Chamber music

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For other uses, see Chamber music (disambiguation).

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 with an intimate atmosphere. However, it usually does not include, by definition, solo instrument performances.

1 Resources
2 Performance
3 Ensembles
4 References
- 4.1 External links

[edit] Resources

Cobbett's Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music, edited by Walter Willson Cobbett in 1923, and updated and reprinted in 1963, is a comprehensive guide to chamber music compositions and composers up to that time.

Sir Donald Francis Tovey, British pianist and musicologist, wrote many insightful essays on the subject of chamber music, some of them available in the volume of his Essays in Musical Analysis that he devotes to it.

[edit] Performance

Many classical musicians enjoy playing chamber music. In most cases, chamber music is performed without a conductor, so each performer has greater artistic freedom. For organizing a performance, the expense is lower and the logistics simpler than that for even a modest orchestra. While the repertoire is not suitable for beginners, there are pieces within the technical and artistic capabilities of most serious amateurs.

[edit] 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
	Duo	Instrumental Duo	any instrument and pno	Found especially as instrumental sonatas; i.e., violin, cello, viola, horn, bassoon, clarinet, flute sonatas).
	Duet	Piano Duet	1 pno, 4 hands
		Vocal Duet	voice, pno	Commonly used in the art song, or Lieder.
		Instrumental Duet	2 of any instrument
3	Trio	String Trio	vln, vla, vc
		Piano Trio	vln, vc, pno
		Voice, Viola and Piano	sop, vla, pno	William Bolcolm'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 Alto, Viola and Piano
		Clarinet, Viola and Piano	cl, vla, pno	Mozart's trio K498, other works by Robert Schumann and Max Bruch
		Voice, Clarinet and Piano	voice, cl, pno	Franz Schubert's Der Hirt auf dem Felsen, D965 and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Schon Lacht Der Holde Fruhling, KV 580
Flute, Viola and Harp	fl, vla, hrp	Famous works by Debussy and Arnold Bax
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, cl, pno	19th century works; specifically the Trio in Eb Op. 40 by Brahms
Soprano, Horn and Piano	sop, hrn, pno	Franz Schubert's Auf Dem Strom
4	Quartet	String Quartet	2 vln, vla, vc	Very popular form. Numerous major examples by Mozart, Beethoven and many other leading composers (see article).
		Piano Quartet	vln, vla, vc, pno
		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).
		Saxophone Quartet	s. sax, a. sax, t. sax, b. sax
5	Quintet	Piano Quintet	2 vln, vla, vc, pno
		Piano Quintet	vln, vla, vc, cb, pno	An uncommon instrumentation used by Franz Schubert in his Trout Quintet.
		Woodwind Quintet	fl, cl, ob, bsn, hrn
		String Quintet	2 vln, vla, vc with additional vla or vc
		Brass Quintet	2 tr, 1 trm, 1, tuba, 1 hrn
6	Sextet	String Sextet	2 vln, 2 vla, 2 vc	Important among these are Brahms' Op. 18 and Op. 36 Sextets.
		Piano Sextet	2 vln, vla, vc, cb, pno
		Piano and Wind Quintet	fl, ob, cl, bsn, hrn, pno	Such as the Poulenc Sextet.
			cl, 2 vln, vla, vc, pno	An example is Prokofiev's Overture on Hebrew Themes Op. 34.
7	Septet		cl, hrn, bsn, vln, vla, vc, cb	Popularized by Beethoven's Septet Op. 20.
8	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.
		Double Quartet	4 vln, 2 vla, 2 vc	Two string quartets arranged antiphonically.
		Wind Octet	2 ob, 2 cl, 2 hrn, 2 bsn
9	Nonet
Key: vln - violin; vla - viola; vc - cello; cb - double bass; pno - piano; fl - flute; ob - oboe; 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.

[edit] References

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

[edit] External links

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.
http://www.composerplanet.com/cgi-bin/wiki.cgi?ChamberMusic
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

Categories: Chamber music | Musical groups