Quintet Op. 13, No. 5 in E Major

Composer: BOCCHERINI, Luigi
  • This work was composed in 1771 and published in Paris in 1775.1
  • This work is scored for two violins, one viola, two cellos. Boccherini invented this unique string quintet scoring, probably because his aristocratic patron Don Luis had a string quartet already, which Boccherini joined as another cellist.2
  • The Minuet: sometimes known as “the celebrated minuet,” it is Boccherini’s most famous work.3
  • The minuet is quoted in many films, including the 1955 black comedy The Ladykillers with Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers, in which a wacky group of criminals plan a robbery under the cover story of being musicians practicing this minuet.

Sources

  1. “String Quintet in E major, G.275 (Boccherini, Luigi),” International Music Score Library Project, accessed August 1, 2019, https://imslp.org/wiki/String_Quintet_in_E_major%2C_G.275_(Boccherini%2C_Luigi).
  2. Christian Speck and Stanley Sadie, “Boccherini, (Ridolfo) Luigi,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed August 1, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000003337.
  3. Elisabeth Le Guin, Boccherini’s Body: An Essay in Carnal Musicology (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006), 157.

Cut IDs

10577 13521 14949 19018 44640