Arnold Schönberg

String Quartet No. 4

Schoenberg composed his Fourth String Quartet, Op. 37, on a commission from Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. The four movements of the quartet are based on a single, twelve-note row, although this is fairly free. The first movement is in an abstract sonata form. Transitions are generally built around a hesitant, chromatically sighing theme that first appears in the first violin. Marked Comodo (leisurely), the second movement is an intermezzo in A-B-A form. The recitative-like main theme of the third movement first appears in unison, after which individual instruments begin to break away with their own lines. Variation technique is prominent in the rondo finale, marked Allegro - transformations of the main theme are so great that it is occasionally difficult to recognize its return.

This is the Schirmer edition of the Score to this work.