely well known.
• Alexander Borodin – Quintet in F minor
• Luigi Cherubini – Quintet in E minor (1837)
• Felix Otto Dessoff – Quintet, Op. 10
• Friedrich Dotzauer – Quintet in D minor, Op. 134 (1835)
• Felix Draeseke – Quintet in F, Op. 77 (1901)
• Friedrich Gernsheim – Quintet Op. 89 in E♭
• Alexander Glazunov – Quintet in A, Op. 39
• Karl Goldmark – Quintet in A minor, Op. 9 (1862)
• Theodore Gouvy – Quintet in G, op 55 is on IMSLP
• August Klughardt – Quintet in G minor, Op. 62 (1902)^[10]
• Frank Martin – Pavane couleur du temps (Colour of weather Pavane), 1920, 7', For quintet.^[11]
• Darius Milhaud – Quintet Op. 350
• George Onslow – twenty-five of his thirty-four string quintets are Cello Quintets; five are with two violas and four are with double bass^[5]
• Einojuhani Rautavaara –Quintet Unknown Heavens (1997)
• Ottorino Respighi – Quintet in G minor (1901, incomplete)
• George Rochberg – Quintet for Two Violins, Viola and Two Cellos (1982)
• Franz Schubert – Cello Quintet, Op. post. 163, D 956
• Peter Seabourne – Quintet for Two Violins, Viola and Two Cellos (2012)
• Robert Simpson – Quintet (1995)
• Ethel Smyth – Quintet in E major, Op. 1
• Sergei Taneyev – Quintet in G, Op. 14
• Ferdinand Thieriot – several Quintets.^[12]
• Carl Vine – String Quintet (2009)

String quintets for 3 violins, viola and cello

• Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, String Quintet (1798)
• Franz Clement, Introduction and Polonaise in E major (Polonaise für die Violine mit Begleitung von 2 Violinen, Viola und Violonzello)
• Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst, Polonaise, Op.17
• Charles Martin Loeffler – one Violin Quintet (three violins, viola and cello)
• Joseph Mayseder, Polonaise No.1, Op.10; Polonaise No.3, Op.12
• Alessandro Rolla, Divertimento for Violin and String Quartet, BI 429
• Franz Schubert, Rondo in A major for Violin and Strings, D 438
• Louis Spohr, Potpourri No.2 in B♭ major (Potpourri on themes by Mozart for violin and string quartet (with bass ad libitum))

List of double bass quintets

• Leslie Bassett – Quintet (1957)^[13]
• Luigi Boccherini – three Quintets.
• Antonín Dvořák – Quintet Op. 77 in G (1875)
• Alistair Hinton – String Quintet (1969–77)
• Vagn Holmboe – Quintet, Op. 165/M.326 (1986)
• Darius Milhaud – Quintet Op. 316
• George Onslow – four out of his thirty-four String Quintets are with double bass; five with two violas and the rest with two cellos^[5]
• Robert Paterson – I See You (2015) (for string quintet with double bass and recording)

String quintets for other combinations

• Felix Draeseke – one Quintet in A for Two Violins, Viola, Violotta, and Cello (the Stelzner-Quintett; 1897) ; one Cello Quintet in F, Op. 77 (1901)

Works making use of a string quintet

• Nigel Keay – one Double Bass Quintet with Contralto, Tango Suite (2002) ()

References