The "Fünf Stücke für Streichquartett" or "Five Pieces for String Quartet" is a suite of five musical pieces by Czech composer Erwin Schulhoff

Erwin Schulhoff

Erwin Schulhoff was a Czech composer and pianist.-Life:Born in Prague of Jewish-German origin, Schulhoff was one of the brightest figures in a generation of European musicians whose successful careers were prematurely terminated by the rise of the Nazi regime in Germany...

. The work contains stylistic connections to both a baroque dance suite and to other pieces composed by the Second Viennese School

Second Viennese School

The Second Viennese School is the group of composers that comprised Arnold Schoenberg and his pupils and close associates in early 20th century Vienna, where he lived and taught, sporadically, between 1903 and 1925...

. The piece premiered on 8 August 1924 at the International Society for New Music Festival in Salzburg, and was dedicated to Darius Milhaud.

Structure

Each of the pieces evokes a different style of dance music:

• Piece 1: Viennese Waltz
• Piece 2: Serenade
• Piece 3: Czech folk music
• Piece 4: Tango
• Piece 5: Tarantella

Reception

Robin Holloway

Robin Holloway

Robin Greville Holloway is an English composer.-Early life:From 1952 to 1957, he was a chorister at St Paul's Cathedral...

 described the work as a "parody and debunking", similar to later works by Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...

 and Benjamin Britten

Benjamin Britten

Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...

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