txtCommentary1=Why did composers like Mozart lavish so much attention on the particular combination known as the {\uldb string quartet}{\v 154839}? Why not, for example, a {\uldb woodwind}{\v 148196} or a {\uldb brass}{\v 147517} quartet? Quite simply, {\uldb string}{\v 97871} {\uldb instruments}{\v 84565} were regarded by eighteenth-century musicians as the closest approximation to the expressive beauties of the human voice. String instruments {\i sang.} In our
txtChapterHead=A Rationale
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txtCommentary2=\par\par\par age of heavy metal bands and amplified voices, this may seem a rather quaint point of view. But to a {\uldb Viennese}{\v 135870} musician of Mozart\'92s time, there was nothing more beautiful to behold, to hear, or to play than a {\uldb violin}{\v 105626}.{\fs24\uldb \'80}{\v next}