Part I - Social changes and organological developments

1 - The string quartet and society

pp 1-18

2 - Developments in instruments, bows and accessories

pp 19-38

Part II - Celebrated ensembles

3 - From chamber to concert hall

pp 39-59

4 - The concert explosion and the age of recording

pp 60-94

Part III - Playing string quartets

5 - Playing quartets: a view from the inside

pp 95-126

6 - Historical awareness in quartet performance

pp 127-148

7 - Extending the technical and expressive frontiers

pp 149-174

Part IV - The string quartet repertory

8 - The origins of the quartet

pp 175-184

9 - Haydn, Mozart and their contemporaries

pp 185-209

10 - Beethoven and the Viennese legacy

pp 210-227

11 - The Austro-Germanic quartet tradition in the nineteenth century

pp 228-249

12 - Traditional and progressive nineteenth-century trends: France, Italy, Great Britain and America

pp 250-265

13 - Nineteenth-century national traditions and the string quartet

pp 266-287

14 - The string quartet in the twentieth century

pp 288-309

15 - The string quartet as a foundation for larger ensembles

pp 310-327

Notes

pp 328-347

Select bibliography

pp 348-354

Index

pp 355-373