String Quartets no. 2 & no. 4

String Quartets Nos. 2 and 4 are chamber works by Austrian composer Arnold Schönberg, composed in 1908 and 1936 respectively. The second quartet documents the shift from late-Romantic chromaticism towards atonality by incorporating a vocal part and increasingly unstable tonal relations, while the fourth quartet reflects Schönberg's mature use of twelve‑tone technique with leaner textures and tighter motivic organisation.