Customer Reviews

The Twentieth Century String Quartet

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This is a listing of all known string quartets written in the twentieth century. Sources are research, recordings and published scores. It is a stark reference work. In the main body of the book every word is under a heading; Composer, Year Born etc., Quartet No, Year composed, Recording Catalogue info and possibly Opus no. It has no text other than that. You can't read this book, only refer to it. I don't know how much harder it would have been to do but it does not indicate the keys of the works or the tempo of the individual movements. This would have been extremely helpful.

There are some introductory text sections and some useful information in the appendicies, but the bulk of the book is reference only.

Being an obsessive mp3 and CD string quartet collector, it's useful. I cringed at the price. I doubt if it will be surpassed in the future, it must have been a labour of love. Not for the casual string quartet listener. All they would need could be found on the CD cover. I have trouble rating it for others but for me it's worthwhile for that bit of information that helps you pull some things together. It also shows you what's out there, e.g. which quartets of this composer am I lacking? For the initiated SQ obsessive (and libraries) only.

I would have preferred not to be the first reviewer!