Are we living in the golden age of the string quartet?

[Todd]

There are many quartets devoted to performing new music, meaning there are a lot of really interesting and unique recent compositions for these ensembles.

How does that make it a "golden age"?

[Ken B]

As I wrote, I stopped living in the 20th Century last century.

A nice bon-mot wasted I see.

[kishnevi]

There are many quartets devoted to performing new music, meaning there are a lot of really interesting and unique recent compositions for these ensembles.

Unique, yes.  But interesting is a more subjective label.
Quantity is no guarantee of quality.  It merely increases the chances that some of it will be good.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

How does that make it a "golden age"?

It would be too early to tell, hence my asking of the question. Will the exploratory nature of current quartet writing persist in the future? Will there be as much of an interest in the genre at all in later years? All we know at the moment is there is a lot of it, I guess, and nathanb's list of string quartets he finds particularly interesting shows a lot of diversity in the genre, more so than ever before.

[Florestan]

To be clear, exploring the above list would make you pretty cool in my mind, but my own tastes tend to shy away from musical conservativism... And even those more conservative-minded composers that I *do* love tend to be a little more lacking in the string quartet department (First example that comes to mind: Rautavaara). Also, for instance, note that only one minimalist composition appears on the list. And yet, some of those pieces might be a little more friendly to you...

Explore means just that, explore. I start listening but I can't tell beforehand whether I'll really make it through the end or not. Probably the same approach you'd take with, say, Arriaga or Pleyel. 

You should perhaps try Vasks' No. 3 (1995), Andrei.

Duly noted, Karlo, thanks. Will do and report.

[amw]

It'll do, Florestan. Point taken. A few names there I'm unaware of indeed.

Trying to be selective here, rather than name-dropping half the composers I know... Here are some quartets that strike me as remarkable from the last 50 years:

Alberto Posadas: Liturgia Fractal
Alvin Lucier: Navigations
Ana-Maria Avram: Ikarus II
Beat Furrer: String Quartet No. 3
Ben Johnston: String Quartet No. 4
Bernhard Lang: Monadologie IX
Brian Ferneyhough: String Quartet No. 6
Chaya Czernowin: String Quartet
Christian Ofenbauer: Zerstörung Des Zimmers / Der Zeit 1999
Conlon Nancarrow: String Quartet No. 3
Cristóbal Halffter: String Quartet No. 7
Dai Fujikura: Flare
Elliott Carter: String Quartet No. 3
Georg Friedrich Haas: String Quartet No. 7
George Crumb: Black Angels
György Kurtág: Hommage a András Mihály
György Ligeti: String Quartet No. 2
Helmut Lachenmann: Gran Torso
Horațiu Rădulescu: String Quartet No. 4
Iancu Dumitrescu: Holzwege
Iannis Xenakis: Tetras
Jakob Ullmann: Komposition Für Streichquartett
James Dillon: String Quartet No. 6
Johannes Kalitzke: Six Covered Settings
John Cage: Thirty Pieces For String Quartet
John Zorn: Momento Mori
Jonathan Harvey: String Quartet No. 4
Jürg Frey: String Quartet No. 2
Kaija Saariaho: Nymphéa
Karlheinz Stockhausen: Helikopter-Streichquartett
Klaus Lang: sei jaku.
Luigi Nono: Fragmente-Stille, An Diotima
Mathias Spahlinger: Apo Do
Milton Babbitt: String Quartet No. 6
Ming Tsao: Pathology Of Syntax
Morton Feldman: String Quartet No. 2
Pascal Dusapin: Time Zones
Per Nørgård: String Quartet No. 8
Peter Ruzicka: Sturz
Pierluigi Billone: Muri IIIb
Rebecca Saunders: Fletch
Richard Barrett: I Open And Close
Saed Haddad: Joie Voilée
Salvatore Sciarrino: Sei Quartetti Brevi
Simon Steen-Andersen: String Quartet
Sofia Gubaidulina: String Quartet No. 4
Steve Reich: Different Trains
Toru Takemitsu: A Way A Lone
Toshio Hosokawa: Silent Flowers
York Höller: Antiphon

[Guess I opted to narrow it down to 50]

Also Heinz Holliger's two quartets, which are missing from your list, and I personally would rate No. 1 as qualitatively the equal of the late Beethovens (the musical language is obviously very different, but what it is trying to achieve is similar I think...)

In fact I would love to hear a concert or recording program that pairs it with Op. 131. Some enterprising quartet should take up that challenge -- Zehetmair-Quartett I'm looking at you...

[Karl Henning]

Go ahead I consider the aforementioned four to be masters of the genre, but I need more!

Haydn
Mozart
Beethoven
Schubert

Boccherini
Dittersdorf
Vanhall
Pleyel
Arriaga
Canales
Brunetti
Spohr
Ries
Titz
Zmeskall
Onslow
Cannabich
Pichl
Hoffstetter
Cambini
Schhuster
Hoffmeister
Rosetti
Rolla
Krommer
Wranitzky
Cherubini
Reicha (Anton)
Wolffl
Hummel
Fesca
Viotti
Tomasini
Burgmuller

How many are they? I didn't keep track. 

Is the suggestion here, that anyone who wrote string quartets in that period was a master of the genre?  Asking for a friend.

[Karl Henning]

The phrase Golden Age is generally used in a nostalgic sense.  So there is no surprise in the No responses, nor in lists of even the mediocrities of the past as support for an earlier epoch.

It would be too early to tell, hence my asking of the question.

Right; I took your question as an invitation to appreciate what is being accomplished in our day.

But, it is good for a composer to learn at a tender age, that there is institutional and ingrained readiness to revert to the already familiar, to such a degree which allows very, very little time to be distracted by what any composer who lives among us may be doing.

Oh, but there aren't any composers living today, really.  All the great music was already written, years ago.

[North Star]

Shadows become longer, and composers greater, as time passes...

[Karl Henning]

Dittersdorf Dwarfed Me, A Composer's Memoir

[Florestan]

Is the suggestion here, that anyone who wrote string quartets in that period was a master of the genre? 

Any such suggestion is a complete misunderstanding of my post.

The original question was this:

Could you name, say, fifty or so composers for me from that era who have written at least one string quartet you find remarkable or compelling?

I simply complied with the condition and listed thirty-something composers who imho have written at least one string quartet I (I, mind you!) find remarkable or compelling.

The phrase Golden Age is generally used in a nostalgic sense.  So there is no surprise in the No responses, nor in lists of even the mediocrities of the past as support for an earlier epoch.

Please name three mediocrities in my list, then please name three mediocrities in nathanb's list and then please explain me why and how the latter are any better than the former. Oh, but there aren't any mediocrities writing today, really; all mediocre music was already written, years ago.

[Todd]

It would be too early to tell, hence my asking of the question.

But you rested your case.  Are you un-resting it?

[Ken B]

But you rested your case.  Are you un-resting it?

I believe unresting can only be done on 1 Jan 2100. Or maybe 1 Jan 2101.

[nathanb]

Also Heinz Holliger's two quartets, which are missing from your list, and I personally would rate No. 1 as qualitatively the equal of the late Beethovens (the musical language is obviously very different, but what it is trying to achieve is similar I think...)

In fact I would love to hear a concert or recording program that pairs it with Op. 131. Some enterprising quartet should take up that challenge -- Zehetmair-Quartett I'm looking at you...

Holliger was on the longer list. I decided that I am not familiar enough with either work to confidently stand behind the assertion that they are truly "remarkable" to me, but I certainly think that could change, in Holliger's case. His work in other genres is masterful...

[Mandryka]

Also Heinz Holliger's two quartets, which are missing from your list, and I personally would rate No. 1 as qualitatively the equal of the late Beethovens (the musical language is obviously very different, but what it is trying to achieve is similar I think...)

In fact I would love to hear a concert or recording program that pairs it with Op. 131.

I know what you mean. In a manner of speaking  Holliger had a precedent in Gran Torso, an inspiration for exploring new timbres. Op 131 is as far as I know totally without precedent or  influence - though honestly I don't know the classical and romantic string quartet literature well enough to be really sure of that.

It's strange that Zehetmair chose Holliger 2 - and I'm not sure why he chose to pair it with op 135

[nathanb]

Any such suggestion is a complete misunderstanding of my post.

The original question was this:

I simply complied with the condition and listed thirty-something composers who imho have written at least one string quartet I (I, mind you!) find remarkable or compelling.

Please name three mediocrities in my list, then please name three mediocrities in nathanb's list and then please explain me why and how the latter are any better than the former. Oh, but there aren't any mediocrities writing today, really; all mediocre music was already written, years ago.

I should note that, in spite of my record of moody, sarcastic, spiteful comments, I have only taken my interactions with Florestan in this thread at face value, and he has complied in a manner to my liking.

I should also note that, (1) I still enjoy the older styles (my distribution of listening time to be disregarded here) and (2) There is certainly a lot of mediocre music created today, in both those styles that I find generally mediocre as well as those styles that tend to fill my lists.

[nathanb]

I know what you mean. In a manner of speaking  Holliger had a precedent in Gran Torso, an inspiration for exploring new timbres. Op 131 is as far as I know totally without precedent or  influence - though honestly I don't know the classical and romantic string quartet literature well enough to be really sure of that.

It's strange that Zehetmair chose Holliger 2 - and I'm not sure why he chose to pair it with op 135

Another quartet that I find shockingly fresh with respect to new timbres is Kagel's first quartet, but it was composed just outside of the "last 50 years" mark.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

But you rested your case.  Are you un-resting it?

Haha actually I think I will be open to a change of mind the more I read this thread! It would be silly of me to ask a question and then answer it myself without considering the points of views of everyone else.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Out of Florestan's and nathanb's lists I would find it equally as difficult to pick out any which are mediocre.........

[Karl Henning]

Any such suggestion is a complete misunderstanding of my post.

The original question was this:

I simply complied with the condition and listed thirty-something composers who imho have written at least one string quartet I (I, mind you!) find remarkable or compelling.

Thanks for the correction.  I am relieved  0:)