Quintet |

ital. quintetto, from lat. quintus – the fifth; French quintuor, germ. Quintett, English. quintet, quintuor

1) An ensemble of 5 performers (instrumentalists or vocalists). The composition of an instrumental quintet can be homogeneous (bowed strings, woodwinds, brass instruments) and mixed. The most common string compositions are a string quartet with the addition of a 2nd cello or 2nd viola. Of the mixed compositions, the most common ensemble is a piano and string instruments (two violins, a viola, a cello, sometimes a violin, a viola, a cello and a double bass); it is called the piano quintet. Quintets of string and wind instruments are widely used. In a wind quintet, a horn is usually added to the woodwind quartet.

2) A piece of music for 5 instruments or singing voices. The string quintet and the string quintet with the participation of wind instruments (clarinet, horn, etc.) finally took shape, like other genres of chamber instrumental ensembles, in the second half of the 2th century. (in the work of J. Haydn and especially W. A. ​​Mozart). Since then, quintets have been written, as a rule, in the form of sonata cycles. In the 18th and 19th centuries the piano quintet became widespread (previously met with Mozart); this genre variety attracts with the possibility of contrasting the rich and diverse timbres of the piano and strings (F. Schubert, R. Schumann, I. Brahms, S. Frank, S. I. Taneev, D. D. Shostakovich). The vocal quintet is usually part of the opera (P. I. Tchaikovsky – the quintet in the quarrel scene from the opera “Eugene Onegin”, the quintet “I’m Scared” from the opera “The Queen of Spades”).

3) The name of the string bow group of the symphony orchestra, uniting 5 parts (first and second violins, violas, cellos, double basses).

G. L. Golovinsky