chamber music

 

ensemble music for small groups of instruments, with only one player to each part. Its essence is individual treatment of parts and the exclusion of virtuosic elements. Originally played by amateurs in courts and aristocratic circles, it began to be performed by professionals only in the 19th cent. with the rise of the concert hall. In the broadest sense it existed as early as the Middle Ages. The ricercare and the concerted canzone of the 16th cent. are properly chamber music, although unlike later forms they were not for specific instruments but were usually performed by voices and whatever instruments were at hand. During the baroque period the chief type was the trio sonata. About 1750 the string quartet with its related types—trio, quintet, sextet, septet, and octet—arose. As developed by Haydn and Mozart the quartet became the principal chamber-music form. It was used by Beethoven and Schubert, whose quartets are the last of the classical period, and by the chief composers of the romantic period—Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, Dvořák, Franck, d'Indy, and Reger. In the early 20th cent. the coloristic possibilities of the quartet were exploited by Debussy and Ravel. More recently the different forms of chamber music have been used extensively for experiments in atonality, percussive rhythms, and serial techniques by such composers as Schoenberg, Bartók, Webern, Berg, Stravinsky, Sessions, and Piston.

Bibliography

See D. F. Tovey, Essays in Musical Analysis: Chamber Music (1944, 4th impression 1956); W. W. Cobbett, ed., Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music (3 vol., 2d ed. 1963, repr. 1987); H. E. Ulrich, Chamber Music (2d ed. 1966); M. Berger, Guide to Chamber Music (1985).

Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any "art music" that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part. The word "chamber" signifies that the music can be performed in a small room, often in a private salon with an intimate atmosphere. However, it usually does not include, by definition, solo instrument performances.

Ensembles

This is a partial list of the types of ensembles found in chamber music.

Number of Musicians	Name	Common Ensembles	Instrumentation	Comments
2	Duo	Piano Duo	2 pno
		Instrumental Duo	any instrument and piano	Found especially as instrumental sonatas; i.e., violin, cello, viola, horn, bassoon, clarinet, flute sonatas.
			any instrument and basso continuo	Common in baroque music predating the piano. The basso continuo part is always present to provide rhythm and accompaniment, and is often played by a harpsichord but other instruments can also be used.
	Duet	Piano Duet	1 pno, 4 hands	Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms (original pieces and a lot of transcriptions of his own works); a favorite domestic musical form, with lots of transcriptions of other genres (operas, symphonies, concertos and so on).
		Vocal Duet	voice, pno	Commonly used in the art song, or Lieder.
		Instrumental Duet	2 of any instrument, either equal or not	Mozart's Duets KV 423 and 424 for vn and va and Sonata KV 292 for bsn and vc; Beethoven's Duet for va and vc; Béla Bartók's Duets for 2 vn.
3	Trio	String Trio	vln, vla, vc	Mozart's Divertimento KV 563 is an important example; Beethoven composed a series of 5 Trios at the beginning of his career.
		Piano Trio	vln, vc, pno	Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms and many others.
		Voice, Viola and Piano	Voice, vla, pno	William Bolcom's trio Let Evening Come for Soprano, Viola and Piano, and Johannes Brahms' Zwei Gesänge für eine Altstimme mit Bratsche und Pianoforte, Op. 91, for Contralto, Viola and Piano
		Clarinet, Viola and Piano	cl, vla, pno	Mozart's trio K498, other works by Robert Schumann and Max Bruch
		Clarinet, Cello and Piano	cl, vc, pno	Beethoven's trio Op. 11, as well as his own transcription, Op. 38, of the Septet, Op. 20; Brahms's trio Op. 114, Alexander von Zemlinsky's Op.3.
		Voice, Clarinet and Piano	voice, cl, pno	Franz Schubert's Der Hirt auf dem Felsen, D965, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Schon Lacht Der Holde Fruhling, KV 580; Spohr's Lieder
		Flute, Viola and Harp	fl, vla, hrp	Famous works by Debussy and Arnold Bax. A 20th century invention now with a surprisingly large repertoire. A variant is Flute, Cello and Harp.
		Clarinet, Violin, Piano	cl, vln, pno	Largely a 20th century invention, but growing in popularity; famous compositions by Béla Bartók, Milhaud and Khachaturian
		Horn Trio	hrn, vln, pno	19th century works; specifically the Trio in E♭ Op. 40 by Brahms
		Soprano, Horn and Piano	sop, hrn, pno	Franz Schubert's Auf Dem Strom
		Reed Trio	ob, cl, bsn	20th century composers
4	Quartet	String Quartet	2 vln, vla, vc	Very popular form. Numerous major examples by Haydn (its creator), Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and many other leading composers (see article).
		Piano Quartet	vln, vla, vc, pno	Mozart's KV 478 and 493; Beethoven youth compositions; Schumann, Brahms
		Violin, Clarinet, Cello and Piano	vln, cl, vc, pno	Rare; famous example: Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps; less famous: Hindemith (1938), Walter Rabl (Op. 1; 1896).
		Clarinet Quartet	3 B♭ Clarinets and Bass Clarinet	Twentieth-century composers
		Saxophone Quartet	s. sax, a. sax, t. sax, b. sax or a. sax, a. sax, t. sax, b. sax	Twentieth-century composers
		Flute quartet	4 fls or fl, vln, vla, and vlc	Examples include those by Friedrich Kuhlau, Anton Reicha, Eugène Bozza, Florent Schmitt and Joseph Jongen. 20th Century: Daniel Theaker
		Wind Instrument and String Trio	vn, va, vc and fl, ob, cl, bsn	By Mozart you can find four Flute Quartets and one Oboe Quartet; Krommer wrote Flute Quartets (eg opus 75) Clarinet Quartets and Bassoon Quartets (eg his opus 46 set); Devienne wrote a Bassoon Quartet
		Piano and Wind Trio	pno, cl, hrn, bsn	Franz Berwald's opus 1 (1819)
		Voice and Piano Trio	voice, pno, vn, vc	By Beethoven you can find lots of Lieder on several folk roots for such a setting.
5	Quintet	Piano Quintet	2 vln, vla, vc, pno	Schumann, Brahms, Béla Bartók, Shostakovich and others
			vln, vla, vc, cb, pno	An uncommon instrumentation used by Franz Schubert in his Trout Quintet as well as by Johann Nepomuk Hummel and Louise Farrenc.
		Woodwind Quintet	fl, cl, ob, bsn, hrn	19th century (Reicha, Danzi and others) and 20th century composers
		String Quintet	2 vln, vla, vc with additional vla, vc, or cb	with 2nd va: Michael Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner; with 2nd vc: Boccherini, Schubert; with cb: Vagn Holmboe, Dvořák.
		Wind & Strings Quintet	ob, cl, vln, vla, cb	Prokofiev, Quintet in G minor Op.39. In six movements. (1925)
		Brass Quintet	2 tr, 1 hrn, 1 trm, 1 tuba	Mostly after 1950.
		Clarinet Quintet	cl, 2 vn, 1 va, 1 vc	Mozart's KV 581, Brahms's Op. 115, Weber's Op. 34, Hindemith's (in which the clarinet player must alternate between a B♭ and a E♭ instrument) and many others.
			cl, pno left hand, vn, va, vc	Schmidt's chamber pieces dedicated to the pianist Paul Wittgenstein (who played with left hand only), although they are almost always performed nowadays in a two hands version arranged by Friedrich Wührer.
		Piano and Wind Quartet	pno, ob, cl, bsn, hrn	Mozart's KV 452, Beethoven's Op. 16, and many others, including two by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Anton Rubinstein. (The four Wind Instruments may vary)
6	Sextet	String Sextet	2 vln, 2 vla, 2 vc	Important among these are Brahms' Op. 18 and Op. 36 Sextets, and Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4 (original version).
		Wind Sextet	2 ob, 2 bsn, 2 hrn or 2 cl, 2 hrn, 2 bsn	By Mozart there are the two types; Beethoven used the one with cl
		Piano and Wind Quintet	fl, ob, cl, bsn, hrn, pno	Such as the Poulenc Sextet, and another by Ludwig Thuille.
		Piano Sextet	vln, 2 vla, vc, cb, pno	e.g. Mendelssohn's Op. 110, also one by Leslie Bassett. ([1])
			cl, 2 vln, vla, vc, pno	An example is Prokofiev's Overture on Hebrew Themes Op. 34.
7	Septet	Wind and String Septet	cl, hrn, bsn, vln, vla, vc, cb	Popularized by Beethoven's Septet Op. 20, Berwald's, and many others.
8	Octet	Wind and String Octet	cl, hrn, bsn, 2 vln, vla, vc, cb	Popularized by Schubert's Octet D. 803, inspired by Beethoven's Septet.
		String Octet	4 vln, 2 vla, 2 vc	Popularized by Mendelssohn's String Octet Op. 20. Others (among them works by Woldemar Bargiel, George Enescu, and a pair of pieces by Dmitri Shostakovich) have followed.
		Double Quartet	4 vln, 2 vla, 2 vc	Two string quartets arranged antiphonically. A genre preferred by Louis Spohr. Darius Milhaud's Op. 291 Octet is, rather, a couple of String Quartets (his 14th and 15th) performed simultaneously
		Wind Octet	2 ob, 2 cl, 2 hrn, 2 bsn	Mozart's KV 375 and 388, Beethoven's Op. 108, many written by Franz Krommer.
9	Nonet	Wind and String Nonet	fl, ob, cl, hrn, bsn, vn, va, vc, db	Including one written by Spohr, two by Bohuslav Martinů, and four by Alois Hába.
10	Decet	Double Wind Quintet	2 ob, 2 English hrn, 2 cl, 2 hrn, 2 bsn (Mozart's set) or 2 fl, ob, Eng hrn, 2 cl, 2 hrn and 2 bsn (Enescu's set)	After Mozart's Divertimenti KV 166 and 186 it's hard to find another example of 10 instruments. By convention, after nine players works cease to be considered chamber works generally speaking, but the decet/dixtuor in D, opus 14 by George Enescu for 2 flutes, oboe, English horn, two clarinets, two horns and two bassoons, written in 1906 will be included here.
Key: vln - violin; vla - viola; vc - cello; cb - double bass; pno - piano; fl - flute; ob - oboe; Eng hrn - English horn; cl - clarinet; s. sax - soprano saxophone; a. sax - alto saxophone; t. sax - tenor saxophone; b. sax - baritone saxophone; bsn - bassoon; hrn - horn; tr - trumpet; trm - trombone

The standard repertoire for chamber ensembles is rich, and the totality of chamber music in print in sheet music form is nearly boundless. See the articles on each instrument combination for examples of repertoire.

References

• The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians (ed. Stanley Sadie, 1980)

External links

• Friends of Chamber Music.
• Chamber Music America.
• ProMusica Chamber Orchestra a modern, flexible ensemble; won numerous ASCAP awards for 'adventurous programming'
• Park City &SLC Music Festival and The Autumn Classics Music Festival Utah's oldest and newest chamber music festivals.
• The Ottawa International Chamber Music Society (Chamberfest) one of the world's leading international chamber music festivals.
• New York Philomusica
• The Amateur Chamber Music Players publishes a contact list of musicians worldwide who play chamber music for their own enjoyment. They also publish lists of repertoire.
• Composer Planet wiki
• Art of the States: Chamber/small chamber music (3-8 instruments) by American composers
• Art of the States: Chamber/large chamber music (9+ instruments) by American composers

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