# String Quartet suggestions



## THW (Mar 13, 2020)

Greetings -- 

I couldn't pass on the 50% off deal on Spitfire Studio Strings and just purchased as my first string library. To practice using the library I thought it'd be a fun weekend project to do a mock up of a string quartet. I was scrolling through IMSLP and am a bit overwhelmed where to look and wanted to ask for suggestions on what you think might be an easy, accessible quartet to try out, that you might consider for a beginner interested in theory. I can read music (although I'm a bit slow with the alto and bass clef). Your suggestions are much appreciated! 

Thanks!


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## cuttime (Mar 13, 2020)

I would really look into studying "Gershwin's Lullaby". A gorgeous piece with no distinct instrumentation, albeit for string quartet. There are piano arrangements that don't really capture the whole piece. Check it out.


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## Anders Wall (Mar 13, 2020)

Congratulations on the purchase, and om any upcoming.
(creating music is a drug, a good one, but still...)

This might keep you busy for a while.










Best,

Anders


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## THW (Mar 14, 2020)

cuttime said:


> I would really look into studying "Gershwin's Lullaby". A gorgeous piece with no distinct instrumentation, albeit for string quartet. There are piano arrangements that don't really capture the whole piece. Check it out.




Thanks for the suggestion! I’m happy I posed the question, I wouldn’t have thought to look at Gershwin. I like that this piece will allow for a range of articulations to experiment with. And the score IMSLP looks good!


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## THW (Mar 14, 2020)

Anders Wall said:


> Congratulations on the purchase, and om any upcoming.
> (creating music is a drug, a good one, but still...)
> 
> This might keep you busy for a while.
> ...



Thanks Anders! These are nice suggestions and will absolutely keep me busy. I’m excited to see what I can do with this library!


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## ism (Mar 14, 2020)

I think a fairy common answer to this question is start with Hayden - before romanticism makes everything crazy, and so relative simple, at least on a certain level, to mock up.

That say, Beethoven's string quartets are still unequaled, and the experience of going through a few with the score and thinking about which bits might be suitable to the kind of nuance that sample libraries add might be a good exercise in itself.

The caveat is that none of these hight classical pieces are particularly well suited for sample libraries. Although working with SStS as an ensemble will be much easier that with an actual solo string library. (Mocking up Beethoven on any available solo string library, much as I love the ones I have, is in my experience an excessive in despair and misery).


Another thought is to look at more recent "neo-classical" work for strings.

Olafur Arnalds, for instance, has an EP out of a few tracks from his last record arranged for string quartet:




Or maybe Jane Antonia Cornish - again, usually she's writing for solo strings, but SStS has a sound that (I conjecture) might make it suitable for an some interesting ensemble mock ups (and more that CSS I would argue, just because of the nature of the sound and the musicality of the two libraries). There's sheet music for a lot his his stuff floating around - including a lot on his website.



Kind of minimalist, but just the kind of textural work that SStS is amazing for.



Also, Caroline Shaw's new record is amazing for string quartets (although would be harder to transcribe, I don't know of any easily available sheet music):


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## THW (Mar 14, 2020)

ism said:


> I think a fairy common answer to this question is start with Hayden - before romanticism makes everything crazy, and so relative simple, at least on a certain level, to mock up.
> 
> That say, Beethoven's string quartets are still unequaled, and the experience of going through a few with the score and thinking about which bits might be suitable to the kind of nuance that sample libraries add might be a good exercise in itself.
> 
> ...




This is really great information, thank you for sharing! Based on my experience thus far, I have a journey ahead of me. 

So I've spent a couple hours today working through first passage of Bach Air suite #3 (what I had on hand last night), this is HARD! I thought it'd go much quicker. I'm going to try the Gershwin Lullaby for a change of pace. 

Up until this point I've been writing my own music with albion one and the Kontakt factory. Trying to transcribe and make it sound as real as possible is no joke. I'm learning a ton in the process but jeez, coming from a violin background with basic keyboard skills, I have my work cut out for me. Kudos to folks who can do this well.


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