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Chamber music is composed for small groups
of performers, usually two to eight persons. When it was first
composed in the late 15th or early 16th centuries, it was
intended for performance in small chambers or homes, as opposed
to music written for the church or the theater. Since the
early 19th century, however, it has become part of the concert
repertoire. It is usually considered a branch of instrumental
music (although some compositions include parts for voices)
and is generally intended for one performer on each part,
thus usually requiring no conductor.
A 16th-century French vocal ensemble form known as the CHANSON
was indirectly a principal source of later forms of chamber
music. Composed of several short sections in contrasting texture
and meter, the chanson was often arranged for the LUTE or
for combinations of instruments; generally, however, its sectional
structure was retained. About 1525 the chanson was adopted
by Italian composers, who called it a canzona, and was further
elaborated. Soon, original canzone modeled on the pattern
of these arrangements were composed for small instrumental
ensembles. Andrea (c.1510-86) and Giovanni Gabrieli (c.1555-1612)
were prominent Venetian composers of canzone.
Paralleling this development was another that led to the dance
suite. Sixteenth-century dances in western Europe were usually
performed in pairs: one dance slow, stately, and in duple
meter, and the other fast, lively, in triple meter, and related
melodically to the first. Various attempts were made to enlarge
the dance pair and change it into a suite, and the French
version became the most successful. The French suite consisted
of four or five movements in contrasting dance rhythms, meters,
and tempos . First developed by composers for the clavecin
(HARPSICHORD), the suite, in this form, was adopted by composers
of instrumental ensembles in other parts of Europe.
By the end of the 17th century, the canzona had been transformed
and had become known generally as the sonata da chiesa, or
"church SONATA," because it was often used in liturgical
services. The expanded dance suite was called the sonata da
camera, "chamber sonata." The most common performing
group for both types included two violins and a continuo which
consisted of a keyboard instrument that amplified, or "realized,"
a bass line supplied with symbols and figures indicating the
desired harmonies, plus a cello or a bass . The types differed
in texture and spirit, however: the sonata da chiesa contained
much COUNTERPOINT and expressed a serious mood; the sonata
da camera contained dance rhythms and was more sprightly.
Building on the work of earlier composers, Arcangelo CORELLI
in Bologna and Rome raised these forms to a higher level.
His 34 sonate da chiesa and 30 sonate da camera were published
between 1681 and 1700. In these works, as well as those by
Giovanni Battista Vitali (c. 1644-92), other Italians, and
the Englishman Henry PURCELL, the sonata da chiesa and the
sonata da camera began to influence each other. Soon the essential
differences between them disappeared, and they merged to form
the trio sonata.
Trio sonatas were composed until about 1750; Johann Sebastian
BACH and George Frideric HANDEL contributed important examples
to the form. The "trio" referred to the three string
instruments, since the accompanying keyboard instrument was
taken for granted. During the decades immediately before and
after 1750, however, the device of the continuo, with its
figured bass, gradually fell out of favor, and all parts were
written out in full. The trio of string instruments, deemed
insufficient for carrying the new textures, was augmented
by a viola, and the cello regularly replaced the bass; thus
the STRING QUARTET (two violins, a viola, and a cello) was
born. Simultaneously, the harpsichord (later, the piano),
relieved of its task of supplying merely improvised chordal
accompaniment, emerged with a chamber-music literature of
its own. Sonatas for violin (or some other instrument) and
piano; trios for violin, cello, and piano (called piano trios);
and other combinations, including string quartet and piano
(piano quintet), were composed throughout the 19th century
up to the present.
Chamber music since about 1750 has been characterized by a
4-movement form analogous to that of the SYMPHONY. The typical
pattern of the classical period and the 19th century consisted
of: a first movement in sonata form, with exposition of two
or more contrasting themes, development, and recapitulation;
a slow movement often consisting of a set of VARIATIONS; a
MINUET (later a scherzo), with trio and recapitulation; and
a finale, often another sonata form or a rondo. A notable
exception to this pattern is the omission of the minuet or
scherzo in many violin sonatas. Equality of all parts is a
characteristic of chamber music, especially in string quartets,
along with an intimate mood that permits little virtuosic
display by individual players.
Most of the significant composers of instrumental music have
made outstanding contributions to chamber-music literature;
the exceptions are Hector BERLIOZ, Frederic CHOPIN, and Franz
LISZT. Included in the list of major composers are Franz Joseph
HAYDN (about 83 string quartets, among many other works);
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (more that 50 works); Ludwig van BEETHOVEN
(17 string quartets and many other works); Franz SCHUBERT
(15 string quartets and other works); and Johannes BRAHMS
(24 works). Antonin DVORAK, Felix MENDELSSOHN, and Robert
SCHUMANN also wrote important chamber music.
With the changes in musical style, texture, and form that
have occurred in the 20th century, the sheer quantity of chamber
music has diminished somewhat. Arnold SCHOENBERG wrote about
a dozen chamber works, most in the TWELVE-TONE SYSTEM that
he inaugurated.
Six string quartets by Bela BARTOK, a variety of works by
Paul HINDEMITH, 15 string quartets each by Darius MILHAUD
and Dmitry SHOSTAKOVICH, and a few pieces by Igor STRAVINSKY
and numerous American composers (each in an individual style)
are important contributions to the literature of 20th-century
chamber music.
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