Abstract:

This study aims to examine original and arranged works written for four violins in the chamber music repertoire, as featured in the publications of national and international publishing houses, online sheet music archives, and five major university libraries in Turkey, with a focus on their distribution and the works featured in the literature. This study uses the qualitative research method of case study. In this context, original and arranged Classical Music and Turkish Music works for four violins in the relevant literature were identified by conducting online searches. Descriptive analysis was used to examine the data obtained through document review. Publications by 13 national and international publishing houses that are well known in the literature, have official websites, and publish musical scores were included in the literature review, along with the online sheet music archive called International Library of Musical Scores (IMSLP), which is public, easy to access, and exclusively features sheet music, and five major university libraries in Turkish universities with a conservatory. 187 original or arranged Classical Music works for four violins were identified among the publications of national and international publishing houses that publish musical scores, 44 works were identified in five major university libraries in Turkey, and 67 works were identified in online sheet music archives. Thus, a total of 298 original or arranged published Classical Music works for four violins were identified. No original or arranged Turkish Music works for four violins were found on the websites of national and international publishing houses that publish musical scores, in the catalogues of five major university libraries in Turkey, or in online sheet music archives. String quartets are known to be a very useful combination for music students to experience chamber music. However, it may not always be possible to form a string quartet when instruments at a school are not distributed among students in a balanced manner or violin is far more popular compared to other instruments. Under these circumstances, the string quartet sound, which is important for the string instrument repertoire, can be approximated using works written specifically for four violins, to ensure that students are introduced to important musical and technical behaviors. In this context, this study aimed to identify original or arranged published Classical Music and Turkish Music works for four violins.

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