Piano Quintet No. 1 (Bloch) Piano Quintet No. 1 (Bloch) Ernest Bloch's Piano Quintet No. 1 is a quintet for piano, 2 violins, viola, and cello. It is regarded as one of Bloch's greatest achievements. Composed in Cleveland in 1923, the work was markedly innovative for its time and has been described as "suffused with tension", and as embodying a "grim, angry, yet ultimately redemptive vision". There are three movements: The work is based around a motto theme built from ascending and descending fourths. The first movement falls roughly into the shape of a sonata allegro, and contrasts material of a grim tone with more
String Quintet in E major, Op. 11, No. 5 (Boccherini) the viola and celli have eighth note pizzicato. The second violin, on the other hand, has quick sixteenth note slurs which contain many string crossings. As Elisabeth Le Guin puts it in "Boccherini’s Body: An Essay in Carnal Musicology", “The second violinist has no time for "galanterie"; he must concentrate on keeping the constant string crossings reasonable even through the length of the bow”. The arrangements of this quintet, especially of the minuet, are extremely numerous. The entire piece was arranged for a double viola quintet in the 18th century. A 19th century transcription of the minuet for the organ