Dan Coleman’s String Quartets, With a Performance Guide for the Quartetto ricercare and Analysis of Its Relationship to Mozart’s String Quartet K. 464 and Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 18, No. 5

This document explores the relationship between Dan Coleman’s Quartetto ricercare, Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 18, No. 5, and Mozart’s String Quartet K. 464, and provides a detailed performance guide for Coleman’s quartet. Coleman states that he used K. 464 and Op. 18, No. 5 as inspirations for his work, and this study identifies similarities in form, texture, structure, and melody between the three works. This type of comparative analysis enhances our understanding of Coleman’s compositional approach and style and thus can lead to more effective and authentic performances of this quartet. The Quartetto ricercare provides a bridge from traditional classical quartets to more modern repertoire and also encourages another way of understanding the formal clarities of traditional classical quartets through a twenty-first-century composer’s musical language