Chamber music
(Fr.
musique de chambre; Ger. Kammermusik; It. musica da camera).
In
current usage the term ‘chamber music’ generally denotes music written for
small instrumental ensemble, with one player to a part, and intended for
performance either in private, in a domestic environment with or without
listeners, or in public in a small concert hall before an audience of limited
size. In essence, the term implies intimate, carefully constructed music,
written and played for its own sake; and one of the most important elements in
chamber music is the social and musical pleasure for musicians of playing
together. In this respect, the term has close connections with the peculiarly
German concept and practice of Hausmusik, which refers to the playing of vocal or
instrumental music in the home for family entertainment, without audience, and
which was much encouraged in the 19th and 20th centuries. ‘Chamber music’ has
also been narrowly defined (for example, by Cobbett) in terms of ensembles of
specific types and sizes; but the term is best understood in a broader sense.
To limit the term to instrumental ensemble repertory, for example, is to
exclude such hybrid works as Schubert’s Der Hirt auf dem Felsen and
Vaughan Williams’s On Wenlock Edge and to bypass such vocal genres as
16th-century madrigals and 19th-century lieder which share many of the
characteristics of chamber music. Similarly, although chamber music is often
defined as involving two or more players, much solo repertory such as
Renaissance lute music, Bach’s violin sonatas and partitas and cello suites and
several of Beethoven’s piano sonatas fulfils many of the functions and
conditions of chamber music.
1. Usage and scope of
the term.
2. To 1600.
3. 17th and 18th
centuries.
4. From 1800 to World
War I.
5. After World War I.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CHRISTINA BASHFORD
Chamber music
1. Usage and scope of the term.
From
its earliest usages the term has had a variety of meanings. During the mid-16th
century and the 17th, the Italian term ‘musica da camera’ and its German
counterpart ‘Kammermusik’ signified ensemble music performed in private,
normally by voices and instruments, either at courts or in the homes of the
wealthy. In the same period, variants of the French, German and Italian terms
were also used to denote the musicians engaged in the performance of private
music, such as ‘La Musique de la Chambre’ (established c1530) at the
French court, or the ‘Cammermusici’ at the court of Maximilian II (noted in the
court archives, 1540–1600). In such contexts the term could often equally refer
to the musical event itself.
During
the early 18th century, the term ‘musica da camera’ was used in theoretical
writings (Brossard, Dictionaire, 1703; Mattheson, Das neu-eröffnete
Orchestre, 1713) to refer collectively to instrumental and vocal music
whose compositional style and function differed from church and theatre works.
In practice these musical distinctions were blurred. As the 18th century
progressed, the term became increasingly associated with instrumental music
(e.g. sonatas, trios, quartets) intended for performance in courtly or domestic
surroundings. Even so, it continued to be used for small-scale secular vocal
music performed in private: Burney defined chamber music as ‘cantatas, single
songs, solos, trios, quartets[,] concertos, and symphonies of few parts’ (BurneyH),
and Castil-Blaze referred to a host of ‘agreeable pieces’, both vocal and
instrumental, including cantatas, madrigals, scenas, single songs, vocal
quartets, romances, boleros, barcarolles and nocturnes (Dictionnaire de
musique moderne, rev. 3/1828 by J.-H. Mees).
It
was only towards the end of the 19th century that the term came predominantly
to mean instrumental ensemble music for small forces, performed in either a
private or a public context. By the early 20th century the term had become
specifically associated with the quartets, quintets and piano trios of Haydn,
Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and their successors. The intimate nature of the
chamber music repertory, its subtle effects and concentration of musical ideas,
allied to the fact that several composers (including Beethoven, Brahms and
Bartók) produced some of their most tightly wrought and intensely personal
works for string quartet, meant that the term ‘chamber music’ also came to
connote a repertory grounded in the intellect. The second half of the 20th
century saw a considerable broadening of what is understood by chamber music as
the performed repertory became enlarged, most significantly through the
rehabilitation of large amounts of pre-Classical chamber music and its
performance on ‘period’ instruments, though also by the inclusion of
contemporary works for chamber forces, many of which conform only loosely to
the traditional characteristics of chamber music.
This
article defines chamber music broadly, within the context of the meanings
assigned to it in different eras. It outlines the types and styles of chamber
music that were composed and played from the late 15th century to the 20th and
places special emphasis on the social and functional contexts in which this
music flourished. However, historical practices varied from locality to
locality and developed at different rates. In addition, the extent and nature
of much private chamber music activity inevitably remains obscure (although
lack of extant documentation does not necessarily imply lack of activity); and
quantitative study of chamber music concerts, repertories and audiences, as
they developed from the 19th century onwards, is hampered by the fact that
concert history is still a relatively unexplored field of study. Nevertheless,
surviving musical, visual and documentary sources, along with a few modern,
in-depth localized studies, enable some general observations to be made, and a
picture to be drawn of chamber music consumption as a changing balance of
participation (i.e. playing or singing) and appreciation (listening).
For discussion of individual styles and genres of the individual
instrumental chamber music forms see Accompanied keyboard
music; Balletto; Canzona; Consort; Fantasia; Fantasia-suite; In Nomine; Nonet; Octet; Phantasy; Piano duet; Piano trio; Piano quartet; Piano quintet; Quartet; Quatuor concertant; Quintet; Ricercare; Septet; Sextet; Solo sonata; Sonata; Sonata da camera; Sonata da chiesa; Sonatina; Sources of
instrumental ensemble music to 1630; Sources of keyboard
music to 1660,
Sources of lute music; String trio; String quartet; String quintet; Suite; Trio; Trio sonata; and Wind
quintet.
For discussion of related vocal genres: see Air; Ballad; Balletto; Cantata; Canzonetta; Catch; Chanson; Consort song; Frottola; Glee, Lied; Madrigal; Mélodie; Song; and Song
cycle.
Chamber music
2. To 1600.
At
medieval courts a distinction existed between ‘loud’ music (alta musica,
haute musique), played by such instruments as trumpets, pipes and drums,
used for ceremonial and festive events, and ‘soft’ music (bassa musica, basse
musique), performed by such instruments as harps, fiddles, chamber organs
and flutes, sometimes with voices, used at banquets and on more intimate social
occasions. Small-scale ensemble music-making, including the singing and playing
of chansons, formed part of the ‘soft’ music. Initially, music was performed by
minstrels rather than courtiers, but during the 15th century this began to
change, and by about 1500, partly as a consequence of the development of
humanistic values and new attitudes towards music, an ability to make music had
become an important social accomplishment for courtiers and aristocrats (women
as well as men). Baldassare Castiglione’s courtesy book, Il libro del
cortegiano (1528), which ran to more than 20 editions and was translated
into several European languages, recommended that courtiers should be able to
sing, read musical notation and play several instruments; it also highlighted
the social importance of being able to make music with others in private.
Several European rulers developed their musical skills to a high level and
greatly encouraged music-making among courtiers; one of the most notable
patrons was Isabella d’Este, an accomplished singer, lutenist and player of
string and keyboard instruments who enthusiastically cultivated private
music-making at the Mantuan court in the early 16th century and actively
encouraged the composition of frottolas. Most courts continued to maintain
ensembles of players of ‘soft’ instruments to perform to courtiers in private
chambers, though a good deal of music-making, such as the performance of
madrigals by mixed groups of singers and instrumentalists, may well have
involved a mixture of courtiers and musicians.
The
first flowering of private music-making outside European courts dates from the
mid-15th century, when the wealthiest members of what has been termed ‘a new
bourgeoisie’ (Fenlon, 1989) began to develop their own musical culture in the
home: affluent households owned instruments such as keyboards and lutes; music
lessons were taken; and the advent of music printing led to wider dissemination
of repertory suitable for domestic music-making. Paolo Cortese’s handbook for
clerics, De cardinalatu (book 2, 1510) includes one of the earliest
known references to a specially designated music room (‘cubiculum musicae’). In
most cities, amateur musicians comprised a small and élite social group,
typically the families of merchants, diplomats and professional men, and their
musical activities were probably modelled on what they knew of court practices.
In addition, a number of musical academies for educated men were established in
Italy during the 16th century and imitated elsewhere; in Nuremberg, for
example, a ‘Krenzleingesellschaft’ was set up in 1568 for informal performances
of instrumental and vocal music, accompanied by a meal and, in all likelihood,
serious and learned discussion.
A
large proportion of the repertory heard in courtly and domestic contexts in the
late 15th and 16th centuries was polyphonic vocal music, in particular
madrigals. Where such music was performed by voices alone in small or medium-size
rooms, it was normal to have one singer per part; however, flexible performing
practices meant that instruments, such as lutes and viols, often replaced or
doubled some of the voices, probably in accordance with the forces and skills
that were available, producing what are commonly called ‘mixed’ or ‘broken’
consorts. Publishers often described this practice on title-pages: Antonio
Gardano’s Canzoni francese (1539) were ‘buone da cantare et sonare’, and
Susato’s 26 chansons (1543) were ‘convenables tant a la voix comme aussi
propices a jouer de divers instruments’. Some madrigals were intabulated for
lute or keyboard, making accompanied solo singing a further performance
possibility, while the distinctively English consort song provided an
instrumental ensemble accompaniment for one or more singers. Throughout Europe,
Latin-texted sacred music was performed in private houses as well as churches,
but in England during the second half of the 16th century Latin church music
(e.g. Tallis’s Elizabethan motets and Byrd’s masses) fell out of sacred use and
was typically sung and played only in the chamber (Milsom, 1995).
Although
vocal pieces could be played by instruments alone, a small amount of ensemble
music ostensibly intended specifically for instruments also emerged,
particularly in Italy and England. Italian composers such as Claudio Merulo and
Florentino Maschera favoured instrumental ricercares and canzonas, and in
England a rich and distinctive body of fantasias (or fancies), cantus-firmus
pieces (especially In Nomine settings) and suites of dances was composed by
Byrd, Tye and others. In Nomine and cantus firmus pieces, with their long tenor
notes, would have enabled a player of limited skills to hold his or her own
part, although evidence suggests that some of these works were sung rather than
played (Edwards, 1970–71; similarly, some textless ricercares and canzonas may
have been vocalized). Viol playing began to be widely cultivated by English
amateurs only during the 1590s, and much of the contrapuntal repertory from
before that date was probably originally written with more skilled players in
mind.
By
the late 16th century printed sources of instrumental ensemble music were
widespread in most of Europe (the English repertory, however, continued to circulate
largely in manuscript, suggesting that consort playing was localized around a
small number of private houses). To perform a piece of ensemble music, players
and/or singers sat in a circle, often round a table, and used either partbooks
or a table-book; partbooks were normally laid flat on the table in front of
each player (tables with built-in music stands, as shown in Jan Breughel’s Allegory
of Hearing, were probably less usual; see fig.1) and
there were no particular instructions as to where people sat. In the case of
table-books, there is evidence in English sources to suggest that care was
taken over the physical disposition of the parts in the book, and hence around
the table (Rastall, 1997).
Solo
music for keyboard (such as clavichord, spinet, virginals) and lute was also
performed in domestic contexts: the repertory included transcriptions of vocal
works, and pieces specially composed for the instruments, including sets of
dances and numerous ricercares and canzonas. Published collections were issued
by Antico, Gardano, Attaingnant and others. It is unclear whether dance suites
– written for either solo instruments or consorts – were intended to accompany
social dancing; possibly on occasions when suites were played and listeners
were present, some people may have danced to them spontaneously.
See also Table-book.
Chamber music
3. 17th and 18th centuries.
(i) 1600–1740.
(ii) 1740–1800.
Chamber music, §3:
17th and 18th centuries
(i) 1600–1740.
The
emergence of the seconda pratica in Italy around the turn of the 16th century
ushered in new musical styles and genres which affected all spheres of musical
composition and practice. Stylistic developments included the spread of basso
continuo; the development of monody and new, distinctive textures arising from
the polarity between bass and melody lines; heightened concern for poetic
expression and intelligibility of the words in vocal music; and, as the 17th
century progressed, a growing importance accorded to instrumental music and the
violin family and a gradual decline in the popularity of viols. Although opera
was the major innovation of the period, several other genres evolved, including
some, most notably the cantata and sonata, that were particularly cultivated in
private environments. A conscious distinction between vocal and instrumental
genres meant that the flexibility of mixing voices and instruments that had
prevailed in the 16th-century madrigal gradually disappeared; even so,
pragmatic factors could still play a part in performers’ choice of instruments,
especially in the continuo group.
Secular
duets and cantatas were the principal small-scale vocal genres to emanate from
Italy in the 17th century. By the early 18th century such composers as Caldara,
Alessandro Scarlatti and Handel were producing cantatas in large quantities,
and the genre was taking root in Germany (Telemann, J.S. Bach), England
(Pepusch, Daniel Purcell) and France (Morin, Bernier); many were written for
performance at court, though some reached the domestic market through
publication. Italian works for small instrumental ensemble initially carried a
variety of labels (canzona, sinfonia, sonata), but by 1700 the term ‘sonata’
usually signified the standard instrumental genre for domestic consumption.
Publishers were eager to issue this repertory, and sets of ‘solo’ and ‘trio’
sonatas for one, two or three melody instruments (normally violins but
sometimes oboes or flutes) and continuo by such composers as Corelli (whose
op.1, 1681, was much imitated), Albinoni and F.M. Veracini were soon available across
Europe. Sonatas were also composed outside Italy: Henry Purcell, Bach, François
Couperin, Handel and Telemann are the most notable exponents. The trio sonata
was characterized by a sharing of contrapuntal interest between the upper
melodic parts – a trait most intensely exploited by Bach – and offered musical
interest to both listeners and players.
Although
some late 17th-century Italian sonatas and concertos consisting of groups of
dances were designated da camera, and others, usually in four movements
and using organ continuo, were labelled da chiesa, in practice there was
no strict differentiation of style or function (dances occur in da chiesa
works, for example, while many church sonatas were played in chamber contexts
and vice versa). Moreover, it is by no means certain that all dance movements
in sonatas were intended for listening alone: some, in particular those
labelled ‘per ballare’ or ‘da ballo’, may well have been designed for dancing;
likewise listeners may have danced to those movements whose dance steps they
knew.
French
chamber music developed its own characteristics of instrumentation and style.
Wind instruments (flute, oboe and bassoon) became prominent in ensemble works,
and their use spread to other countries. The bass viol, which enjoyed a special
status in France, maintained a vital presence in French chamber ensembles well
into the 18th century. It was used in cantatas and sonatas, both as a continuo
instrument and as a solo part independent of the bass line (as in Montéclair’s Ariane
et Bachus, 1728, and Rameau’s Pieces de clavecin en concerts, 1741).
Several composers, including Marais and Couperin, wrote Pièces for bass
viol and continuo.
The
older chamber genres did not die out overnight. Italian ensemble madrigals and
instrumental music continued to be written and published until the 1630s and
40s, though basso seguente parts began to be added to madrigals from
about 1600 (in 1621 Milanuzzi reprinted Pomponio Nenna’s Il primo libro de
madrigali with continuo bass part). At the same time, madrigals for one,
two or more soloists and continuo (by such composers as Caccini, Monteverdi and
Bartolomeo Barbarino) came to the fore before the madrigal ultimately gave way
to the accompanied aria, chamber duet and cantata. In France, several
collections of airs either for voice and lute or for several voices were
published by Ballard in the first half of the 17th century, though from the
1640s the lute began to be replaced by continuo. The dance suite for solo
instrument (most typically keyboard) survived until the mid-18th century,
embracing new dances and idioms and developing a host of localized identities
across Europe.
In
England domestic consort-playing and composition were sustained well into the
17th century, much longer than elsewhere, perhaps partly as a consequence of
the absence of court and theatrical musical entertainments during the Civil
War. Most of the English repertory, from continuo songs and instrumental pieces
to consort music, circulated in manuscript, as it had in the previous century,
and many wealthy families owned a chest of viols, normally two trebles, two
tenors and two basses. Contrapuntal genres such as fantasias and In Nomine
pieces by Jenkins, Simpson, Locke, Purcell and others were essayed (some as
late as the 1660s and 70s), as were works using dance forms, divisions on
ground basses and fantasia-suites; eventually these genres were replaced by
more modern ones such as solo or trio sonatas, as the violin began gradually to
be taken up by amateur players and the availability of printed chamber music
(including works from abroad) increased.
Ensemble
music-making continued to thrive at European courts. Some rulers, such as
Philip IV of Spain and the Elector of Bavaria, Maximilian II Emanuel, were
enthusiastic amateur musicians (both were keen viol players) and participated
in private chamber music; moreover, with music increasingly becoming a symbol
of the ruler’s political status and power, many also employed a group of
chamber players to perform in small-scale, private court concerts and to play
privately with members of the ruler’s family. Musicians were sometimes
appointed specifically to compose and oversee the performance of chamber music:
thus Sigismondo d’India became maestro di musica della camera at the court
of Carlo Emanuele I in Turin (1611), and Henry Lawes ‘Composer in ye Private
Musick for Lutes & Voices’ in London (1660). At the opulent court of Louis
XIV at Versailles, the group designated ‘La Musique de la Chambre’ played for fêtes,
tragédies en musique, ballets and other ‘public’ events; private chamber
music took place in the king’s private apartments before a small audience of
family members and distinguished guests, and was performed by a select group of
musicians. Couperin wrote his Concerts royaux for such occasions. At
many courts, small-scale vocal and instrumental music was also supplied for
special banquets: at Dresden (where Schütz worked) Tafelmusik was one of
the principal responsibilities of court musicians.
Outside
the courts, private music-making was still practised only in wealthy homes –
instruments such as lutes and harpsichords were expensive – though by 1700 it
was becoming a socially desirable leisure pursuit in upper middle-class
circles. Men typically played bowed string instruments, while women played
lutes, guitars or keyboard, or sang. Publishers and instrument sellers in
Paris, Amsterdam and London flourished, exporting their wares across Europe and
often showing a keen awareness of the amateur market: publications such as Telemann’s
Kleine Cammer-music (1716) and Musique de table (1733) emphasized
the domestic function of the product, and some publishers catered specifically
for amateurs of limited musical abilities. Domestic music was increasingly seen
as a status symbol and an integral part of home life; in Bologna, where there
was no court, wealthy households are said to have employed musicians as a means
of vying for social prestige.
Other
sources of patronage for chamber music included the Italian accademie:
cantatas and instrumental music, often specially composed, were included in the
annual prizegiving ceremony of the Accademia del Disegno di S Luca in Rome, for
example, and some composers mention the academies in the dedications to their
published chamber music. Cantatas, sonatas and other small-scale genres also
played an important role in the weekly conversazioni held in the palaces
of Cardinals Ottoboni and Pamphili and of Prince Ruspoli in Rome; Antonio
Caldara, who served Prince Ruspoli from 1709 to 1716, wrote dozens of chamber
duets and solo cantatas for this purpose, as did Handel. In German and Dutch
towns collegia musica, small groups of musicians who gathered regularly to play
music, were common (fig.2). A collegium musicum under
Sweelinck’s direction was established in Amsterdam in the early 17th century
for a small group of well-to-do amateur musicians; in Leipzig collegia were
popular with students eager to read through ensemble music under the guidance
of a professional musician. Telemann directed one such collegium, 1702–4, and
was succeeded by Bach, who presided over meetings in Zimmermann’s coffee house.
Bach may well have written some instrumental works, for instance the flute
sonata bwv1030 and the second volume of Das
wohltemperirte Clavier, as well as secular cantatas, notably the ‘Coffee
Cantata’ bwv211, for this collegium.
See also Academy; Collegium musicum; and Tafelmusik
(i).
Chamber music, §3: 17th and 18th centuries
(ii) 1740–1800.
By
the 1740s many composers, such as J.M. Leclair and G.B. Sammartini, were
writing chamber music in the simple, elegant and forward-looking idiom
(characterized as galant) that gave graceful melody a dominant role.
During the second half of the 18th century the continuo gradually disappeared
from instrumental chamber music; the driving Baroque bass line went with it, to
be replaced by the distinctive Classical style, typified by its translucent
textures, slower harmonic change and clear structural paragraphs. At the same
time, the traditional ties of composers to court patrons were loosening and
commercial opportunities widening; in Paris and London in particular the
prosperous and socially selfconscious middle classes were increasing in number
and becoming important patrons of chamber music, purchasing instruments
(especially pianos), printed music and, increasingly as the period progressed
and commercial concert life developed, concert subscriptions and tickets. Most
of Haydn’s large chamber music output (string quartets, sonatas, songs, piano
trios), for example, was written for publication and performance outside his
patron Prince Nicolaus’s court at Eszterháza; his baryton trios, unpublished in
his lifetime, stand apart as being designed for the prince’s private
consumption.
The
biggest centres of music publishing in the late 18th century were London, Paris
and (to a lesser extent) Vienna. In these cities a large selection of chamber
music was published; according to one estimate (Mongrédien, 1986) several
thousand quartets by about 200 composers were published in Paris between 1770
and 1800, suggesting a market of considerable size. Some publishers cultivated
contacts in foreign cities, not only to sell their own goods abroad but also to
import music from foreign firms. Nevertheless, although the market for domestic
music in urban centres was clearly expanding, it was – like markets for other
luxury goods (such as fashionable clothes and jewellery) – still a limited one,
beyond the pocket of most: in London, a set of six sonatas typically cost 10s
6d (Sadie, 1990), far more than a clerk or tradesman could then afford.
The
late 18th century saw the introduction of a host of chamber genres, several of
which made use of the new piano. Sonatas for keyboard with an optional violin
or flute line that could be dispensed with easily were known as accompanied
sonatas. Many publishers offered an explicit choice of keyboard instrument, as
in Robert Bremner’s publication of Eichner’s Three Sonatas for the
Harpsichord or Forte Piano with Accompanyments for a Violin and Bass ad libitum
(1771). Those that additionally included parts for cello were effectively
precursors of the piano trio. The optional parts normally did little more than
sustain harmonies and follow or double melody or bass lines, and were both
printed and sold separately. Especially suited to amateurs of limited
accomplishments, accompanied sonatas were standard items in most publishers’
catalogues, particularly in Paris and London. Other keyboard genres tailored to
the amateur market included variations, rondos and simple solo sonatas (by such
composers as Dussek and Shield) which typically made specific reference to
popular tunes. Accompanied solo songs, including arrangements of operatic arias
and theatrical songs, lieder and canzonets, and keyboard duets for four hands
on one instrument (as composed by J.C. Bach, Dussek and others) were also part
of the domestic repertory. Duets for two melody instruments, typically two
flutes, two violins or violin and cello, were particularly popular among
amateurs; although much of the repertory was technically simple and musically
lightweight, it attracted such composers as Pleyel, Mozart and Boccherini.
The
quintessential genre of late 18th-century chamber music was the string quartet,
particularly as it developed in Vienna in the hands of Haydn and Mozart from
1770. Intended for skilled players and connoisseur listeners, the Viennese
string quartet was characterized by its balanced part-writing, imaginative
textures, conversational idiom and tightly wrought musical argument. Works such
as Haydn’s op.20 quartets, with their contrapuntal working, typically demanded
performance in an intimate environment, before a few serious-minded and
attentive listeners. Michael Kelly, in his Reminiscences (1826),
described a small social gathering in Vienna (1784) at which quartets were
played by Haydn, Dittersdorf (violins), Mozart (viola) and Vanhal (cello), with
Paisiello among the listeners, and remarked that a ‘greater treat, or a more
remarkable one, cannot be imagined’. Similar approaches to composition obtained
in other chamber works (e.g. Mozart’s string quintets with two violas); indeed,
by the 1780s some composers were also moving towards a more democratic role for
the melody instrument(s) in accompanied sonatas and piano trios: Mozart’s Sonata
per il cembalo e violino k454 (1784) is a notable
example. In some works, composers tended to highlight the technical talents of
particular performers for whom the works were intended, at times producing
highly concertante textures: for instance, Haydn’s six quartets opp.54 and 55
dedicated to the violinist Johann Tost, and Mozart’s three ‘Prussian’ quartets k575, 589 and 590, thought to have been written with Friedrich
Wilhelm II, King of Prussia and a skilled amateur cellist, in mind (Friedrich
Wilhelm was also the recipient of string quartets and quintets sent to him from
Spain by Boccherini).
In
Paris, string quartets in which the four instruments played equal roles were
routinely described by publishers as quatuors concertants (sometimes quatuors
dialogués or quatuors concertants et dialogués); according to
Framery (Encyclopédie méthodique, 1791) this distinguished them from
quartets ‘where there is only one principal part while the others merely
accompany’. Quatuors concertants, written by such composers as Vachon,
Bréval and Blasius, particularly appealed to the amateur market for, unlike the
quartets of Haydn and Mozart, they were relatively easy to play; the musical
texture may have aped the French art of social conversation (Hanning, 1989),
emphasizing thematic exchange and allowing each instrument a solo moment in turn
while minimizing (though by no means suppressing) the contribution of the other
parts. Some quatuors concertants were written for woodwind ensembles,
others for combinations of strings and wind. Several quartets published in
London at the same period, such as Rauzzini’s six quartets op.6 (c1778)
and J.C. Bach’s op.8 (1772), blended a keyboard or wind instrument with
strings, while some string quartets by English composers (e.g. Joseph Gibbs’s
quartets, 1778) and even a London edition of Haydn’s op.33 quartets (?1799)
were issued with an ad libitum figured bass part; since solo and trio sonatas
continued to flourish in England well into the late 18th century, it seems
likely that keyboard players were considered an essential, perhaps stabilizing,
presence in English amateur ensembles. Comfortably playable arrangements of
concert works and operas (often for keyboard and accompanying instrument) were
also part of the domestic repertory; composers active in France, such as
Cambini, arranged popular and theatrical tunes for quartet, specially
designating them quatuors d’airs variés or quatuors d’airs connus.
Across
Europe and in the Russian Empire and the New World, domestic music-making, both
within the family group and among friends and visitors, thus became an
important social activity in aristocratic and respectable middle-class circles.
The ability to play a keyboard instrument and to sing were deemed important
social accomplishments for women and may even have acted as catalysts to
courtship and marriage. Strong associations between gender and instruments in
the domestic context had begun to develop, and although boundaries were
sometimes broken it was considered appropriate by the late 18th century for
females to play only keyboards, plucked string instruments (harp, guitar) and
to sing, and for males to play the violin, cello or flute (fig.3). Related to the mainstream traditions
of domestic music-making in the late 18th century was the English predilection
for glees and catches (unaccompanied partsongs for male voices), which were
traditionally performed by amateurs in the home, after dinner. Not only did
English composers write and publish them in large quantities, but the practice
was also institutionalized by a number of London societies, including the
Noblemen and Gentlemen’s Catch Club (from 1761) and the Glee Club (1783–1857).
Chamber
music continued to be performed by professional musicians at courts (e.g.
Mannheim and Berlin) in what were effectively private concerts given to an
assembly of courtiers, noblemen and visiting dignitaries. In Bohemian lands the
liking for wind instruments produced a substantial repertory of Harmoniemusik,
written for small ensembles of pairs of wind instruments and including such
works as Haydn’s divertimentos of 1759–61 (for Court Morzin’s Harmonie at
Lukaveč); ensembles were frequently employed to play at aristocratic
houses, often during dinners and at parties.
The
development of commercial concert life in the late 18th century, particularly
in London, provided what was to become an additional forum for the performance
of chamber music – a forum that increased the number of potential listeners and
provided them with the opportunity to hear chamber music beyond their own
technical capabilities performed by professional musicians. In London, from the
1770s, items of chamber music, particularly quartets and quintets, appeared
regularly in mixed concerts alongside symphonies, overtures, concertos and
songs. Much of the repertory, in particular several of Pleyel’s quartets and
quintets, exploited concertante textures and made heavy demands on virtuosity;
Haydn’s opp.71 and 74, written for Salomon’s concerts of 1794, are a tour de
force of brilliant quartet writing. In Vienna and Paris, chamber music was
rarely included in public concerts before 1800, but found a regular outlet in
the private concerts that formed part of the vibrant, aristocratic salon
cultures in both cities. In Vienna some of Mozart’s and Beethoven’s works were
heard at the residences of Baron van Swieten and Prince Lichnowsky, while in
Paris composers frequently wrote quatuors concertants for salon
performances and dedicated them to their host or hostess.
See also Harmoniemusik.
Chamber music
4. From 1800 to World War I.
(i) Concerts and
repertory.
(ii) Domestic
music-making.
Chamber music, §4:
From 1800 to World War I
(i) Concerts and repertory.
During
the 19th century commercial concerts devoted to chamber music became an
established part of the musical calendar in many cities, and for most amateur
musicians listening to concert performances of chamber music became just as
important as – if not more important than – participating in it privately.
Notable early developments took place in Vienna (Ignaz Schuppanzigh held
subscription series of instrumental chamber concerts at Count Rasumovsky’s palace
from 1804–5), Berlin (Karl Möser’s quartet soirées began in the 1813–14
season) and Paris (Pierre Baillot’s quartet concerts were established in 1814)
– all cities with lively musical salon cultures. By the 1840s there were
chamber music concerts in many European centres, including Dresden, Pest and
London. Important series founded in this period were the Gesellschaft der
Musikfreunde’s Musikalische Abendunterhaltungen in Vienna (1818–29, 1831–40),
the series run by the Tilmant brothers (1833–49), Alard and Chevillard
(1837–48) and the Dancla brothers (1838–1870) in Paris, and the Quartett
Concerts (1836–59), Classical Chamber Concerts (1836–9) and the Musical Union
(1845–81) in London (fig.4). The core repertory of most
concerts was instrumental trios, quartets and quintets by the Viennese trinity
(Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven), although there was a good deal of local
variation in the content and shape of programmes. Baillot’s concerts in Paris
presented instrumental repertory only (typically five ensemble works and one
violin solo, played by Baillot with piano accompaniment), whereas the longer
programmes of many London concerts, which included piano and duo sonatas as
well as works for larger instrumental ensembles, were relieved by the
interspersion of songs and duets between the instrumental items; the programmes
of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde concerts offered few large-scale
instrumental chamber works, being chiefly made up of small-scale instrumental
and vocal pieces (including a number of Schubert’s lieder), usually with a
string quartet to open proceedings and a work for vocal ensemble (often one of
Schubert’s vocal quartets) to end.
Although
the growth of chamber music concerts was clearly bound up with the general
expansion of concert life in urban centres during the 19th century and with an
increasing middle-class demand for music, quartet soirées and other
types of chamber concert appear to have been a refined taste, appealing to
minority groups of enthusiasts within cities. As the century progressed, the
chamber music concert repertory, like the orchestral one, took on an
increasingly historical dimension, centred on the Viennese classics and works
that emulated them (such as Mendelssohn’s quartets and Hummel’s chamber music
with piano). Modern works in a Romantic idiom (by composers such as Schumann
and Brahms) were added gradually. At the same time a gulf was opening up in the
minds of some critics between serious music – of which instrumental chamber
music could be seen as the epitome – and lightweight, popular pieces (e.g.
fantasias or potpourris), often designated salon music or Trivialmusik.
(The fact that some concert-givers leavened their programmes with lighter
works, presumably in an attempt to broaden their audience appeal, may well have
contributed to such critical censure.) In line with this trend, many chamber
concerts developed decidedly cerebral overtones: from the mid-1840s many London
series (the Musical Union, the Quartett Association, the Monday Popular
Concerts) provided concert-goers with analytical programme notes to help them
understand the structure of the works performed and listen in a musically
informed way; at about the same time miniature scores of the core Viennese
repertory were published by K.F. Heckel of Mannheim, and distributed through
agents in Vienna, Leipzig, London and Moscow. Familiarity with the complete
Beethoven quartets, even the late works, grew, not only through the activities
of bespoke organizations such as the Beethoven Quartett Society (London, 1845–52)
and the Société des Derniers Quatuors de Beethoven (Paris, 1852–after 1870),
but also within standard concert programmes. Intimacy and attentiveness were
stressed during concerts, and some concert-givers such as John Ella, who ran
the Musical Union in London, placed the performers in the centre of the room,
with the audience encircling them, to encourage close listening and to draw the
audience into the music.
In
several cities the salon tradition continued to thrive alongside public
concerts, with many central European salons (e.g. in Berlin and Paris) becoming
increasingly dominated by the bourgeoisie. Some salons were given over to
‘serious’ chamber music, but others were built around more lightweight fare. In
mid-19th-century Berlin, intellectuals, artists, philosophers, writers and
businessmen gathered, often in the houses of Jewish families, for serious music
and conversation. Joachim, Clara Schumann and Jenny Lind were among the leading
musicians who performed at these events; composers, including Robert Schumann
and Mendelssohn, presented their own music, sometimes using the occasion to try
out new works.
Knowledge
of the spread and nature of chamber concerts and repertories in the second half
of the century is much patchier than that of the first half, but the number of
public concerts seems to have continued to increase, with repertories remaining
based on the emerging canon of Viennese classics, and the shapes of programmes
subject to local tastes and traditions, both in established centres of concert-giving
and elsewhere. Among the several concert series founded during the period were
the Mason and Thomas Chamber Music Soirées (1855–68) in New York, the Société
de Quatuors Armingaud et Jacquard (1856–68) in Paris, the Kammermusikverein
(1876–) and Czech Society for Chamber Music (1894–) in Prague, and the South
Place Sunday Popular Concerts (1887–) in London. In the 1860s and 70s chamber
concerts were established in Italy and Spain, countries whose musical life had
hitherto been dominated by operatic traditions. The wave of interest in
instrumental music in post-unification Italy spawned a number of quartet
societies, in Florence (1861), Milan (1864), Turin (1866), Rome (1874) and
elsewhere; in Madrid a quartet society for the performance of classical chamber
music was founded in 1863. Some concerts, for instance those of the Musical
Union in london and the Quartett-Abend in berlin, presented more modern-looking
packages of three or four contrasting instrumental works (the Quartett-Abend of
29 October 1856 opened with Haydn’s quartet op.77 no.1, continued with
Mendelssohn’s op.44 no.2 and concluded with Beethoven’s op.127), but such
programming was not yet common.
Schubert’s
instrumental chamber music, much of which lay unpublished after his death, gradually
worked its way into the repertory during the second half of the century. This
was due in part to the efforts of Joseph Hellmesberger, whose chamber concerts
in Vienna in the 1850s and 60s brought Schubert’s string quintet and some of
his quartets (notably ‘Death and the Maiden’ d810, the G
major Quartet d887 and the Quartettsatz d703) to the concert platform. Among chamber works written in
the later part of the century were pieces by Dvořák and Smetana, with
their strong national flavour, and the classically inspired output of Brahms.
In France the Société Nationale de Musique (inaugurated in 1871), a forum for
young composers, fostered chamber music among other forms of composition; its
legacy includes works by Saint-Saëns, Franck and Fauré. In Russia the publisher
M.P. Belyayev, who set up quartet evenings in St Petersburg in 1891, encouraged
Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin and their circle (the composite quartets Les
vendredis and Quatuor B-La-F, written for his musical evenings, are
a notable monument to his patronage). By the first decade of the 20th century
several of these new works (including Dvořák’s String Quartet op.96, his
Piano Quintet op.81 and ‘Dumky’ Piano Trio op.90, Smetana’s Quartet no.1 ‘From
my life’, Fauré’s Piano Quartet no.1, Tchaikovsky’s Quartet no.1, Borodin’s
Quartet no.2 and much of Brahms’s chamber music) had been assimilated into the
central repertory.
Most
concert series were given by regular groups of locally based players, but some
promoters were keen to engage artists with drawing power on their European
tours: thus many top-class artists, especially pianists such as Clara Schumann,
Alfred Jaëll and Hans von Bülow, appeared in London at the Musical Union and at
Chappell’s Popular Concerts. Towards the end of the 19th century a small number
of permanent, touring string quartets began to form, signalling the beginnings
of a break with past practices and anticipating what was to become a widespread
trend 50 years later. The precedent, with the attendant benefits of opportunities
for intensive rehearsal and a resultant unity of ensemble and tone, had been
set much earlier by the Müller brothers’ quartet, active 1831–55, and followed
by a few others (usually family groups). Famous ensembles include: the Joachim
Quartet (1869–1907), which gave highly acclaimed performances of the late
Beethoven quartets; the Czech Quartet (1892–1933), with Josef Suk (i) as second
violin; the Brodsky Quartet (fl Leipzig, c1883–91, and
Manchester, 1895–1921); and the Kneisel Quartet (1885–1917), the first
permanent touring quartet in the USA. A number of all-female chamber groups
emerged in Britain around the turn of the century, due largely to the fact that
although the number of women capable of playing string instruments to an
advanced level was increasing, professional orchestral openings for them were
rare; one particularly successful quartet was led by Norah Clench (a pupil of
Joachim) and gave concerts across Europe from about 1906 to 1913. Concerts
focussing on one soloist (typically a pianist, or a singer and accompanist)
became established towards the end of the 19th century, but programmes were
generally quite different from what became the standard recital format in the
20th century. In London in the pre-World War I decade, programmes embraced
diverse repertory (e.g. trivial piano pieces sat alongside ‘serious’ sonatas),
and the soloist was usually ‘assisted’ by others.
Most
19th-century chamber music heard in concerts was written with professional
players, sometimes particular instrumentalists, in mind. Indeed, the
quasi-orchestral sonorities and rhetorical gestures of much chamber music, from
Beethoven’s op.59 quartets and ‘Kreutzer’ violin sonata onwards, suggest that
composers were increasingly addressing the public arena of the concert room,
rather than the home environment. A large amount of the piano chamber repertory
of the latter part of the century, such as the piano quartets and quintets of
Schumann, Brahms, Dvořák and Fauré, boasts a particularly brilliant, at
times concerto-like, keyboard part. Duo sonatas (especially the violin sonatas
of Brahms, Franck and Fauré) do likewise, although, as with piano quartets and
quintets, musical interest is shared between the piano and the other
instrument(s). The string quartet repertory similarly makes heavy demands of
its players, not only in terms of individual technique (e.g. Beethoven’s E
Quartet op.74; Smetana’s
Quartet no.1), but also in terms of ensemble playing (e.g. Beethoven’s late
quartets, Brahms’s quartets). In the early part of the century, the quatuor
brillant, an extreme example of virtuosity within chamber music, enjoyed a
short-lived popularity. Characterized by a concerto-like first violin part and
rudimentary accompaniments in the lower lines, it flourished in France and
Germany (particularly in the hands of Rode, Kreutzer and Spohr) and proved well
suited to performance by travelling violin virtuosos.
The
musical language of Romanticism, with its dramatic contrasts of timbre and
vivid colouring, was in many respects at odds with the intimate string quartet
medium, and 19th-century composers’ likings for rich resonances and chromatic
colourings may have made larger string ensembles, such as quintets, sextets and
even octets, or ensembles with piano and/or woodwind, intrinsically more
comfortable forces to work with. Moreover, the legacy of Beethoven, the growing
mystique surrounding his late quartets, and the domination of his works at the
apex of the chamber music canon throughout the century may have contributed to
caution on the part of late 19th-century composers in approaching the quartet
genre: few composers produced more than a handful of published quartets, and
Brahms’s destruction of some 20 works before his op.51 is well known.
Chamber music, §4:
From 1800 to World War I
(ii) Domestic music-making.
Domestic
music-making continued to flourish in the 19th century, although it
increasingly developed and defined its own repertory, distinct from that of the
concert hall. The piano, especially later in the century, became the
pre-eminent domestic instrument, emblem of female gentility and social
respectability, and affordable by a broad band of the middle classes in northern
and western Europe and North America. Easy solo piano pieces, piano duets (e.g.
waltzes, quadrilles and marches) and piano-accompanied songs, intended
specifically for the home or salon and mostly lightweight in conception, were
the mainstay of 19th-century music publishers’ catalogues. Most composers
produced domestic music of this description, though in the hands of Schubert,
Schumann, Mendelssohn and Brahms the domestic piano and vocal genres reached
notable artistic heights. Singing, like piano playing, remained an important
social accomplishment for women, but men were not wholly excluded: they often
sang songs and ballads and took part in family singing of hymns and sacred
songs around the piano. In the early part of the century in Germany, Austria
and Scandinavia, male-voice singing groups enjoyed considerable popularity.
Schubert’s male-voice quartets were frequently performed alongside his lieder
and piano music (waltzes, duets etc.) at the informal evenings of music,
eating, dancing and games (known as Schubertiads) held in the homes of his
Viennese acquaintances.
Alongside
piano duets, works for two melody instruments (usually violins or flutes)
continued to flourish in the early 1800s, being taken up by Beethoven,
Kalliwoda, Spohr and others. With new instruments came new repertory. The
concertina (patented in 1829) was fashionable as a domestic instrument
particularly in England and Germany until the early 1900s; the family of
instruments (treble, tenor and bass) spawned its own stock of pieces (solo
fantasias on operatic airs, character-pieces) but could also be used to play
string quartets. The harmonium (‘cottage organ’) also emerged as a domestic
instrument in the later 19th century, especially in the USA and central Europe
(fig.5). Much of its repertory consisted of
arrangements, and some publishers issued optional harmonium accompaniments to
songs; the best-known bespoke chamber composition for the instrument is
Dvořák’s Bagatelles for two violins, cello and harmonium.
Although
there was an ostensible gulf between the domestic and concert repertories, the
public and private spheres of musical activity were in fact linked. Well-known
pianists, for example, endorsed specific makes of piano, and the growth of
concert-going encouraged publishers to issue a large repertory of
transcriptions and arrangements of pieces from the concert hall. The practice,
begun in the 18th century, of arranging large-scale concert or operatic works
for small ensemble or solo keyboard flourished in the early 19th century. Thus
London publishers issued arrangements of Haydn’s symphonies for flute, string
quartet and keyboard, and excerpts from Mozart’s and Rossini’s operas for
string quartet or for keyboard and accompanying instrument; in France
instrumental arrangements of operatic excerpts for domestic performance were
particularly popular. By the mid-19th century the piano duet (usually for four
hands on one piano) was becoming the standard medium for arrangements of
concert works: the symphonies and chamber music of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven
were thus transported from the concert hall into the home. The player-piano,
which began to come into vogue as a luxury instrument (particularly favoured by
men) in America and, to some extent, Europe in the first decade of the 20th
century, was a further means by which transcriptions of concert music could be
consumed, and one that enabled non-playing music-lovers to enjoy concert works,
including chamber music, in the home.
In
domestic circles the performance of string quartets was mainly the province of
skilled amateurs, and of professional musicians playing for recreation. Modern
pieces, such as Brahms’s and Dvořák’s quartets, with their increasing
technical demands, were probably usually attempted only by professionals; the
same was true of the piano chamber repertory (for instance Brahms’s piano trios
and duo sonatas). Even the less demanding Viennese works may have been beyond
the technical capabilities of most amateur players, though groups may have
elected to play fast movements below tempo, to perform simple movements (slow
movements and minuets) only, or to battle through regardless. Some composers
and publishers catered explicitly for amateur needs: in the early 19th century
Georges Onslow, an experienced amateur cellist, wrote numerous string quintets
which he tried out with friends before they were published with alternative
scorings (two violas or two cellos, or with double bass); nearly a century
later piano-rolls of the keyboard parts of piano chamber works by Brahms,
Tchaikovsky and others were being manufactured and sold, offering above-average
amateur string players the opportunity of trying repertory that was beyond the
technical capabilities of most amateur pianists.
See also Concert (ii) and Recital.
Chamber music
5. After World War I.
Chamber
music after World War I was characterized by a number of changes in its
creation and consumption, themselves bound up with shifting aesthetic, social
and economic factors.
(i) Composition.
(ii) Ensembles, sound
recording and concerts.
(iii) Domestic
music-making.
Chamber music, §5:
After World War I
(i) Composition.
Reactions
against the large forces and emotional excesses of late Romanticism led in part
to a renewed interest in chamber music composition, beginning in the early 20th
century. Not only did chamber music offer composers the discipline of writing
for leaner forces, but also, because it required few players, rehearsals and
public performances were more viable, both practically and economically. The
rejection of 19th-century traditions, and the quest for individuality,
contributed to increasingly imaginative combinations of instruments and to the
appearance of the voice (with or without text) in instrumental pieces of
chamber dimensions. Works such as Webern’s Quartet op.22 (tenor saxophone,
piano, clarinet and violin), Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps
(piano, violin, clarinet and cello), Boulez’s Le marteau sans maître
(contralto voice, alto flute, guitar, vibraphone, xylorimba, percussion and
viola) and Maxwell Davies’s Ave maris stella (flute, clarinet, marimba,
piano, viola, cello) broadened the instrumental spectrum, while pieces
requiring electronic amplification (e.g. Crumb’s Black Angels for
electric string quartet), combining acoustic instruments or voices with tape
(e.g. Berio’s Différences for flute, clarinet, harp, violin, cello and
tape or Babbitt’s Philomel for soprano voice and tape) or with live
electronics (e.g. Stockhausen’s Mikrophonie I for tam-tam, two
microphones, two filters and potentiometers, or his Solo for one melody
instrument and manipulated tape feedback), led chamber music in new directions.
In addition, some composers wrote works for small orchestra with one player per
part – for example Berg’s Kammerkonzert for piano, violin and 13 wind
instruments (Schoenberg’s Kammersymphonie op.9 for 15 instruments of
1906 set the precedent) – creating the related genres of chamber symphony and
chamber concerto (see Chamber orchestra and Chamber
symphony).
The
stylistic pluralism of 20th-century music had its effect on chamber works,
through such techniques as serialism (Schoenberg’s String Quartet no.4),
neo-classicism (Stravinsky’s Octet), aleatoricism (Cowell’s Mosaic Quartet)
and minimalism (Nyman’s String Quartet no.2). Traditional chamber genres
(sonatas, piano trios etc.) survived to varying extents and in new conceptual
guises, with only the string quartet enjoying something of a rejuvenation in
the hands of Bartók (whose quartets rival those from Beethoven’s late period in
intellectual rigour, emotional intensity and frequency of performance),
Shostakovich, Janáček, Britten, Tippett, Ligeti and Carter. Such works
clearly suggest that the quartet has maintained its magnetism as a vehicle for
the concentrated expression of a composer’s innermost thoughts. Some composers
have rejected generic labels while continuing to write for traditional forces
(e.g. Terry Riley’s Salome Dances for Peace, for string quartet). New
directions in the post-World War II period include a tendency towards
theatricality (e.g. Roger Reynolds’s The Emperor of Ice Cream, which
requires performers to change their positions on stage during the performance)
and techniques that sit uneasily with the inwardness and communion associated
with chamber music (e.g. Lutosławski’s aleatory String Quartet, which
requires the players to avoid coordinating with each other), thus challenging
the aesthetics of the genre (Bujic, 1982).
A
number of initiatives emanating from institutions and individuals have
stimulated and supported 20th-century chamber music composition. In 1922 the
Internationale Kammermusikaufführung Salzburg gave birth to the International
Society for Contemporary Music, an important supporter of chamber music during
the inter-war years. An annual festival of contemporary chamber music was
established in Donaueschingen in 1921, later moving to Baden-Baden (1926) and
eventually widening its scope. In the USA the benefactor Elizabeth
Sprague Coolidge instituted a chamber music festival in Pittsfield, Massachusetts
(1918–24), established a foundation (1925) to fund concerts at the Library of
Congress in Washington, and commissioned a host of new chamber works from
Bartók, Webern, Casella, Bloch, Martinů and others (fig.6).
In England the businessman w.w. Cobbett carried out similar acts of
philanthropy, commissioning new works from composers and financing several
awards, including composition prizes at the RCM in the 1920s, and the
competition (established 1905) for ‘phantasy’ chamber works (multi-section,
one-movement pieces that took their inspiration from the Elizabethan viol
fantasia; winners included Bridge and Howells). The years after World War II
saw further direct support for the composition and performance of contemporary
chamber music, including the introduction of residences for chamber ensembles
in universities (especially in the USA and UK), the prevalence of chamber media
in international composition competitions and the establishment of
commissioning programmes by such organizations as Chamber Music America (1983).
Other, more general measures, for instance the establishment of festivals and
societies for the promotion of new music, and public broadcasting policies and
record labels catering for minority tastes, have contributed to a continuing
interest in new works of chamber proportions. However, in spite of these
efforts, and with some notable exceptions (for instance the quartets of Bartók,
Shostakovich, Janáček, Ravel, Barber and Tippett), most 20th-century
chamber music has remained on the periphery of the mainstream concert
repertory, which has become anchored around a relatively small number of
canonic works, largely from the past.
Most
20th-century chamber music has been written for the increasing number of highly
skilled instrumentalists on the professional circuit and intended for use in
the concert hall (and through the new format of gramophone recordings). Works
such as Bartók’s and Carter’s quartets are well beyond the capabilities of most
amateurs, requiring a group of players with virtuoso instrumental techniques
who are able to cope with the difficulties of ensemble and intonation inherent
in the writing.
Chamber music, §5:
After World War I
(ii) Ensembles, sound recording and concerts.
The
formation of permanent ensembles of professional players, already in evidence
towards the end of the 19th century, increased dramatically in the 20th,
particularly after World War II when technical standards of performance were
raised to unprecedented levels. Among the many groups that established
significant international reputations were the Léner, Kolisch, Busch, Pro Arte,
Budapest, Juilliard, Amadeus, Cleveland, Tokyo, Lindsay and Alban Berg
quartets, and the Beaux Arts and Borodin trios; several ensembles, for instance
the Boston Symphony Chamber Players and the Czech Philharmonic Wind Quintet,
were formed from the ranks of professional orchestras. The emergence in the
1950s and 60s of the ‘early music’ movement, which brought large quantities of
pre-1750 chamber music to the fore, gave rise to ensembles devoted to the
performance of music on period instruments and in historically informed styles;
by the late 20th century there were several groups specializing both in
Renaissance and Baroque chamber music (e.g. Fretwork, Trio Sonnerie, Purcell
Quartet) and in the Classical and early Romantic repertories (Salomon Quartet,
Quatuor Mosaïques, London Fortepiano Trio). In addition, a division has emerged
between ensembles that play mainly the core concert repertory of works from
Haydn to Tippett on modern instruments (such as the Lindsay and Talich
quartets, and the Nash Ensemble) and those that specialize in the performance
of new music (such as the Arditti and Kronos quartets and the Ensemble
InterContemporain).
From
the 1920s, broadcasts and sound recordings brought far-reaching changes to
chamber music consumption, opening up the repertory to those who had hitherto
been unable – for whatever demographic, social and/or economic reasons – to
attend chamber concerts, and increasing the means by which chamber music
enthusiasts were able to gain greater familiarity with the repertory through
hearings in their own homes. Chamber music was, by its very nature, apt for
domestic consumption in this way (listening to Schubert’s String Quintet in the
home is intrinsically more natural than listening to Schubert’s Ninth
Symphony), and even before the start of electrical recording in 1927 chamber
music was able to be reproduced on recordings more successfully than, for
example, orchestral works. By the mid-1930s much of the standard concert
repertory (i.e. a large number of string quartets, some string quintets, violin
sonatas and works for miscellaneous combinations, and a handful of piano trios,
by composers from Haydn to Debussy) had been recorded by such artists as the
Busch, Flonzaley, London and Léner quartets, Albert Sammons, Lionel Tertis and
William Murdoch. The issuing of multiple versions on records, and repeated
broadcasts of ‘classic’ works, served to reinforce the central canon of chamber
music; at the same time certain recordings (e.g. the Casals-Thibaud-Cortot
trio’s performance of Schubert’s B Piano Trio d898 and the Busch
Quartet’s performance of Beethoven’s ‘Rasumovsky’ and late string quartets)
began to gain their own canonic status. Musically informed, close listening and
a developing interest in comparing different recordings of the same work were
encouraged by the publication of listening guides to chamber music. Chamber
music still bore connotations of an ‘élitist’ taste, but gramophone listeners
were constantly encouraged to develop an appreciation of it. Recordings of
modern music formed a minor slice of the repertory, and were mainly issued by
particular interest groups, for example the National Gramophone Society in the
UK, which specialized in works by contemporary composers. In the late 1920s the
BBC’s broadcast repertory of chamber music, though built around the accepted
‘classics’, included a significant amount (c25%; Jefferies, 1929–30) of
modern works, by Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Hindemith, Bartók, Kodály,
Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Koechlin, Walton and others, played by international
artists.
Alongside
the new interest in recordings and broadcasting, chamber music concerts and
societies continued in major cities in Europe and North America after the
disruptions of World War I, with performances by professional ensembles in
small concert halls, libraries, museums, art galleries and churches. Occasional
concerts and/or regular series also became a feature of musical life in many
small towns, often at the instigation of local music clubs. Instrumental
concert programmes began to crystallize into formats of three or four
contrasting works by different composers (and often including one modern work)
during the 1920s and 30s, as the diversity of programming characteristic of the
19th century began to be replaced by a new homogeneity. Song recital programmes
developed similar coherence. A small number of concerts or series celebrated
one composer’s output (most typically Beethoven’s quartets), or were devoted
wholly to contemporary music. Recitals for violin (with piano accompaniment),
for which a large sonata repertory exists, also emerged, and as the century
progressed the solo recital for melody instrument (not only the violin, but
also several other instruments, including cello, viola and clarinet) and piano
became a prevalent concert type.
World
War II brought much concert activity to a temporary halt (the lunchtime
recitals at the National Gallery, London, were one prominent exception), but
the second half of the century saw a resumption and expansion of concert life,
as the advent of easy international travel and communications opened up new
possibilities for professional artists. A number of developments followed,
among them the establishment of regular chamber concerts in cities in the
southern hemisphere. Musica Viva Australia (1945–), an organization devoted to
the promotion of chamber music tours by distinguished local and foreign
artists, brought chamber music to several Australian cities; the New Zealand
Federation of Chamber Music Societies (1945–) functioned in a similar fashion.
Other initiatives included the organization of concerts on university campuses
and the foundation of specialist festivals (e.g. the Santa Fe Chamber Music
Festival, 1973–) and competitions (e.g. the Banff International String Quartet
Competition, 1983–), the winning of which could be central to the successful
launch of a young ensemble on an international career.
The
growth of the early music movement in the 1950s and 60s had a significant
impact on both the concert repertory and the recorded and broadcast media. In
the inter-war years only a relatively small amount of chamber music from the
pre-Classical eras – typically sonatas by Bach, Handel and Purcell,
arrangements for violin and piano of Baroque keyboard pieces, and pieces played
on modern instruments (e.g. Bach’s viola da gamba sonatas on the cello and
piano, or Purcell’s viol fantasias played by a string quintet) – had been
recorded or regularly played in concerts. From the 1950s the amount of Baroque
and Renaissance music in the repertory increased steadily, as performers began
to restore familiar pieces to their ‘rightful’ instruments and to play the
unknown works that were being exhumed and edited by musicologists. In
particular the recorded repertory (now on LP) mushroomed, as large amounts of
chamber works by Bach, Corelli, Couperin, Handel, Locke, Rameau, Telemann,
Vivaldi and others entered the catalogues. At the same time, recording
companies sought to embrace the complete works of many composers in the central
canon, in particular Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert.
By
the 1990s an unprecedentedly wide range of chamber music had become
commercially available on CDs, reflecting the diversity of contemporary tastes
and modern desires for collecting and completeness while also demonstrating the
ability of the record companies to market and sell effectively ‘niche’ works of
minority interest. The purchaser now has a large choice of repertory (from
madrigals, viol fantasias and Baroque sonatas to Classical quartets,
19th-century drawing-room miniatures and works by contemporary composers),
performers and performance styles; minor works of well-known composers sit
beside a host of pieces by numerous lesser-known ones. The mainstream concert
repertory is represented by both modern artists and remastered classic
recordings of the past. The gap between popular, non-Western and classical
modern repertories has been imaginatively bridged by a few chamber groups –
most notably the Kronos Quartet – who have issued thematic ‘crossover’ albums
which juxtapose different compositional idioms while presenting works that share
a particular extra-musical connection (e.g. Kronos Quartet’s Black Angels,
which brings together a variety of works on a theme of war and persecution).
The proliferation of chamber music on record and radio has meant that much of
the repertory has become available in the environment of privacy for which it
was originally intended, even though the mass use of personal stereos and
in-car sound systems means that the physical surroundings for musical
consumption are no longer restricted to the home. While the recorded repertory
has expanded hugely, most mainstream concert programmes remain based around the
central canon (which sound recordings played a vital role in creating earlier
in the century), with unusual repertory, when included, surrounded by familiar
works.
See also Concert (ii); Early music; Radio; Recital; and Recorded
sound, §1.
Chamber music, §5: After World War I
(iii) Domestic music-making.
Piano
playing and singing flourished in many working- and middle-class homes in the
early decades of the 20th century, but were rivalled and eventually widely
replaced by listening to radio and sound recordings as the predominant mode of
domestic musical entertainment. In spite of this overall shift, a small and
musically sophisticated section of society – most notably music students, amateurs
(many of them trained to an unprecedentedly high level) and some professional
musicians playing together for pleasure – has continued to play chamber music
in private. Rigid associations between instruments and gender have been largely
eroded. In Germany, ensemble playing has been particularly well sustained by
the Hausmusik tradition: instrument-playing members of the professional
classes often form quartets for recreational music-making. Less able amateur
players have, of necessity, confined themselves to technically easier works,
such as Baroque trio sonatas, the simpler Viennese quartets and Romantic piano
pieces, with difficult 19th-century works and much 20th-century chamber music
remaining, for the most part, beyond their performance horizons.
Interest
in ensemble playing in the home has been catered for and supported by the
publication of a number of books and articles on how to perform chamber music,
and of repertory guides and bespoke periodicals; by the establishment of
amateur associations, such as the Amateur Chamber Music Players, an American
organization established in 1947 by Leonard Strauss and Helen Rice as a network
for those who play chamber music for pleasure (in 1997 its membership stood at
more than 4000); and by the increase since World War II in the number of
courses, summer schools and festivals at which amateur chamber musicians can
receive professional coaching. Although ensemble playing has long enjoyed a
prominent role in conservatory education, its importance as a means of
developing musicianship in young players has been increasingly recognized
through the publication of easy music for ensembles and the establishment of
specialized youth chamber-music organizations for players of more advanced
abilities.
Chamber music
BIBLIOGRAPHY
repertory lists, catalogues
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reference sources
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17th and 18th centuries
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