String quartet Violini, Violetta [viola], e Violoncello senza Cembalo" (Sonata for four instruments: two violins, viola, and cello without harpsichord), this was a natural evolution from the existing tradition. The string quartet in its now accepted form came about with Haydn. If the combination of two violins, viola and cello was not unknown before Haydn, when it occurred in chamber music it was more likely through circumstance than conscious design; certainly the string quartet enjoyed no recognized status as an ensemble in the way that two violins with basso continuo – the so-called 'trio sonata' – had for more than a hundred
String Quartet in Four Parts composed for the same ensemble: "Thirty pieces for String Quartet" of 1983, "Music for Four" of 1987–88 and "Four" of 1989. String Quartet in Four Parts String Quartet in Four Parts is a string quartet by John Cage, composed in 1950. It is one of the last works Cage wrote that is not entirely aleatoric. Like "Sonatas and Interludes" for prepared piano (1946–48) and the ballet "The Seasons" (1947), this work explores ideas from Indian philosophy. Cage began writing the quartet in 1949 in Paris. Prior to beginning to work on the piece, he told his parents that he wanted