Best Loved Stringquartets. A popular genre in the 18th century, divertimenti offered listeners a lighthearted diversion at social functions. Mozart wrote these three pieces for string quartet in Salzburg in 1772. The three-movement Italian-style compositions require only wind parts to assume another form, hence their common description as the Salzburg Symphonies. Students, teachers, and professional string players will prize this authoritative collection of three divertimenti plus three additional quartets by the ever-popular composer. This convenient single-volume version is the least expensive edition available of these works, and its sturdy binding allows pages to remain open on music stands, promising years of use and enjoyment.

John Luther Adams' Everything That Rises for String Quartet. Composers note: I never imagined I would write a string quartet. Then I heard the JACK Quartet and I understood how Imight be able to make the medium my own. The result was The Wind in High Places - a twenty-minute work composed entirely on natural harmonics and open strings. Over the next few years twomore quartets followed. The second quartet  untouched  is a further exploration of the aeolian sound world of the first. Then in Canticles of the Sky the musicians finally touch the fingerboards of theirinstruments. And now comes Everything That Rises. This fourth quartet is more expansive both in time and in space. It grows out of Sila: The Breath of the World - aperformance-length choral/orchestral work composed on a rising series of sixteen harmonic clouds. Everything That Rises traverses this same territory but in a much more melodic way. Each musician isa soloist playing throughout. They surround the audience. Time floats. Over the course of an hour the lines spin out - always rising - in acoustically perfect intervals that grow progressively smaller as they spiralupward... until the music dissolves into the soft noise of the bows sighing. Duration: 60 minutes

John Luther Adams' Canticles Of The Sky for String Quartet. Composer's Note: In the Arctic sky the low angle of the sun and heavy ice crystals in the air often produce vivid halos arcs andsundogs (parhelia). Sometimes these phenomena create the illusion of multiple suns. 'Sky With Four Suns' is a musical evocation of such an apparition from sunrise to sunset. Similar visions also occur at night which isthe image behind 'Sky With Four Moons.' 'Sky With Nameless Colors' and 'Sky With Endless Stars' evoke the extraordinary depth and clarity of Sonoran Desert skies. This music is drawn from Canticles of the Holy Wind– a concert-length work for four choirs and vocal soloists. In this version sixteen separate choral parts have been condensed into the string quartet. String designations should be carefully observed. Frequent stringcrossings are employed to create as lush and continuous textures as possible. All sounds should be legato. Bowing is free and full throughout. Total performance duration is about 18:00

This quartet collection of 13 keyboard, vocal and instrumental pieces covering the Renaissance to the Romantic periods can be played together in harmony by any number or combination of instruments. Woodwinds, brass, strings, and percussion can play in like-instrument or mixed instrumentation. It's an all-purpose folio that makes sacred music fun! Contains: Adoramus Te (We Adore Thee) (Palestrina) * Amen (Stainer) * Cherubim Song (Archangelsky) * Chorale (Bach) * Deep River (Anonymous) * Gloria Patri (Purcell) * Go Down, Moses (Anonymous) * God Of Our Fathers (Warren) * Missa Apostolorum (Cavazzoni) * Old Hundredth (Bourgeois) * Onward, Christian Soldiers (Sullivan) * The Quest (Marianlieder) *Shir Hamaalot (Anonymous).