String quintet

Viola quintet

Cello 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"), but occasionally a double bass. The form was standard in 17th century Italy and can be seen as early as 1607 in Claudio Monteverdi's opera, L'Orfeo. Most famous of the cello quintets 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). In some cases the first violin has a soloist role: such works may be labeled as "for violin and string quartet".

Many composers famous for their string quartets – such as Joseph Haydn (pioneer of the quartet genre), Béla Bartók, Paul Hindemith, and Dmitri Shostakovich – never composed a string quintet.

The term string quintet may refer to a group of five players that performs such works. 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 – one Viola Quintet (1933)
• Ludwig van Beethoven – Viola 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 Viola Quintets, arrangements of all twelve of his Piano Quintets (Op.56 and Op.57) for Viola Quintet.
• Johannes Brahms – two Viola Quintets, Op. 88 and Op. 111; the Clarinet Quintet Op. 115 may be performed with a viola substituting for the clarinet
• Max Bruch – one Viola Quintet in A minor
• Anton Bruckner – String Quintet in F major (1879); Intermezzo in D minor (substitute for the scherzo)
• Antonín Dvořák – two Viola Quintets, Op.1 in A minor and Op. 97 in E♭ (the American Quintet)
• Victor Ewald – a Viola Quintet Op. 4 in A major
• Eduard Franck – two Viola Quintets, Op. 15 in E minor and Op. 51 in C Major
• Friedrich Gernsheim – a Viola Quintet Op. 9 in D
• Roy Harris – one Viola Quintet (1940)
• Heinrich von Herzogenberg – Viola Quintet in c minor, Op.77 (1892)
• Heinrich Kaminski – one Viola Quintet in F♯ minor (two versions, first 1916)
• Franz Krommer – fifteen String Quintets
• Bohuslav Martinů – one Viola Quintet (1927)
• Felix Mendelssohn – two Viola Quintets: No. 1 in A major, Op. 18 (1826, revised 1832) and No. 2 in B-flat major, Op.87 (1845)
• Ernst Mielck – Viola Quintet in F major (1897)
• Darius Milhaud – one Viola Quintet Op. 325
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – six Viola Quintets: K174, K516b, K515, K516, K593, K614
• Carl Nielsen – one Viola 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)
• Hubert Parry – One Viola Quintet in E flat (1909) (Published by Chiltern Music in 1992)
• George Perle – Quintet for Strings (Perle) (1958)
• Josef Rheinberger – One Viola Quintet in A minor, Op. 82 (1874)(Carus-Verlag)
• Ferdinand Ries – Seven Viola 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 Viola Quintet, D 8
• Roger Sessions – one Viola Quintet (1958)
• Robert Simpson – one Viola Quintet (1987)
• Louis Spohr – seven Viola Quintets
• Charles Villiers Stanford – Two Viola Quintets
• Johan Svendsen – one Viola Quintet in C, Op. 5 (1868)
• Sergei Taneyev – one Viola Quintet in C, Op. 16
• Ralph Vaughan Williams – one Viola Quintet (the Phantasy Quintet – 1912) and Nocturne and Scherzo (1904-1906)
• Felix Weingartner – one Viola Quintet, his Op. 40
• John Woolrich – The Death of King Renaud (1991)
• Alexander von Zemlinsky – one Viola Quintet (1894–1896): 2 movements are lost

List of cello quintets

• Arnold Bax – one Cello Quintet in G major (1908), whose second movement was rescored by the composer for Viola Quintet and published as the Lyrical Interlude (1923);
• Ludwig van Beethoven – an arrangement of his Violin Sonata in A, Op. 47, Kreutzer for Cello Quintet
• Wilhelm Berger – one Cello Quintet in E minor, Op. 75 (1911)
• Luigi Boccherini – one hundred ten Cello Quintets. The third movement Minuet of the Cello Quintet Op.11 No.5 is extremely well known.
• Alexander Borodin – one Cello Quintet in F minor
• Luigi Cherubini – one Cello Quintet: Quintet in E minor (1837)
• Felix Otto Dessoff – one Cello Quintet, Op. 10
• Friedrich Dotzauer – Cello Quintet in D minor, Op. 134 (1835)
• Felix Draeseke – one Cello Quintet in F, Op. 77 (1901)
• Friedrich Gernsheim – Cello Quintet Op. 89 in E♭
• Alexander Glazunov – one Cello Quintet in A, Op. 39
• Karl Goldmark – one Cello Quintet in A minor, Op. 9 (1862)
• August Klughardt – Cello Quintet in G minor, Op. 62 (1902)
• Frank Martin – Pavane couleur du temps (Colour of weather Pavane), 1920, 7', For cello quintet.
• Darius Milhaud – one Cello 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
• Einojuhani Rautavaara – One Cello Quintet Unknown Heavens (1997)
• Ottorino Respighi – one Cello Quintet in G minor (1901, incomplete)
• George Rochberg – Quintet for Two Violins, Viola and Two Cellos (1982)
• Franz Schubert – one Cello Quintet, Op. post. 163, D 956
• Robert Simpson – one Cello Quintet (1995)
• Ethel Smyth – one Cello Quintet in E major, Op. 1
• Sergei Taneyev – one Cello Quintet in G, Op. 14
• Ferdinand Thieriot – several Cello Quintets.
• 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
• Kamillo Horn (1860-1941), string quintet, op. 50
• Charles Martin Loeffler – one Violin Quintet (three violins, viola and cello)
• Joseph Mayseder, Polonaise No.1, Op.10; Polonaise No.3, Op.12
• Franz Anton Morgenroth (1780-1847), Variations for Violin and String Quartet, Op.4
• 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 – double bass quintet (1957)
• Luigi Boccherini – three Double Bass Quintets.
• Antonín Dvořák – Double Bass Quintet Op. 77 in G
• Alistair Hinton – String Quintet (1969–77)
• Vagn Holmboe – one String Bass Quintet, Op. 165/M.326 (1986)
• Darius Milhaud – one Double Bass 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

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) ([9])