Quartet

In music, a quartet (French: quatuor, German: Quartett, Italian: quartetto, Spanish: cuarteto, Polish: kwartet) is an ensemble of four singers or instrumental performers.

The particular choice and number of instruments derives from the registers of the human voice: soprano, alto, tenor and bass (SATB).

Composers of notable string quartets include Joseph Haydn (68 compositions), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (23), Ludwig van Beethoven (16), Franz Schubert (15), Felix Mendelssohn (6), Johannes Brahms (3), Antonín Dvořák (14), Alexander Borodin (2), Béla Bartók (6), Elizabeth Maconchy (13), Darius Milhaud (18), Heitor Villa-Lobos (17), and Dmitri Shostakovich (15).

Brahms and Schubert wrote numerous pieces for four voices that were once popular in private salons, although they are seldom performed today.

The final movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Giuseppe Verdi's Messa da Requiem are two examples of renowned concert works that include vocal quartets.

[citation needed] In the 20th century Western popular music, the term "vocal quartet" usually refers to ensembles of four singers of the same gender.

Some mixed-gender vocal quartets include ABBA, The Pied Pipers; The Mamas & the Papas; The Merry Macs; and The Weavers.