Trigonometric time integrators are introduced as a class of explicit numerical methods for quasilinear wave equations. Second-order convergence for the semi-discretization in time with these integrators is shown for a sufficiently regular exact solution. The time integrators are also combined with a Fourier spectral method into a fully discrete scheme, for which error bounds are provided without requiring any CFL-type coupling of the discretization parameters. The proofs of the error bounds are based on energy techniques and on the semiclassical Gå rding inequality. ; Comment: 36 pages, 4 figures, comments welcome!!