String Quartet (Franck) String Quartet (Franck) The String Quartet in D major is the only string quartet composed by César Franck. The work was written from 1889 to 1890. The creative life of Franck is broadly divided into three periods. During the first period (1841–1858), when his ambitious father forced him to be active as a virtuoso pianist, Franck wrote works for chamber music, including four piano trios numbered as the composer's Opp. 1 and 2. Franck received advice from Franz Liszt, who commented, about 40 years later, on hearing an organ performance by Franck at Sainte-Clotilde, Paris, "How could I ever forget
String quartet characterization and drama in the individual-pitted-against-the-mass vein, the writer of string quartets must perforce concentrate on the bare bones of musical logic. Thus, in many ways the string quartet is pre-eminently the dialectical form of instrumental music, the one most naturally suited to the activity of logical disputation and philosophical enquiry. Quartet composition flourished in the Classical era, with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert following Haydn in each writing a number of quartets. A slight slackening in the pace of quartet composition occurred in the later 19th century, in part due to a movement away from