? Obs. [a. It. quartetto, f. quarto fourth: see prec.]
1. Mus. QUARTET 1.
1775. in Ash, Suppl.
1789. Burney, Hist. Mus., III. Introd. 9. In 1752, Quantz classed Quartettos at the head of Instrumental Music.
1806–7. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life (1826), XVI. ii. 89. Playing the solo part for the flute in a quartetto.
1835. L. Ritchie, Wand. by Seine, 201. Every song was at least a quartetto.
2. = QUARTET 2 and 3.
1790. Cowper, Lett., Wks. 1836, VI. 340. Wishing much that you could change our trio into a quartetto.
1807. Sir R. Colt Hoare, Tour in Ireland, 235. Potatoes, oats, flax, and bog, the almost inseparable quartetto.
1819. T. Hope, Anastasius, III. xiv. (1820), 362. The quartetto … consisted of a poet, a scene-painter, a musical composer and a ballet-master.
attrib. 1842. Mrs. Browning, Grk. Chr. Poets, 173. A large soul … containing sundry Queen Anne’s men, one within another, like quartetto tables.
