Quartets definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

“

There were piano solos that were not tedious,--full of melody and feeling, and with few of the pyrotechnical displays which are too common in modern virtuoso-playing; vocal duets and quartets from the Italian operas, and from Orfeo and other German masterpieces; and solos, if not equal to the efforts of professional singers, highly creditable to amateurs, to say the least.

—The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 03, No. 15, January, 1859

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Definitions (9)

American Heritage Dictionary (3)

noun Music A composition for four voices or four instruments.
noun Music A group of four singers or four instrumentalists.
noun A group of four.

Century Dictionary (1)

GNU Webster's 1913

WordNet (5)

Elsewhere on the web

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Examples (50)

The tide of public favour had now set in, and other quartets were formed, but none reached such excellence as that headed by Blagrove, which was invited to play at the Philharmonic concerts, where it produced a great sensation. — Famous Violinists of To-day and Yesterday
In the United States there have been well meant efforts to found good quartets, and these have all had a beneficial influence. — Famous Violinists of To-day and Yesterday
Haydn's “Sun” string quartets, his opera Il mondo della luna , and fleet-footed Symphony No. — AnalogSFF,September2008
The many symphonies, quartets, and other forms of chamber-music of Haydn, Mozart and contemporaneous composers, were for the most part written for private performance at musical functions in the houses of the nobility, or for friends of the composers. — Beethoven
The first of the three quartets, the one in F, has an Adagio movement on which Beethoven inscribed in the sketch-book, “Eine Trauerweide oder Akazienbaum aufs Grab meines Bruders.” [A weeping willow or acacia tree over my brother's grave.] — Beethoven