The Ill Tempered String Quartet

Witty and practical, this book is for amateur string instrument players who want to play quartets and other forms of chamber music. It covers everything. The long chapter discussing the “literature” is exceptionally valuable.

Lester Chafetz, professor emeritus of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, currently lives in Leawood, Kansas.

Lester Chafetz
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 180
Bibliographic Info: appendix, index
Copyright Date: 2005 [1989]
pISBN: 978-0-7864-2151-0
eISBN: 978-1-4766-0710-8
Imprint: McFarland

Foreword     vii
Introduction     1

1. How Many Players in a String Quartet?     5
2. The Home Salon     15
3. By Any Other Name Would Smell…     22
4. Staying in Shape     24
5. Of Bellies and Bows     28
6. Playing Second Fiddle     34
7. The Sociopathology of the String Quartet     45
8. Ripping the Rembrandt     55
9. Fiddling with Strangers     60
10. Some Informative Reading     62
11. Composers and Decomposers     71
12. Notes on the Literature     95
13. Expansion and Contraction     135
14. The High-Strung Amateur String Quartet Player     147

Appendix: The Interpretation of Musical Terms     157
Index     161

• “Absolutely delightful…a complete guide to the joys and pitfalls of participating in an amateur string quartet”—Wilson Library Bulletin
• “Clear, direct and candid…practical…balanced”—The Strad.