Editing String quartet (section)

=== Early history ===
[[File:Tallinn String Quartet in Tel Aviv (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|A string quartet in performance. From left to right: violin 1, violin 2, viola, cello]]
The early history of the string quartet is in many ways the history of the development of the genre by the Austrian composer [[Joseph Haydn]]. There had been examples of [[Divertimento|divertimenti]] for two solo violins, viola and cello by the Viennese composers [[Georg Christoph Wagenseil]] and [[Ignaz Holzbauer]]; and there had long been a tradition of performing orchestral works one instrument to a part. The British [[musicologist]] [[David Wyn Jones]] cites the widespread practice of four players, one to a part, playing works written for [[string orchestra]], such as divertimenti and [[serenade]]s, there being no separate (fifth) contrabass part in string scoring before the 19th century.{{sfn|Wyn Jones|2003|loc=179}} However, these composers showed no interest in exploring the development of the string quartet as a medium.{{Refn|[[D'Indy]]'s [https://imslp.org/wiki/Cours_de_Composition_Musicale_(Indy,_Vincent_d%27)#IMSLP880379 ''Cours de Composition Musicale''] (1912) cites the "timides essais" of [[Sammartini]], [[Pieter van Maldere|Van Malder]] & [[François-Joseph Gossec|Gossec]]. (p. 214)}}

The origins of the string quartet can be further traced back to the [[Baroque music|Baroque]] [[trio sonata]], in which two [[solo (music)|solo]] instruments performed with a [[basso continuo|continuo]] section consisting of a [[bass instrument]] (such as the cello) and [[keyboard instrument|keyboard]]. A very early example is a four-part sonata for string ensemble by the Italian composer [[Gregorio Allegri]] that might be considered an important prototype.<ref>[[Arthur Eaglefield Hull]], "The earliest string quartet" ''[[The Musical Quarterly]]'' '''15''' (1929:72–76).</ref> By the early 18th century, composers were often adding a third soloist; and moreover it became common to omit the keyboard part, letting the cello support the bass line alone. Thus when [[Alessandro Scarlatti]] wrote a set of six works entitled {{lang|it|Sonata à Quattro per due Violini, Violetta [viola], e Violoncello senza Cembalo}} (Sonata for four instruments: two violins, viola, and cello without harpsichord), this was a natural evolution from the existing tradition.{{sfn|Wyn Jones|2003|loc=178}}