Customer Reviews

The Art of Quartet Playing: The Guarneri Quartet (Cornell Paperbacks)

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My first encounter with the Guarneri String Quartet was in reading Arnold Steinhardt's book, *Indivisible by Four*. There, I gained an understanding and fascination for the relationships within the quartet and the overall amazing professional and musical workings of a well-established chamber group. This fascination led my to seek out *The Art of Quartet Playing*. In this book, David Blum and the Guarneri quartet explore various technical aspects of quartet playing and string playing in general. Many of the ideas for rehearsal and performance techniques presented by the quartet (on topics including the decisions as to which players should give cues and when) provide useful advice for quartets of all levels. While mere descriptions of quartet techniques could tend to get old fast, the quartet members' witty and satirical comments, often coming out of nowhere, keep the reading entertaining as well as informative. This book ends with a journey through the score of Beethoven's Opus 131 quartet, guided by the explanations of the people who know it best, the musicians who play it. I recommend this book to anyone who loves string quartets, playing them or listening to them. While it may not take hold of the imagination as fully as *Indivisible by Four*, there is much to be learned and enjoyed in these conversations between David Blum and the Guarneri String Quartet.

This is a highly technical exploration of the string quartet, compliments of the Guarneri String Quartet and their interviewer, the late David Blum (who died in 1998 and is not to be confused with the former editor of The Village Voice and The New York Press). If you are not a violinist, violist, or cellist, or aspiring to be, this book will be of only marginal interest -- unless you just really love this repertoire and want to know more about how these talented people make such glorious sounds guided by a few lines, letters and flyspecks on a printed page.

Blum, himself a violinist, conductor, and composer, did a series of interviews in the mid-1980s with the Guarneri Quartet members -- violinists Arnold Steinhardt and John Dalley, violist Michael Tree, and cellist David Soyer -- and presents them here in the form of extended, topical conversations. The first half of the book deals mainly with the issues of bowing, fingering, tuning, and other technical details that non-string players will likely find a bit boring. (The book includes dozens of musical examples, as well as a decent glossary that explains many of the technical terms.) But for the persistent reader and music lover, there are more personal insights from the musicians about their training and the other artists who influenced them. Blum also includes a section of comments on the string quartet repertoire that, as one who is primarily a listener, I wish had been more comprehensive.

The book concludes with an exhaustive analysis, from the performer's viewpoint, of Beethoven's Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op.131 (with several excerpts from the score). Again, the technical aspects of performing this work aren't going to be of much interest to the non-playing reader. (I attempted to listen to the Guarneri's recording of this quartet while following along in the book, but it's almost impossible to keep up without the full score.)

For those of us who are not string players, Steinhardt's INDIVISIBLE BY FOUR and Helen Ruttencutter's QUARTET are good starting places for information about the Guarneri Quartet and their influence on modern chamber musicians. Steinhardt's personal account is especially enjoyable (and probably easier to find). Blum's book will be of less interest to all but the most ardent of chamber-music listeners -- but for string players who aspire to perform these works, Blum's book is a must.

Note: This review is based on the original hardcover edition, published by Knopf.

Fascinating look into the specifics of how a string quartet actually works. Lots of inside information.

Well, at least if you're doing any sort of serious quartet stuff, or other ensemble playing. It's a very interesting read, with lots of good insights into the mechanics of quartet playing. They also point out a lot of useless traditions and myths that handicap some other quartets, such as the first violinist's disease of always needing to give the cue. :-)

The book which I received was like a new book.
I was satisfied with the shopping. Thank you very much.