Chamber Music Guide: A Brief History of Chamber Music

Chamber music is a type of music designed for small ensembles that can perform in a palace chamber, a residential parlor, or any small room. Chamber music ensembles typically include string quartets, piano trios, and wind instrument quartets.

The term “chamber music” frequently describes classical music ensembles, but it can apply to any small group playing art music. Chamber ensembles almost always feature one player per instrument, which stands in contrast to orchestras that feature large sections for strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion.

Chamber music began in an era when people played music together as a social activity. By gathering as an impromptu instrumental ensemble, early chamber musicians received both personal and artistic fulfillment. This has led some to call chamber music "the music of friends."

• Renaissance and Baroque origins: Chamber music meant to be played in the home came into fashion in the Renaissance era thanks to pieces described as “sonata da camera” (Italian for "chamber sonata"). In the Baroque period that followed, a new music form called the trio sonata came into being. Trio sonatas were written for three players—two playing treble instruments and one playing a bass instrument. Baroque music master J.S. Bach composed fugues that could be arranged for chamber ensembles, but they could also be played by soloists on a keyboard instrument.
• Haydn the innovator: As the Baroque era gave way to the Classical era of music, chamber music evolved into the form we know today. Key in this evolution was Joseph Haydn, who wrote volumes of string quartets, string trios, piano trios, and pieces for woodwind ensembles. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart also composed a great number of pieces for chamber ensemble. His piano trios and piano quartets stand out for bringing out the voices of individual players—pianists, violinists, violists, and cellists—rather than treat the strings as accompanists for a piano soloist.
• The string quartet grows in prominence: Composers of the late Classical and Romantic periods saw great potential in the string quartet as a composition medium. Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Antonín Dvořák, and Johannes Brahms were among the composers whose string quartets (and string quintets) helped define the chamber music of the era.
• Twentieth century and beyond: As the Romantic period gave way to modernist twentieth-century music, chamber music dispersed in many directions. Some late Romantic and early Modern composers—like Maurice Ravel and Gabriel Fauré—embraced traditional structures from eras past. Some, like Pierre Boulez and Philip Glass, pioneered new structures and introduced non-Western influences.
• Continued relevance: Chamber music groups continue to thrive in contemporary classical music. Prominent ensembles like the Emerson Quartet, the Kronos Quartet, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center have helped keep chamber music every bit as vital as its orchestral counterparts. Contemporary chamber music concerts take place in both small spaces and concert halls.

Nearly any instrument can find its place in today's chamber music, which includes instruments from all the major families.

1. 1. Strings: The string quartet remains a signature form of chamber music. Most string quartets feature two violins, one viola, and one cello. The double bass also appears in some chamber music, as do fretted instruments like the guitar.
2. 2. Woodwinds: Classic woodwind instruments include the clarinet, oboe, and flute. Some chamber music includes relatively newer wind instruments like the saxophone.
3. 3. Brass: Brass instruments like the trumpet, trombone, tuba, and euphonium all regularly appear in chamber music.
4. 4. Keyboard instruments: The piano and harpsichord often play prominent roles in chamber music.
5. 5. Percussion: Percussion does not play as prominent a role in chamber music as it does in orchestral music and band music. Still, carefully chosen membranophones and idiophones may appear in chamber ensembles.
6. 6. Electronic instrumentation: Contemporary chamber music may feature tape loops, digital synthesizers, and various forms of sampling.
7. 7. Vocals: Most chamber music is purely instrumental, but sometimes the instrumentalists are joined by a singer such as a soprano soloist.

Three key characteristics help define chamber music.

1. 1. Small ensembles: Chamber music stands in opposition to the large ensembles that play orchestral music. Some chamber groups are as small as two players. Not all music historians consider solo performances to be chamber music, but solo works are often played on the same stages as traditional chamber music.
2. 2. Social origins: Chamber music dates back to an era when friends played music together as a social activity. The music now serves a more formal purpose; chamber music ensembles command high prices for tickets, and chamber music competitions exist all over the world. Still, the music remains accessible to small groups who want to gather and play.
3. 3. A vessel for innovation: Some of the great musical innovations of recent centuries have come from the chamber music medium. Beethoven's transition from Classical-style music to Romantic-style music may be most audible in his string quartets. Contemporary composers like Steve Reich have used chamber music to blend acoustic and electronic instruments. Chamber music ensembles like the Kronos Quartet continue to commission new works that challenge the conventions of existing music.

Chamber music has played a role in classical music since the Renaissance era, and it has rivaled the orchestra in importance since the Classical era. Begin your chamber music journey by exploring these eight pieces.

1. 1. String Quartet No. 62 in C major, Op. 76, No. 3 by Joseph Haydn (1787): Haydn composed many forms of chamber music from serenades to piano trios, but his greatest contributions may come via string quartets. Quartet No. 62, written near the end of his career, is called the "Emperor Quartet" because its second movement is based around an anthem Haydn wrote for Holy Roman Emperor Francis II.
2. 2. String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat major, Op. 74 by Ludwig van Beethoven (1809): Music historians place Beethoven's early chamber music in the Classical period and his middle and late period works in the Romantic period. This middle-period string quartet is nicknamed the "Harp Quartet" because it features plucked arpeggios in the style of a harp.
3. 3. Octet in F major, D. 803 by Franz Schubert (1824): This piece pushed the limits of Classical-era chamber music by featuring eight players: French horn, clarinet, bassoon, two violins, a viola, a cello, and a double bass.
4. 4. Piano Sextet in D major, Op. 110 by Felix Mendelssohn (1824): Mendelssohn, a child prodigy, wrote this chamber piece for piano, violin, two violas, cello, and double bass when he was only 15 years old.
5. 5. Piano Quintet in E-flat, Op. 44 by Robert Schumann (1842): This piano quintet is notable for the double fugue in its final movement. The fugue, a mainstay of Baroque music, had fallen out of favor in the Classical era. Eventually, key composers like Schumann and Beethoven helped return it to prominence.
6. 6. String Quartet No. 12 by Antonín Dvořák (1893): Czech composer Antonín Dvořák spent a portion of his career in the United States. He was notably based in New York, but during an 1893 summer trip to Spillville, Iowa—home to many Czech immigrants—he felt inspired to write this famous quartet, nicknamed his "American Quartet."
7. 7. Quatuor pour la fin du temps by Olivier Messiaen (1941): During World War II, French composer Olivier Messiaen was taken to a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp. Seeking to comfort his fellow prisoners through music, Messiaen composed a quartet for instrumentalists within the camp—a cellist, violinist, clarinetist, and pianist (himself). Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time) debuted at the camp in 1941 and has remained a touchstone of twentieth-century chamber music ever since.
8. 8. New York Counterpoint by Steve Reich (1985): An example of chamber music in the Minimalist movement of twentieth-century classical music, New York Counterpoint is written for nine B-flat clarinets, three bass clarinets, and tape manipulation. Blending live acoustic instruments and taped recordings is a signature of Reich's.

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