Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Classical music is a broad term that usually refers to mainstream music produced in or rooted in the traditions of Western liturgical and Secular music Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part. Art music (or serious music or erudite music) as defined by Jacques Siron is an umbrella term generally used to refer to musical traditions implying advanced structural 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.

Because of its intimate nature, chamber music has been described as "the music of friends. "^[1] For more than 200 years, chamber music was played primarily by amateur musicians in their homes, and even today, when most chamber music performance has migrated from the home to the concert hall, there are still many musicians, amateur and professional, who continue to play chamber music for their own pleasure. Playing chamber music requires special skills, both musical and social, which are different from the skills required for playing solo or symphonic works.

Goethe described chamber music (specifically, string quartet music) as "four rational people conversing. ˈjoːhan ˈvɔlfgaŋ fɔn ˈgøːtə (in English generally ˈgɝːtə 28 August 1749 22 March 1832 was a German writer "^[2] This conversational paradigm has been a thread woven through the history of chamber music composition from the end of the 18th century to the present. The analogy to conversation recurs in descriptions and analyses of chamber music compositions.

History of Chamber Music

From its earliest beginnings in the Baroque period to the present, chamber music has been a reflection of the changes in the technology and the society that produced it.

Early beginnings

Baroque musicians playing a trio sonata, 18th century anonymous painting.

During the Middle ages and the early Renaissance, instruments were used as accompaniment for singers^[3]. String players would play along with the melody line sung by the singer. The first purely instrumental ensembles were the sonata da camera (chamber sonata) and the sonata da chiesa (church sonata). Sonata da camera is Italian for "chamber sonata" Sonata da camera is a type of Trio sonata intended for secular performance Sonata da chiesa ( Italian: Church sonata) is an instrumental composition dating from the Baroque period generally consisting of four movements These were compositions for one to five or more instruments. The sonata da camera was a suite of slow and fast movements, interspersed with dance tunes; the sonata da chiesa was the same, but the dances were omitted. These forms gradually developed into the trio sonata of the Baroque — two treble instruments and a bass line, often with a keyboard instrument (harpsichord or clavichord) filling in the harmony. The trio sonata is a Musical form which was particularly popular around the 17th century and the 18th century Baroque art redirects here Please disambiguate such links to Baroque painting, Baroque sculpture, etc

During the Baroque period, chamber music as a genre was not clearly defined. Often, works could be played on any variety of instruments, in orchestral or chamber ensembles. The Art of the Fugue by Johann Sebastian Bach, for example, can be played on a keyboard instrument (harpsichord or organ) or by a string quartet or string orchestra. The Art of Fugue or The Art of the Fugue (original German Die Kunst der Fuge) BWV 1080 is an incomplete masterpiece WikipediaWikiProject Composers#Lead section.2 This article is written in British English including maximised use of "-ise" The instrumentation of trio sonatas was also often not clearly specified; Handel's trio sonatas opera 1 - 5, for example, were written for "violins or flutes or oboes". ^[4] Bass lines could be played by violone, cello, theorbo, or bassoon, and sometimes three or four instruments would join in the bass line in unison. The violone (literally "large viol" in Italian "-one" being the Augmentative suffix is a Musical instrument of the Viol family The violoncello (abbreviated to cello, or 'cello, plural cellos or celli —the c is tʃ A theorbo (tiorba also tuorbe; tiorba Theorbe is a plucked string instrument The bassoon is a Woodwind instrument in the Double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and Tenor registers and occasionally Sometimes composers mixed movements for chamber ensembles with orchestral movements. Telemann's 'Tafelmusik' (1733), for example, has five sets of movements for various combinations of instruments, ending with a full orchestral section. ^[5]

J.S. Bach Trio sonata from the "Musical Offering" Second movement by Ensemble Brillante

Baroque chamber music was primarily contrapuntal^[6]. In Music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and Rhythm, and interdependent in Harmony That is, each instrument played the same melodic material in sequence, creating a complex, interwoven fabric or sound. Because each instrument was playing essentially the same melodic line, all the instruments were equal. In the trio sonata, there is no ascendent or solo instrument, but all three instruments share equal importance.

Trio sonatas were normally accompanied by a keyboard instrument (harpsichord, clavichord or organ) that filled out the harmonic structure of the piece. The keyboard was in a subsidiary role, and usually the keyboard part was not even written out; rather, the chordal structure of the piece was specified by numeric codes over the bass line, called figured bass. Figured bass, or thoroughbass, is a kind of integer Musical notation used to indicate intervals, chords and Nonchord tones in relation Keyboard instruments of the period were limited in the dynamics they could produce. A harpsichord can play either loud or soft, with no gradations between. For this reason, most trio sonatas use terraced dynamics, that is, there are no crescendos or decrescendos, and the musical line switches between forte and piano.

In the second half of the 18th century, the complexities of counterpoint fell out of fashion, and a new galante style appeared. A new style of Classical music, fashionable from the 1720s to the 1770s was called Galante music. The music of the galante featured richly embellished solo parts with simple accompaniments. Now a new custom arose, that gave birth to a new form of chamber music: the serenade. Patrons invited street musicians to play evening concerts below the balconies of their homes, their friends and their lovers. Patrons and musicians commissioned composers to write suitable suites of dances and tunes, for groups of two to five or six players. These works were called serenades (sera=night), nocturnes, divertimenti, or cassations (from gasse=street). The young Joseph Haydn was commissioned to write several of these.

Haydn, Mozart, and the classical style

Franz Joseph Haydn is generally credited with creating the modern form of chamber music as we know it. ^[7] In 83 string quartets, 45 piano trios, and numerous string trios, duos and wind ensembles, Haydn established the conversational style of composition and the overall form that was to dominate the world of chamber music for the next two centuries. This is a list of String quartets by Joseph Haydn, including the number they are given in Anthony van Hoboken 's catalogue of his works This is a list of Piano trios by Joseph Haydn, including the chronological number assigned by H

Joseph Haydn Quartet Opus 20 Number 4, First Movement, played by the Jupiter Quartet.

An example of the conversational mode of composition is Haydn's string quartet opus 20 number 4 in D Major^[8]. In the first movement, after a statement of the main theme by all the instruments, the first violin breaks into a triplet figure, supported by the second violin, viola and cello. The cello answers with its own triplet figure, then the viola, while the other instruments play a secondary theme against this movement. Unlike counterpoint, where each part plays essentially the same melodic role as the others, here each instrument contributes its own character, its own comment on the music as it develops.

Score of Opus 20 Number 4, showing conversational mode.

Haydn also settled on an overall form for his chamber music compositions, which would become the standard, with slight variations, to the present day. The characteristic Haydn string quartet has four movements:

An opening movement in sonata form, usually with two contrasting themes, followed by a development section where the thematic material is transformed and transposed, and ending with a recapitulation of the initial two themes. Sonata form is a Musical form that has been used widely since the early Classical period.

A lyrical movement in a slow or moderate tempo, sometimes built out of three sections that repeat themselves in the order ABCABC, and sometimes a set of variations.

A minuet or scherzo, a light movement in three quarter time, with a main section, a contrasting trio section, and a repeat of the main section. A minuet, sometimes spelled menuet, is a Social dance of French origin for two persons usually in 3/4 time. A scherzo (plural scherzi) is a piece of Music or a movement in a certain style that forms part of a larger piece such as a Symphony.

A fast finale section in rondo form, a series of contrasting sections with a main refrain section opening and closing the movement, and repeating between each section. Rondo, and its French equivalent rondeau, is a word that has been used in Music in a number of ways most often in reference to a Musical form

His innovations earned Haydn the title "father of the string quartet"^[9], and he was recognized by his contemporaries as the leading composer of his time. But he was by no means the only composer developing new modes of chamber music. Even before Haydn, many composers were already experimenting with new forms. Giovanni Battista Sammartini, Ignaz Holzbauer, and Franz Xaver Richter wrote precursors of the string quartet. WikipediaWikiProject Composers#Lead section --> Giovanni Battista Sammartini (1700 or 1701 &ndash January 15, 1775 Ignaz Jakob Holzbauer ( September 18 1711 &ndash April 7 1783) was a composer of symphonies, Concertos Operas

Joseph Haydn playing string quartets.

If Haydn created the conversational style of composition, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart greatly expanded its vocabulary. His chamber music added numerous masterpieces to the chamber music repertoire. This is a selective list of the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, listed by genre. Mozart's seven piano trios and two piano quartets were the first to apply the conversational principle to chamber music with piano. Haydn's piano trios are essentially piano sonatas with the violin and cello playing mostly obligato parts, doubling the treble and bass lines of the piano score. But Mozart gives the strings an independent role, using them as a counter to the piano, and adding their individual voices to the chamber music conversation^[10].

Mozart quintet Opus 516, first movement, played by Orion Quartet and Ida Kevafian, viola.

Mozart introduced the newly invented clarinet into the chamber music arsenal, with the Kegelstatt Trio for viola, clarinet and piano, K. The Kegelstatt Trio ( K 498 also referred to as the Trio for Clarinet, Viola and Piano in E-flat, is a classical 498, and the quintet for clarinet and string quartet, K. Wolfgang Mozart 's Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, K 581 was written in 1789 for the Clarinetist Anton Stadler. 581. He also tried other innovative ensembles, including the quintet for violin, two violas, cello and french horn, K. 407, quartets for flute and strings, and various wind instrument combinations. He wrote six string quintets for two violins, two violas and cello^[11], which explore the rich tenor tones of the violas, adding a new dimension to the string quartet conversation.

Mozart's string quartets are considered the pinnacle of the classical art. The six string quartets that he dedicated to Haydn, his friend and mentor, inspired the elder composer to say to Mozart's father, "I tell you before God as an honest man that your son is the greatest composer known to me either in person or by reputation. He has taste, and, what is more, the most profound knowledge of composition. "^[12]

Many other composers wrote chamber compositions during this period that were popular at the time and are still played today. Luigi Boccherini, Spanish composer and cellist, wrote nearly a hundred string quartets, and more than one hundred quintets for two violins, viola and two cellos. Luigi Rodolfo Boccherini ( February 19, 1743 &ndash May 28, 1805) was a classical era Composer and cellist In this innovative ensemble, later used by Schubert, Boccherini gives flashy, virtuosic solos to the principal cello, as a showcase for his own playing. Violinist Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf and cellist Johann Baptist Vanhal, who both played pickup quartets with Haydn on second violin and Mozart on viola, were popular chamber music composers of the period. August Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf ( November 2, 1739 &ndash October 24, 1799) was an Austrian Composer and Violinist Johann Baptist Vanhal ( Jan Křtitel Vaňhal) also spelled Wanhal, Waṅhall or Wanhall ( May 12, 1739 – August 20

From home to hall

The turn of the 19th century saw dramatic changes in society and in music technology which had far-reaching effects on the way chamber music was composed and played.

The collapse of the aristocratic system. ^[13] Throughout the 18th century, the composer was normally an employee of an aristocrat, and the chamber music he composed was for the pleasure of and the performance by aristocratic amateurs. Haydn, for example, was an employee of the Count Nikolaus Esterházy, a music lover and amateur baryton player, for whom Haydn wrote many of his string trios. Nikolaus Esterházy (18 December 1714-28 September 1790 was a Hungarian Prince, a member of the famous Esterházy family baryton is a bowed String instrument in the Viol family in regular use in Europe up until the end of the 18th century Mozart wrote three string quartets for the King of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm II, a cellist. Frederick William II (Friedrich Wilhelm II September 25 1744 &ndash November 16 1797) was the fourth King of Prussia, reigning from Many of Beethoven's quartets were first performed with patron Count Andreas Razumovsky on second violin. Boccherini composed for the king of Spain.

With the bankruptcy of the aristocracy and new social orders throughout Europe, composers increasingly had to make their own ways by selling and performing their compositions. They often gave subscription concerts, renting a hall and collecting the receipts from the performance. Increasingly, chamber music was written not only to be performed by rich amateurs, but to be performed by professional musicians to a paying audience.

One of Beethoven's pianos.

Changes in the structure of stringed instruments. At the beginning of the 19th century, luthiers developed new methods of constructing the violin, viola and cello, that gave these instruments a richer tone, more volume and more carrying power. The violin is a bowed String instrument with four strings usually tuned in Perfect fifths It is the smallest and highest-pitched member The viola is a bowed String instrument. It is the middle voice of the Violin family, The violoncello (abbreviated to cello, or 'cello, plural cellos or celli —the c is tʃ ^[14] Also at this time, bowmakers made the violin bow longer, with a thicker ribbon of hair under higher tension. This improved the projection of the instrument, and also made possible new bowing techniques. In 1820, Louis Spohr invented the chinrest, which gave violinists more freedom of movement in their left hands, for a more nimble technique. Louis Spohr ( April 5, 1784 &ndash October 22, 1859) was a German Composer, Violinist and conductor. These changes contributed to the effectiveness of public performances in large halls, and expanded the repertoire of techniques available to chamber music composers.

The invention of the pianoforte. The pianoforte was actually invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori at the beginning of the 18th century, but not until the end of that century, with technical improvements in its construction, did it become an effective instrument for performance. Bartolomeo Cristofori di Francesco ( May 4, 1655 - January 27, 1731) was an Italian maker of musical instruments generally regarded ^[15] The improved pianoforte was immediately adopted by Mozart and other composers, who began composing chamber ensembles with the piano playing a leading role. The piano was to become more and more dominant through the 19th century, so much so that many composers, such as Liszt and Chopin, wrote almost exclusively for piano solo.

Beethoven

Straddling this period of change is the giant of western music, Ludwig van Beethoven. Ludwig van Beethoven ( English ˈlʊdvɪg væn ˈbeɪtoʊvən, 16 December 1770 &ndash 26 March 1827 was a German Composer and Pianist. Beethoven transformed chamber music, raising it to a new plane, both in terms of its content and in terms of the technical demands it made on its performers and its audiences. His works, in the words of Maynard Solomon, were "the models against which nineteenth-century romanticism measured its achievements and failures. "^[16] His late quartets, in particular, were considered so daunting an accomplishment that many composers after him were afraid to essay the medium; Johannes Brahms composed and tore up 20 string quartets before he dared publish a work that he felt was worthy of the "giant marching behind. Johannes Brahms ( pronounced ˈbʁaːms (May 7 1833 &ndash April 3 1897 was a German Composer "^[17]

Manuscript of the Ghost Trio, opus 70 no 1, by Beethoven.

Beethoven made his formal debut as a composer with three piano trios, opus 1. Even these early works, published when Beethoven was only 22, while adhering to a strictly classical mold, showed signs of the new paths that Beethoven was to forge in the coming years. When he showed the manuscript of the trios to Haydn, his teacher, prior to publication, Haydn approved of the first two, but warned against publishing the third trio, in C minor, as too radical, warning it would not "be understood and favorably received the by public. "^[18] In fact, Haydn's prediction was wrong; the third trio proved to be the most popular of the set, and Haydn's criticisms caused a falling out between him and the sensitive Beethoven. The trio is, indeed, a departure from the mold that Haydn and Mozart had formed. Beethoven makes dramatic deviations of tempo within phrases and within movements. He greatly increases the independence of the strings, especially the cello, allowing it to range above the piano and occasionally even the violin.

If his opus 1 trios introduced Beethoven's works to the public, his septet, opus 20, established him as one of Europe's most popular composers. The septet, scored for violin, viola, cello, contrabass, clarinet, french horn and bassoon, was a huge hit. It was played in concerts again and again. It appeared in transcriptions for many combinations — one of which, for clarinet, cello and piano, was written by Beethoven himself — and was so popular that Beethoven feared it would eclipse his other works. So much so that by 1815, Carl Czerny wrote that Beethoven "could not endure his septet and grew angry because of the universal applause which it has received. "^[19] The septet is written as a classical divertimento in six movements, including two minuets, and a set of variations. It is full of catchy tunes, with solos for everyone, including the contrabass.

Quartet Opus 59 No 3, second movement, by the Amadeo Modigliani Quartet.

Excerpt from the Beethoven septet opus 20, first movement, by the Ensemble Mediterrain.

In his 17 string quartets^[20], composed over the course of 37 of his 56 years, Beethoven goes from classical composer par excellence to creator of musical Romanticism, and finally transcends classicism and romanticism to create a genre that defies categorization. Stravinsky referred to the Grosse Fuge, of the late quartets, as "this absolutely contemporary piece of music that will be contemporary forever. The Große Fuge is a single-movement composition for String quartet by Ludwig van Beethoven famous for its extreme technical demands on the players as well as for "^[21]

The string quartets 1 - 6, opus 18 were written in the classical style, in the same year that Haydn wrote his opus 76 string quartets. Ludwig van Beethoven's opus 18 published in 1801 by T Mollo et Comp in Vienna, consisted of his first six String quartets They were composed Even here, Beethoven stretched the formal structures pioneered by Haydn and Mozart. In the quartet opus 18 no. 1, in f major, for example, there is a long, lyrical solo for cello in the second movement, giving the cello a new type of voice in the quartet conversation. And the last movement of opus 18 no. 6, "La Malincolia", creates a new type of formal structure, interleaving a slow, melancholic section with a manic dance. Beethoven was to use this form in later quartets, and it was adopted by Brahms and others as well.

Piano trio Opus 70 No. 1, "The Ghost", first movement, by the Claremont Trio.

In the years 1805-1806, Beethoven composed the three opus 59 quartets on a commission from Count Razumovsky, who played second violin in their first performance. The three "Rasoumovsky" (or "Razumovsky" string quartets opus 59 are the quartets Ludwig van Beethoven wrote in 1805 - 1806, as a result of a These quartets, from Beethoven's middle period, were pioneers in the romantic style. Besides introducing many structural and stylistic innovations, these quartets were much more difficult technically to perform — so much so that they were, and remain, beyond the reach of many amateur string players. When first violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh complained of their difficulty, Beethoven retorted, "Do you think I care about your wretched violin when the spirit moves me?"^[22] Among the difficulties are complex syncopations and cross-rhythms; synchronized runs of sixteenth, thirty-second, and sixty-fourth notes; and sudden modulations requiring special attention to intonation. Ignaz Schuppanzigh November 20, 1776 – March 2, 1830, was a violinist friend and teacher of Beethoven, and leader of Count In addition to the opus 59 quartets, Beethoven wrote two more quartets during his middle period — opus 74, the "Harp" quartet, named for the unusual harp-like effect Beethoven creates with pizzicato passages in the first movement, and opus 95, the "Serioso. Ludwig van Beethoven 's String Quartet No 10 in E-flat Major, nicknamed the "Harp" was published in 1809 as Opus 74 Ludwig van Beethoven 's opus 95 his String Quartet No 11 in F minor, is his last before his exalted late string quartets "

The Serioso is a transitional work that ushers in Beethoven's late period — a period of compositions of great introspection. "The particular kind of inwardness of Beethoven's last style period," writes Joseph Kerman, gives one the feeling that "the music is sounding only for the composer and for one other auditor, an awestruck eavesdropper: you. "^[23] In the late quartets, the quartet conversation is often disjointed, proceeding like a stream of consciousness. Melodies are broken off, or passed in the middle of the melodic line from instrument to instrument. Beethoven uses new effects, never before essayed in the string quartet literature: the ethereal, dreamlike effect of open intervals between the high E string and the open A string in the trio of opus 132; the use of sul ponticello (playing on the bridge of the violin) for a brittle, scratchy sound in the Presto movement of opus 131; the use of the lydian mode, unheard in Western music for 200 years, in opus 132; a cello melody played high above all the other strings in the finale of opus 132. ^[24] Yet for all this disjointedness, each quartet is tightly designed, with an overarching structure that ties the work together.

Beethoven wrote eight piano trios^[25], five string trios, two string quintets, and numerous pieces for wind ensemble. He also wrote 10 sonatas for violin and piano and five sonatas for cello and piano.

Romanticism to 1850

As Beethoven, in his last quartets, went off in his own direction, Franz Schubert carried on and established the emerging romantic style. In his 31 years, Schubert devoted much of his life to chamber music, composing 15 string quartets, two piano trios, string trios, a piano quintet, an octet for strings and winds, and his famous quintet for two violins, viola and two cellos. Many of Franz Schubert 's works are covered in separate Wikipedia articles for which there are links on this page

Andante from Schubert's "Trout" quintet, D. 667.

Schubert's music^[26], as his life, exemplified the contrasts and contradictions of his time. On the one hand, he was the darling of Viennese society: he starred in soirées that became known as Schubertiaden, where he played his light, mannered compositions that expressed the gemütlichkeit of Vienna of the 1820s. (gəˈmyːtlɪçkaɪt is a German Abstract noun that has been adopted into English On the other hand, his own short life was shrouded in tragedy, wracked by poverty and ill health. Chamber music was the ideal medium to express this conflict, "to reconcile his essentially lyric themes with his feeling for dramatic utterance within a form that provided the possibility of extreme color contrasts. "^[27] The string quintet in C, D. 956, is an example of how this conflict is expressed in music. The String Quintet in C major, D 956 op posth 163 is a piece of Chamber music written by Franz Schubert. The first theme of the first movement, fiery and dramatic, leads to a bridge of rising tension, peaking suddenly and breaking into the second theme, a lilting duet in the lower voices. The alternating sturm und drang and relaxation continue throughout the movement.

These contending forces come to expression in others of Schubert's works: in the quartet Death and the Maiden, the Rosamunde quartet and in the stormy, one-movement Quartettsatz. The String Quartet in D minor was written in 1824 by Franz Schubert, just after the composer became aware of his ruined health The String Quartet No 13 in a minor (the Rosamunde Quartet) D The Quartettsatz (Movement for String Quartet in C minor, D 703 was composed by Franz Schubert in December 1820. ^[28]

Mendelssohn string quartet op. 13, third movement, played by the Carmel Quartet.

Unlike Schubert, Felix Mendelssohn had a life of peace and prosperity. Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, born and generally known as Felix Mendelssohn (February 3 1809 &ndash November 4 1847 was a German Composer Born into a wealthy Jewish family in Hamburg, Mendelssohn proved himself a child prodigy. By the age of 16, he had written his first major chamber work, the string octet, opus 20. Felix Mendelssohn 's Octet in E-flat major, Op 20 was composed in the fall of 1825, when the composer was at the young age Already in this work, Mendelssohn showed some of the unique style that was to characterize his later works; notably, the gossamer light texture of his scherzo movements, exemplified also by the Canzonetta movement of the string quartet opus 12, and the scherzo of the first piano trio in d minor, opus 49. The String Quartet No 1 in E flat major, Op. 12 was composed by Felix Mendelssohn in 1829 completed in London on September 14th (though begun in Berlin Felix Mendelssohn 's Piano Trio No 1 in D minor Op 49 was completed on 23 September 1839 and published the following year

Another characteristic that Mendelssohn pioneered is the cyclic form in overall structure. In Music a cycle is a section which is repeated or repeatable indefinitely with the end of a preceding repetition leading to the beginning of a succeeding This means the reuse of thematic material from one movement to the next, to give the total piece coherence. In his second string quartet, he opens the piece with a peaceful adagio section in A Major, that contrasts with the stormy first movement in A minor. The String Quartet No 2 in A minor, Op. 13 was composed by Felix Mendelssohn in 1827 After the final, vigorous Presto movement, he returns to the opening adagio to conclude the piece. This string quartet is also Mendelssohn's homage to Beethoven; the work is studded with quotes from Beethoven's middle and late quartets.

Violinist Joseph Joachim and pianist Clara Schumann. Joachim and Schumann debuted many of the chamber works of Robert Schumann, Brahms and others.

During his adult life, Mendelssohn wrote two piano trios, seven works for string quartet, two string quintets, the octet, a sextet for piano and strings, and numerous sonatas for piano with violin, cello, and clarinet.

Cyclic form in the Schumann Piano Quintet, opus 44

Robert Schumann continued the development of cyclic structure. Robert Schumann, sometimes given as Robert Alexander Schumann (June 8 1810 &ndash July 29 1856 was a German Composer, Aesthete and influential Music critic In his piano quintet opus 44^[29], Schumann writes a double fugue in the finale, using the theme of the first movement and the theme of the last movement. The Piano Quintet in E flat major, Op 44 by Robert Schumann was written in 1842 Schumann and Mendelssohn both, following the example set by Beethoven, revived the fugue, which had fallen out of favor since the Baroque period. However, rather than writing strict, full-length fugues, they used counterpoint as another mode of conversation between the chamber music instruments. Many of Schumann's chamber works, including all three of his string quartets and his piano quartet have contrapuntal sections interwoven seamlessly into the overall compositional texture. ^[30]

The composers of the first half of the 19th century were acutely aware of the conversational paradigm established by Haydn and Mozart. Schumann wrote that in a true quartet "everyone has something to say. . . a conversation, often truly beautiful, often oddly and turbidly woven, among four people. "^[31] Their awareness is exemplified by composer and virtuoso violinist Louis Spohr. Louis Spohr ( April 5, 1784 &ndash October 22, 1859) was a German Composer, Violinist and conductor. Spohr divided his 36 string quartets into two types: the quatuor brillant, essentially a violin concerto with string trio accompaniment; and quatuor dialogue, in the conversational tradition. ^[32]

Chamber music and society in the 19th century

The middle of the 19th century saw more changes in society and in musical tastes, which had their impact on chamber music composition and performance.

Home music-making in the 19th century. A painting by Jules-Alexandre Grün.

While improvements in instruments led to more public performances of chamber music, it remained very much a type of music to be played as much as performed. Amateur quartet societies sprang up throughout Europe, and no middling-sized city in Germany or France would be without one. These societies sponsored house concerts, compiled music libraries, and encouraged the playing of quartets and other ensembles. ^[33] Thousands of quartets were published by hundreds of composers; between 1770 and 1800, more than 2000 quartets were published^[34], and the pace did not decline in the next century. Throughout the 19th century, composers published string quartets now long neglected: George Onslow wrote 36 quartets and 35 quintets; Donizetti wrote dozens of quartets, Antonio Bazzini, Anton Reicha, Carl Reissiger, Joseph Suk and others wrote to fill an insatiable demand for quartets. Andre George Louis Onslow ( July 27 1784 &ndash October 3 1853) was a French Composer. Antonio Joseph Bazzini ( March 11, 1818 &ndash February 10, 1897) was an Italian violinist composer and teacher born in Brescia, Anton ( Antonín, Antoine) Reicha ( Rejcha) ( February 26, 1770 &ndash May 28, 1836) was a Czech -born Carl Gottlieb Reißiger (also Karl Reissiger, Carl Reissiger, Karl Reißiger) ( January 31, 1798, Belzig &ndash November Josef Suk (4 January 1874 &ndash 29 May 1935 was a Czech Composer and Violinist Life Suk was born in Křečovice. In addition, there was a lively market for string quartet arrangements of popular and folk tunes, piano works, symphonies, and opera arias. ^[35]

But opposing forces were at work. The middle of the 19th century saw the rise of superstar virtuosi, who drew attention away from chamber music toward solo performance. Frederick Chopin and Franz Liszt presented "recitals" — a term coined by Liszt — that drew crowds of ecstatic fans who swooned at the sound of their playing. The piano, which could be mass-produced, became an instrument of preference, and many composers, like Chopin and Liszt, composed primarily if not exclusively for piano. ^[36]

Vilemina Norman Neruda leading a string quartet, about 1880.

The ascendance of piano, and of symphonic composition, was not merely a matter of preference; it was also a matter of ideology. In the 1860s, a schism grew among romantic musicians over the direction of music. Liszt and Richard Wagner led a movement that contended that "pure music" had run its course with Beethoven, and that new, programmatic forms of music were the future of the art. The composers of this school had no use for chamber music. Opposing this view was Johannes Brahms and his associates, especially the powerful music critic Eduard Hanslick. Johannes Brahms ( pronounced ˈbʁaːms (May 7 1833 &ndash April 3 1897 was a German Composer Eduard Hanslick ( September 11, 1825 – August 6, 1904) was a Bohemian Austrian writer on music This War of the Romantics shook the artistic world of the period, with vituperative exchanges between the two camps, concert boycotts, and petitions. The War of the Romantics is a term used by music historians to describe the aesthetic schism among prominent musicians in the second half of the 19th century

Although amateur playing thrived throughout the 19th century, this was also a period of increasing professionalization of chamber music performance. Professional quartets began to dominate the chamber music concert stage. The Hellmesberger quartet, led by Joseph Hellmesberger, and the Joachim quartet, led by Joseph Joachim, debuted many of the new string quartets by Brahms and other composers. WikipediaWikiProject Classical music#Biographical_infoboxes --> Josef Hellmesberger Sr Joseph Joachim (June 28 1831 &ndash August 15 1907 (ˈjoʊɑːxɪːm was a Hungarian Violinist, conductor, Composer and teacher Another famous quartet player was Vilemina Norman Neruda, also known as Lady Hallé. Wilma Neruda Lady Hallé originally Wilhelmine Maria Franziska Neruda ( March 21, 1838 in Brno Moravia, then part of the Indeed, during the last third of the century, women began taking their place on the concert stage: an all-women string quartet led by Emily Shinner, and the Lucas quartet, also all women, were two notable examples. ^[37]

Toward the 20th century

The Joachim Quartet, led by violinist Joseph Joachim. The quartet debuted many of the works of Johannes Brahms.

It was Johannes Brahms who carried the torch of Romantic music toward the 20th century. Heralded by Robert Schumann as the forger of "new paths" in music^[38], Brahms's music is a bridge from the classical to the modern. On the one hand, Brahms was a traditionalist, conserving the musical traditions of Bach and Mozart^[39]. Throughout his chamber music, he uses traditional techniques of counterpoint, incorporating fugues and canons into rich conversational and harmonic textures. On the other hand, Brahms expanded the structure and the harmonic vocabulary of chamber music, challenging traditional notions of tonality. An example of this is in the Brahms second string sextet, opus 36^[40][41]. Traditionally, composers wrote the first theme of a piece in the key of the piece, firmly establishing that key as the tonic, or home, key of the piece. The opening theme of opus 36 starts in the tonic (G major), but already by the third measure has modulated, to the unrelated key of E flat major. As the theme develops, it ranges through various keys before coming back to the tonic G major. This "harmonic audacity", as Swafford describes it^[42], opened the way for bolder experiments to come.

Brahms String Sextet Opus 36, played by the Borromeo Quartet.

Brahms Clarinet Quintet, opus 115, first movement. Performed by William McColl and the Orford String Quartet.

Not only in harmony, but also in overall musical structure, Brahms was an innovator. He developed a technique that Arnold Schoenberg described as "developing variation"^[43]. Rather than discretely defined phrases, Brahms often runs phrase into phrase, and mixes melodic motives to create a fabric of continuous melody. Schoenberg, the creator of the 12-tone system of composition, traced the roots of his modernism to Brahms, in his essay "Brahms the Progressive"^[44].

All told, Brahms published 24 works of chamber music, including three string quartets, five piano trios, the quintet for piano and strings, opus 34, and other works. Among his last works were the clarinet quintet, opus 115, and a trio for clarinet, cello and piano. Johannes Brahms 's Clarinet Quintet in B minor Op 115 was written in 1891 for the Clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld. He wrote a trio for the unusual combination of piano, violin and waldhorn (the predecessor of the French horn), opus 40. The Horn Trio in E flat major, Op 40 by Johannes Brahms is a chamber piece in four movements written for Natural horn, Violin, and Piano. He also wrote two songs for alto, viola and piano, opus 91, reviving the form of voice with string obligato that had been virtually abandoned since the Baroque.

"The Seine at Lavacourt" by Claude Monet. Impressionist music and art sought similar effects of the ethereal, atmospheric.

The exploration of tonality and of structure begun by Brahms was continued by composers of the French school. César Franck's piano quintet in f minor, composed in 1879, further established the cyclic form first explored by Schumann and Mendelssohn, reusing the same thematic material in each of the three movements. César Franck (December 10 1822 – November 8 1890 a Composer, Organist and music teacher of Belgian and German origin who lived in France Claude Debussy's string quartet, opus 10, is considered a watershed in the history of chamber music. Achille-Claude Debussy (aʃil klod dəbysi (August 22 1862 &ndash March 25 1918 was a French Composer. Claude Debussy wrote his sole String Quartet in G minor, opus 10 in 1893 The quartet uses the cyclic structure, and constitutes a final divorce from the rules of classical harmony. "Any sounds in any combination and in any succession are henceforth free to be used in a musical continuity," Debussy wrote^[45]. Pierre Boulez said that Debussy freed chamber music from "rigid structure, frozen rhetoric and rigid aesthetics. WikipediaWikiProject Classical music#Biographical_infoboxes --> Pierre Boulez (pjɛʁ buˈlɛz (b "^[46]

Debussy String Quartet First movement played by the Cypress String Quartet

Debussy's quartet, like the string quartets of Maurice Ravel and of Gabriel Fauré, create a new tone color for chamber music, a color and texture associated with the Impressionist movement^[47]. Gabriel Urbain Fauré ( 12 May 1845 &ndash 4 November 1924) was a French Composer, Organist, Pianist The impressionist movement in music was a movement in European Classical music, mainly in France that began in the late nineteenth century and continued into the middle Violist James Dunham, of the Cleveland and Sequoia Quartets, writes of the Ravel quartet, "I was simply overwhelmed by the sweep of sonority, the sensation of colors constantly changing. . . "^[48] For these composers, chamber ensembles were the ideal vehicle for transmitting this atmospheric sense, and chamber works constituted much of their oeuvre.

Nationalism in chamber music

The Kneisel String Quartet, led by Franz Kneisel. The Kneisel Quartet was a String quartet Musical ensemble established in Boston, USA in 1885 This American ensemble debuted Dvořák's American Quartet, opus 96.

Parallel with the trend to seek new modes of tonality and texture was another new development in chamber music: the rise of nationalism. Composers turned more and more to the rhythms and tonalities of their native lands for inspiration and material. "Europe was impelled by the Romantic tendency to establish in musical matters the national boundaries more and more sharply," wrote Alfred Einstein. "The collecting and sifting of old traditional melodic treasures . . . formed the basis for a creative art-music. "^[49] For many of these composers, chamber music was the natural vehicle for expressing their national characters.

Dvořák Piano Quintet Opus 81, Second Movement, played by the Lincoln Center Chamber Players.

Czech composer Antonín Dvořák created in his chamber music a new voice for the music of his native Bohemia. Antonín Leopold Dvořák ( (often pronounced in English as; DVOR-zhahk; September 8 1841 – May 1 1904 was a Czech composer of Romantic music, who employed In 14 string quartets, three string quintets, two piano quartets, a string sextet, four piano trios, and numerous other chamber compositions, Dvořák incorporates folk music and modes as an integral part of his compositions. For example, in the piano quintet in A major, opus 81, the slow movement is a Dumka, a Slavic folk ballad that alternates between a slow expressive song and a fast dance^[50]. Dumka (думка plural Dumky думки (a diminutive form of the noun duma) is a musical term introduced from the Ukrainian language, with Cognates Dvořák's fame in establishing a national art music was so great that the New York philanthropist and music connoisseur Jeannette Thurber invited him to America, to head a conservatory that would establish an American style of music^[51]. Jeanette Thurber (also known as Jeannette Meyers Thurber) (born in Delhi New York, January 29, 1850 &ndash died in Bronxville New York There, Dvořák wrote his string quartet in F major,opus 96, nicknamed "The American. The String Quartet No 12 in F, Op 96 B 179 nicknamed the American, is one of the most popular pieces of Chamber music by the Czech Composer " While composing the work, Dvořák was entertained by a group of Kickapoo Indians who performed native dances and songs, and these songs may have been incorporated in the quartet^[52].

Bedřich Smetana, another Czech, wrote a piano trio and string quartet, both of which incorporate native Czech rhythms and melodies. "Smetana" redirects here For the soured cream see Smetana (dairy product. In Russia, Russian folk music permeated the works of the late 19th century composers. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky uses a typical Russian folk dance in the final movement of his string sextet, Souvenir de Florence, opus 70. The String Sextet in D Minor "Souvenir de Florence", Op Alexander Borodin's second string quartet contains references to folk music, and the slow Nocturne movement of that quartet recalls Middle Eastern modes that were current in the Moslem sections of southern Russia. Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin (Александр Порфирьевич Бородин Aleksandr Porfir'evič Borodin) ( &ndash) was a Russian Composer The String Quartet No 2, written in 1881 by Alexander Borodin is a work in four movements: Allegro moderato in D major Edvard Grieg used the musical style of his native Norway in his string quartet in G minor, opus 27.

In Hungary, composers Zoltán Kodály and Béla Bartók pioneered the science of ethnomusicology by performing one of the first comprehensive studies of folk music. Zoltán Kodály ( Hungarian: Kodály Zoltán, ˈkodaːj ˈzoltaːn December 16 1882 &ndash March 6 1967 was a Hungarian Composer, Ethnomusicologist Béla Viktor János Bartók (March 25 1881&ndashSeptember 26 1945 was a Hungarian Composer and Pianist, considered to be one of the greatest This article is about the concept For the society and academic journal see Society for Ethnomusicology. Ranging across the Magyar provinces, they transcribed, recorded, and classified tens of thousands of folk melodies^[53]. Hungarians (or Magyars, magyarok are an Ethnic group primarily associated with Hungary. They used these tunes in their compositions, which are characterized by the asymmetrical rhythms and modal harmonies of that music. Their chamber music compositions, and those of the Czech composer Leoš Janáček, combined the nationalist trend with the 20th century search for new tonalities. Leoš Janáček ( (July 3 1854 &ndash August 12 1928 was a Czech Composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist and teacher Janáček's string quartets not only incorporate the tonalities of Czech folk music, they also reflect the rhythms of speech in the Czech language.

New sounds for a new world

The end of western tonality, begun subtly by Brahms and made explicit by Debussy, posed a crisis for composers of the 20th century. It was not merely an issue of finding new types of harmonies and melodic systems to replace the diatonic scale that was the basis of western harmony; the whole structure of western music — the relationships between movements and between structural elements within movements — was based on the relationships between different keys^[54]. In Music theory, a diatonic scale (from the Greek διατονικος, meaning " through tones" also known as the heptatonia prima and So composers were challenged with building a whole new structure for music.

This was coupled with the feeling that the era that saw the invention of automobiles, the telephone, electric lighting, and world war needed new modes of expression. "The century of the aeroplane deserves its music," wrote Debussy^[55].

Inspiration from folk music

Bela Bartok recording folksongs of Czech peasants, 1908.

The search for a new music took several directions. The first, led by Bartok, was toward the tonal and rhythmic constructs of folk music. Bartok's research into Hungarian and other eastern European and Middle Eastern folk music revealed to him a musical world built of musical scales that were neither major nor minor, and complex rhythms that were alien to western music. In his fifth quartet, for example, Bartok uses a time signature of , "startling to the classically-trained musician, but second-nature to the folk musician. "^[56] Structurally, also, Bartok often invents or borrows from folk modes. In the sixth string quartet, for example, Bartok begins each movement with a slow, elegiac melody, followed by the main melodic material of the movement, and concludes the quartet with a slow movement that is built entirely on this elegy. This is a form common in many folk music cultures.

Bartok string quartet number 2, second movement, played by the Carmel Quartet.

Bartok's six string quartets are often compared with Beethoven's late quartets^[57]. In them, Bartok builds new musical structures, explores sonorities never previously produced in classical music (for example, the snap pizzicato, where the player lifts the string and lets it snap back on the fingerboard with an audible buzz), and creates modes of expression that set these works apart from all others. "Bartok's last two quartets proclaim the sanctity of life, progress and the victory of humanity despite the anti-humanistic dangers of the time," writes analyst John Herschel Baron^[58]. The last quartet, written when Bartok was preparing to flee the Nazi invasion of Hungary for a new and uncertain life in the U. S. , is often seen as an autobiographical statement of the tragedy of his times.

Bartok was not alone in his explorations of folk music. Igor Stravinsky's Three pieces for String Quartet is structured as three Russian folksongs, rather than as a classical string quartet. Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (Игорь Фёдорович Стравинский) ( &ndash 6 April 1971 was a Russian born Composer, considered by many to Stravinsky, like Bartok, used asymmetrical rhythms throughout his chamber music; the Histoire du soldat, in Stravinsky's own arrangement for clarinet, violin and piano, constantly shifts time signatures between two, three, four and five beats to the bar. Histoire du soldat (sometimes written L'histoire du soldat; translated as The Soldier's Tale or A Soldier's Tale In Britain, composers Ralph Vaughn Williams, William Walton and Benjamin Britten drew on English folk music for much of their chamber music: Vaughn Williams incorporates folksongs and country fiddling in his first string quartet. Ralph (reɪf Vaughan Williams OM (12 October 1872 &ndash 26 August 1958 was an English Composer of symphonies, Chamber music Sir William Turner Walton, OM ( March 29, 1902 &ndash March 8, 1983) was a British Composer and Edward Benjamin Britten Baron Britten, OM CH (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976 was an English Composer, conductor, American composer Charles Ives wrote music that was distinctly American. Charles Edward Ives (October 20 1874 – May 19 1954 was an American Composer of modernist Classical music. Ives gave programmatic titles to much of his chamber music; his first string quartet, for example, is called "From the Salvation Army," and quotes American Protestant hymns in several places.

Serialism, polytonality and polyrhythms

A painting of Pierrot, the object of Schoenberg's atonal suite Pierrot Lunaire, painted by Antoine Watteau.

A second direction in the search for a new tonality was serialism. In Music, serialism is a technique for composition that uses sets to describe musical elements, and allows the manipulation of those Arnold Schoenberg developed the serial, or 12-tone, method of composition as an alternative to the structure provided by the diatonic system. Arnold Schoenberg ( pronounced ˈʃøːnbɛrk (13 September 1874 &ndash 13 July 1951 was an Austrian and later American Composer, associated with The method entails building a piece using a series of the 12 notes of the scale, permuting it and superimposing it on itself to create the composition.

Arnold Schoenberg second string quartet, fourth movement, played by the Carmel Quartet with soprano Rona Israel-Kolatt. This is the first explicitly atonal piece.

Schoenberg did not arrive immediately at the serial method. His first chamber work, the string sextet Verklärte Nacht, was mostly a late German romantic work, though it was bold in its use of modulations. Verklärte Nacht, Op 4 ("Transfigured Night" 1899 a String sextet in one movement is regarded as the earliest important work of Arnold Schoenberg The first work that was frankly atonal was the second string quartet; the last movement of this quartet, which includes a soprano, has no key signature. Atonality in its broadest sense describes Music that lacks a tonal center, or key. The Austrian Composer Arnold Schoenberg published four String quartets, distributed over his lifetime Schoenberg further explored atonality with Pierrot Lunaire, for singer, flute or piccolo, clarinet, violin, cello and piano. Dreimal sieben Gedichte aus Albert Girauds 'Pierrot lunaire ("three times seven poems from Albert Giraud's 'Pierrot lunaire'" commonly known as Pierrot Lunaire The singer uses a technique called Sprechstimme, halfway between speech and song. Sprechgesang and Sprechstimme ( German for spoken-song and spoken-voice) are musical terms used to refer to an expressionist vocal

After developing the serial technique, Schoenberg wrote a number of chamber works, including two more string quartets, a string trio, and a wind quintet. He was followed by a number of other serial composers, the most prominent of whom were his students Alban Berg, who wrote the Lyric Suite for string quartet, and Anton Webern, who wrote Five Movements for String Quartet, op. Alban Maria Johannes Berg (February 9 1885 &ndash December 24 1935 was an Austrian Composer. This article is about the composition by Alban Berg "Lyric Suite" is also the title of Edvard Grieg 's composition (orchestration of four Lyric Pieces WikipediaWikiProject Composers#Lead section --> Anton Webern (December 3 1883 &ndash September 15 1945 was an Austrian Composer 6.

Serialism was not the only new experiment in tonality. Darius Milhaud developed the use of polytonality, that is, music where different instruments play in different keys at the same time. Darius Milhaud (darjys mijo (September 4 1892 &ndash June 22 1974 was a French Composer and teacher The Musical use of more than one key simultaneously is polytonality. Milhaud wrote 18 string quartets; quartets number 14 and 15 are written so that each can be played by itself, or the two can be played at the same time as an octet. Milhaud also used jazz idioms, as in his Suite for clarinet, violin and piano.

Charles Ives used not only polytonality in his chamber works, but also polymeter. Meter or metre is a concept related to an underlying division of time characteristic of western music In his first string quartet he writes a section where the first violin and viola play in time while the second violin and cello play in . String Quartet No 1 is one of the famous Composer Charles Ives's most-studied pieces

Neoclassicism

The plethora of directions that music took in the first quarter of the 20th century led to a reaction by many composers. Led by Stravinsky, these composers looked to the music of preclassical Europe for inspiration and stability. While Stravinsky's neoclassical works — such as the Double Canon for String Quartet — sound contemporary, they are modeled on Baroque and early classical forms — the canon, the fugue, and the Baroque sonata form.

Hindemith String Quartet 3 in C, Op. 22 Second movement, Schnelle Achtel played by Ana Farmer, David Boyden, Austin Han, and Dylan Mattingly

Paul Hindemith was another neoclassicist. Paul Hindemith (16 November 1895 &ndash 28 December 1963 was a German Composer, Violist, violinist teacher music theorist and conductor. His many chamber works are essentially tonal, though they use many dissonant harmonies. Hindemith wrote seven string quartets, two string trios, among other chamber works. At a time when composers were writing works of increasing complexity, beyond the reach of amateur musicians, Hindemith explicitly recognized the importance of amateur music-making, and intentionally wrote pieces that were within the abilities of nonprofessional players^[59].

Dmitri Shostakovitch String quartet no 8 Largo; Allegro Molto played by the Seraphina String Quartet (Sabrina Tabby and Caeli Smith, violins; Madeline Smith, viola; Genevieve Tabby, cello)

Dmitri Shostakovich was one of the most prolific of chamber music composers of the 20th century, writing 16 string quartets, two piano trios, the piano quintet, and numerous other chamber works. Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich ( Russian: ru Дмитрий Дмитриевич Шостакович ( &ndash 9 August 1975 was a Russian Composer Shostakovitch's music was for a long time banned in the Soviet Union and Shostakovitch himself was in personal danger of deportation to Siberia. His eighth quartet is an autobiographical work, that expresses his deep depression from his ostracization, bordering on suicide^[60]: it quotes from previous compositions, and uses the four-note motif DSCH, the composer's initials. Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No 8 in C minor (Op 110 was written in three days (July 12&ndash14 1960

Stretching the limits

As the century progressed, many composers created works for small ensembles that, while formally might be considered chamber music, challenged many of the fundamental characteristics that had defined the genre over the last 150 years.

The music of friends: The idea of composing music that could be played at home has been largely abandoned. Bartok was among the first to part with this idea. "Bartok never conceived these quartets for private performance but rather for large, public concerts. "^[61] Aside from the many almost insurmountable technical difficulties of many modern pieces, some of them are simply impossible to play in a small room. For example, Different Trains by Steve Reich, scored for string quartet and recorded tape, can only be played in a hall with a sophisticated sound system. Different Trains is a three- movement piece for String quartet and tape written by Steve Reich in 1988 WikipediaWikiProject Composers#Lead section --> Stephen Michael Reich (born October 3

The conversational paradigm: How can the players of a string quartet conduct a conversation when they are flying over the audience in four separate helicopters? This is the case in the Helikopter-Streichquartett by Karlheinz Stockhausen. The Helikopter-Streichquartett (Helicopter String Quartet is one of Karlheinz Stockhausen 's best-known pieces and one of the most complex to perform When the piece was performed in 1995, the players had earphones with a clicking metronome to enable them to play at the right time^[62]. They could not hear the other players, and barely hear themselves.

Leon Theremin performing a trio for voice, piano and theremin, 1924.

The relation of composer and performer: Traditionally, the composer wrote the notes, and the performer interpreted them. But this is no longer the case in much modern music. In Für Kommende Zeiten (For Times to Come), Stockhausen writes an inverted form of program music: usually the composer writes the music and the listeners surmise the program. In this case, Stockhausen writes the program, and the players must make up the music.

Composer Terry Riley describes how he works with the Kronos Quartet, and ensemble devoted to contemporary music: "When I write a score for them, it's an unedited score. I put in just a minimal amount of dynamics and phrasing marks. . . we spend a lot of time trying out different ideas in order to shape the music, to form it. At the end of the process, it makes the performers actually own the music. That to me is the best way for composers and musicians to interact. "^[63]

New sounds: Composers seek new timbres, remote from the traditional blend of strings, piano and woodwinds that characterized chamber music in the 19th century. This search led to the incorporation of new instruments, such as the theremin and the synthesizer in chamber music compositions.

Excerpt from Bartok Sonata for two pianos and percussion.

Many composers sought new timbres within the framework of traditional instruments. Bartok pioneered the search with his Sonata for two pianos and percussion. Béla Bartók wrote Sonata for two pianos and percussion for the ISCM in 1937 and it was premiered by him and his second wife Ditta Pásztory-Bartók Other examples are Gordon Jacob's octet for eight violas, and Charles Ives's Quartertone Pieces for two pianos tuned a quartertone apart. Gordon Percival Septimus Jacob ( July 5, 1895 London – June 8, 1984 Saffron Walden) was an English composer Other composers used electronics to create new sonorities. An example is George Crumb's Dark Angels, for electric string quartet. George Crumb (born October 24, 1929) is an American Composer of modern and Avant garde music The players not only bow their amplified instruments, they also beat on them with thimbles, pluck them with paperclips, and play on the wrong side of the bridge or between the fingers and the nut.

What do these changes mean for the future of chamber music? "With the technological advances have come questions of aesthetics and sociological changes in music," writes analyst Baron^[64]. "These changes have often resulted in accusations that technology has destroyed chamber music and that technological advance is in inverse proportion to musical worth. The ferocity of these attacks only underscores how fundamental these changes are, and only time will tell if humankind will benefit from them. "

Chamber music in contemporary society

Analysts agree that the role of chamber music in society has changed profoundly in the last 50 years; yet there is little agreement as to what that change is. On the one hand, Baron contends that "chamber music in the home. . . remained very important in Europe and America until the Second World War, after which the increasing invasion of radio and recording reduced its scope considerably. "^[65] This view is supported by subjective impressions. "Today there are so many more millions of people listening to music, but far fewer playing chamber music just for the pleasure of it," says conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim^[66]. Daniel Barenboim (born November 15, 1942) is a pianist and conductor.

Amateurs play the Schulhoff string sextet at the Raphael Trio Workshop in New Hampshire.

However, recent surveys suggest there is, on the contrary, a resurgence of home music making. In the radio program "Amateurs Help Keep Chamber Music Alive" from 2005, reporter Theresa Schiavone cites a Gallup poll showing an increase in the sale of stringed instruments in America. Joe Lamond, president of National Association of Music Manufacturers (NAMM) attributes the increase to a growth of home music-making by adults approaching retirement. "I would really look to the demographics of the [baby] boomers," he said in an interview. These people "are starting to look for something that matters to them. . . nothing makes them feel good more than playing music. "^[67]

A study by the European Music Office in 1996 suggests that not only older people are playing music. "The number of adolescents today to have done music has almost doubled by comparison with those born before 1960," the study shows^[68]. While most of this growth is in popular music, some is in chamber music and art music, according to the study.

While there is no agreement about the number of chamber music players, the opportunities for amateurs to play have certainly grown. The number of chamber music camps and retreats, where amateurs can meet for a weekend or a month to play together, has burgeoned. Music for the Love of It, an organization to promote amateur playing, publishes a directory of music workshops that lists more than 500 workshops in 24 countries for amateurs in 2008^[69] The Associated Chamber Music Players (ACMP) offers a directory of over 5,000 amateur players worldwide who welcome partners for chamber music sessions^[70].

Regardless of whether the number of amateur players has grown or shrunk, the number of chamber music concerts in the west has increased greatly in the last 20 years. Concert halls have largely replaced the home as the venue for concerts. Baron suggests that one of the reasons for this surge is "the spiraling costs of orchestral concerts and the astronomical fees demanded by famous soloists, which have priced both out of the range of most audiences. "^[71] The repertoire at these concerts is almost universally the classics of the 19th century. However, modern works are increasingly included in programs, and some groups, like the Kronos Quartet, devote themselves almost exclusively to contemporary music and new compositions; and ensembles like the Turtle Island String Quartet, that combine classical, jazz, and other styles to create crossover music. Kronos Quartet is a String quartet founded by Violinist David Harrington in 1973 The Turtle Island String Quartet is a San Francisco Bay Area based Jazz String quartet formed in 1985 and still actively touring worldwide and Crossover is a term applied to Musical works or performers appearing on two or more of the Record charts which track differing musical tastes or genres

Chamber music performance

Chamber music performance is a specialized field, and requires a number of skills not normally required for the performance of symphonic or solo music. Many performers and authors have written about the specialized techniques required for a successful chamber musician. Chamber music playing, writes M. D. Herter Norton, requires that "individuals . . . make a unified whole yet remain individuals. The soloist is a whole unto himself, and in the orchestra individuality is lost in numbers. . . "^[72].

The "music of friends"

Chamber musicians at each other, from "The Short-tempered Clavichord" by illustrator Robert Bonotto.

Many performers contend that the intimate nature of chamber music playing requires certain personality traits.

David Waterman, cellist of the Endellion Quartet, writes that the chamber musician "needs to balance assertiveness and flexibility. "^[73] Good rapport is essential. Arnold Steinhardt, first violinist of the Guarneri Quartet, notes that many professional quartets suffer from frequent turnover of players. "Many musicians cannot take the strain of going mano a mano with the same three people year after year. "^[74]

Mrs. Norton, a violinist who studied quartet playing with the Kneisel Quartet at the beginning of the last century, goes so far that players of different parts in a quartet have different personality traits. "By tradition the first violin is the leader" but "this does not mean a relentless predominance. " The second violinist "is a little everybody's servant. " "The artistic contribution of each member will be measured by his skill in asserting or subduing that individuality which he must possess to be at all interesting. "^[75]

Interpretation

"For an individual, the problems of interpretation are challenging enough," writes Waterman, "but for a quartet grappling with some of the most profound, intimate and heartfelt compositions in the music literature, the communal nature of decision-making is often more testing than the decisions themselves. "^[76]

The problem of finding agreement on musical issues is complicated by the fact that each player is playing a different part, that may appear to demand dynamics or gestures contrary to those of other parts in the same passage. Sometimes these differences are even specified in the score — for example, where cross-dynamics are indicated, with one instrument crescendoing while another is getting softer.

One of the issues that must be settled in rehearsal is who leads the ensemble at each point of the piece. Normally, the first violin leads the ensemble. However, there are passages that require other instruments to lead. For example, John Dalley, second violinist of the Guarneri Quartet, says, "We'll often ask [the cellist] to lead in pizzicato passages. Pizzicato (ˌpɪtsɪˈkɑːtoʊ is a playing technique that involves plucking the strings of a String instrument. A cellist's preparatory motion for pizzicato is larger and slower than that of a violinist. "^[77]

Players discuss issues of interpretation in rehearsal; but often, in mid-performance, players do things spontaneously, requiring the other players to respond in real time. "After twenty years in the [Guarneri] Quartet, I'm happily surprised on occasion to find myself totally wrong about what I think a player will do, or how he'll react in a particular passage," says violist Michael Tree^[78].

Ensemble, blend and balance

Graphic interpretation of Burletta movement of Bartok's 6th String Quartet, by artist Joel Epstein.

Playing together constitutes a major challenge to chamber music players. Many compositions pose difficulties in coordination, with figures such as hemiolas, syncopation, and fast unisons. In modern Musical parlance a hemiola is a metrical pattern in which two bars in simple triple time (3/2 or 3/4 for example are articulated as if they In Music, syncopation includes a variety of Rhythms which are in some way unexpected in that they deviate from the strict succession of regularly spaced But beyond the challenge of playing together is the greater challenge of sounding good together.

To create a unified chamber music sound — to blend — the players must coordinate the details of their technique. They must decide when to use vibrato and how much. They need often to coordinate their bowing and breathing, to ensure unity of tone. They need to agree on special techniques, such as spiccato, sul tasto, sul ponticello and so on^[79]. Spiccato is a bowing technique for Stringed instruments in which the bow bounces lightly upon the string This is a list of musical terms that are likely to be encountered in printed scores This is a list of musical terms that are likely to be encountered in printed scores

Balance refers to the relative volume of each of the instruments. Because chamber music is a conversation, sometimes one instrument must stand out, sometimes another. It is not always a simple matter for members of an ensemble to determine the proper balance while playing; frequently, they require an outside listener, or a recording, to tell them that the relations between the instruments are correct.

Intonation

Chamber music playing presents special problems of intonation. The piano is tuned using equal temperament, that is, the 12 notes of the scale are spaced exactly equally. Equal temperament is a Musical temperament, or a system of tuning in which every pair of adjacent notes has an identical Frequency ratio. This method makes it possible for the piano to play in any key; however, all the intervals except the octave sound very slightly out of tune. String players can play with just intonation, that is, they can play specific intervals (such as fifths) exactly in tune. In music just intonation is any Musical tuning in which the frequencies of Notes are related by Ratios of Whole numbers Any interval Moreover, string and wind players can use expressive intonation, changing the pitch of a note to create a musical or dramatic effect. "String intonation is more expressive and sensitive than equal-tempered piano intonation. "^[80]

However, using true and expressive intonation requires careful coordination with the other players, especially when a piece is going through harmonic modulations. "The difficulty in string quartet intonation is to determine the degree of freedom you have at any given moment," says Steinhardt^[81].

The chamber music experience

Players of chamber music, both amateur and professional, attest to a unique enchantment with playing in ensemble. ""It is not an exaggeration to say that there opened out before me an enchanted world," writes Walter Willson Cobbett, devoted amateur musician and editor of Cobbett's Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music. Walter Willson Cobbett (1847-1937 was a British businessman and amateur violinist and editor/author of Cobbett's Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music. ^[82]

Ensembles develop a close intimacy of shared musical experience. "It is on the concert stage where the moments of true intimacy occur," writes Steinhardt. "When a performance is in progress, all four of us together enter a zone of magic somewhere between our music stands and become a conduit, messenger, and missionary. . . It is an experience too personal to talk about and yet it colors every aspect of our relationship, every good-natured musical confrontation, all the professional gossip, the latest viola joke. "^[83]

The playing of chamber music has been the inspiration for numerous books, both fiction and nonfiction. An Equal Music by Vikram Seth, explores the life and love of the second violinist of a fictional quartet, the Maggiore. Central to the story is the tensions and the intimacy developed between the four members of the quartet. "A strange composite being we are [in performance], not ourselves any more, but the Maggiore, composed of so many disjunct parts: chairs, stands, music, bows, instruments, musicians. . . "^[84] The Rosendorf Quartet, by Natan Shaham, describes the trials of a string quartet in Palestine, before establishment of the state of Israel. For the Love of It by Wayne Booth, is a nonfictional account of the author's romance with cello playing and chamber music.

Chamber music societies

Numerous societies are dedicated to the encouragement and performance of chamber music. Some of these are:

• the Associated Chamber Music Players, or ACMP - The Chamber Music Network, an international organization that encourages amateur and professional chamber music playing. ACMP has a fund to support chamber music projects, and publishes a directory of chamber musicians worldwide.

• Chamber Music America supports professional chamber music groups through grants for residencies and commissions, through award programs, and through professional development programs.

• the Cobbett Association for Chamber Music Research is an organization dedicated to the rediscovery of works of forgotten chamber music. The Cobbett Association for Chamber Music Research is an organization dedicated to the rediscovery of works of forgotten chamber music

• Music for the Love of It publishes a newsletter on amateur chamber music activities worldwide, as well as a guide to music workshops for amateurs.

In addition to these national and international organizations, there are innumerable regional and local organizations that support chamber music.

Ensembles

This is a partial list of the types of ensembles found in chamber music. A musical ensemble is a group of two or more Musicians who perform instrumental or vocal Music.

The standard repertoire for chamber ensembles is rich, and the totality of chamber music in print in sheet music form is nearly boundless. The baritone saxophone, often called " bari sax " (to avoid confusion with the Baritone horn, which is often referred to simply as "baritone" is The bassoon is a Woodwind instrument in the Double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and Tenor registers and occasionally The trombone is a Musical instrument in the brass family Like all brass instruments it is a lip-reed Aerophone: sound is produced when the player’s Sheet music is a hand-written or printed form of Musical notation; like its analogs -- books pamphlets etc See the articles on each instrument combination for examples of repertoire.

Notes

Bibliography

Baron, John Herschel (1998). Intimate Music: A History of the Idea of Chamber Music. Pendragon Press. ISBN 1-57647-018-0.  

Blum, David (1986). The Art of Quartet Playing: The Guarneri Quartet in conversation with David Blum. Alfred Knopf. ISBN 0-8014-9456-7.  

Booth, Wayne (1999). For the Love of It. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-06585-5.  

Butterworth, Neil (1980). Dvorak, His Life and Times. Midas Books. ISBN 0-85936-142-X.  

Cobbett, Walter Willson, editor (1929). Walter Willson Cobbett (1847-1937 was a British businessman and amateur violinist and editor/author of Cobbett's Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music. Cobbett's Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music. Oxford University Press.  

Einstein, Alfred (1947). Alfred Einstein ( December 30, 1880 &ndash February 13, 1952) was a German-American Musicologist and music editor Music in the Romantic Era. W. W. Norton.  

Eosze, Laszlo (1962). Zoltan Kodaly, his life and work. Collet’s.  

Geiringer, Karl (1982). Haydn: a Creative Life in Music. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-04317-0.  

Griffiths, Paul (1978). A Concise History of Modern Music. Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0-500-20164-1.  

Griffiths, Paul (1985). The String Quartet: a History. Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0-500-27383-9.  

Kerman, Joseph (1979). Joseph Kerman (born April 3, 1924) is a well-known writer on music and musicologist The Beethoven Quartets. WW Norton and Company. ISBN 0-393-00909-2.  

Miller, Lucy (2006). Adams to Zemlinsky. Concert Artists Guild. ISBN 1-892862-3.  

Norton, M. D. Herter (1925). The Art of String Quartet Playing. Simon and Schuster (1962).  

Raynor, Henry (1978). Social History of Music. Taplinger Publishing Company.  

Sadie, Stanley, editor (1984). The New Grove Violin Family. W. W. Norton and Company. ISBN 0-393-02556-X.  

Schoenberg, Arnold (1984). Arnold Schoenberg ( pronounced ˈʃøːnbɛrk (13 September 1874 &ndash 13 July 1951 was an Austrian and later American Composer, associated with in Leonard Stein: Style and Ideal: Selected Writings of Arnold Schoenberg. University of California Press.  

Seth, Vikram (2000). Vikram Seth (विक्रम सेठ pronounced /vɪkrəm seːʈʰ/ born June 20, 1952 is an Indian Poet, Novelist, travel An Equal Music. Vintage. ISBN 0-375-70924-X.  

Shaham, Natan (1994). The Rosendorf Quartet. Grove Press. ISBN 0-802-13316-9.  

Solomon, Maynard (1978). Maynard Solomon (born January 5, 1930) has carried out a multiple career he was a co-founder of Vanguard Records as well as a music producer and later Beethoven. Granada Publishing, Limited. ISBN 0-586-05189-9.  

Steinhardt, Arnold (1998). Arnold Steinhardt (born 1937 in Los Angeles California) is an American Violinist, best known as the first violinist of the Guarneri String Quartet Indivisible by Four. Farrar Straus and Giroux. ISBN 0-374-52700-8.  

Stowell, Robert, editor (2003). The Cambridge Companion to the String Quartet. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-80194-X.  

Swafford, Jan (1997). Jan Swafford (born 1946) is an American Composer and author who teaches composition, theory, and Musicology at the Johannes Brahms. Vintage Books. ISBN 0-649-74582-3.  

Thompson, Oscar (1940). Debussy: Man and Artist. Tudor Publishing Company.  

Ulrich, Homer (1966). Chamber Music. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-066-17909-X.  

Winter, Robert, and Martin, Robert, editors (1994). The Beethoven Quartet Companion. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-20420-4.  

The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians (ed. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians is an Encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians Stanley Sadie, 1980)

External links

• Friends of Chamber Music. Stanley Sadie CBE ( October 30 1930 - March 21 2005) was a leading British musicologist, music critic and editor
• 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
• Annotated bibliography of double wind quintet music