Pared de Hadrian

A work of chamber music is a musical Composition which each left is written for only one Instrumentiste. So certain voices are doubled or tripled, particularly in the Cordes, one speaks about Chamber orchestra; beyond of Orchestra with the qualifier of its instrumental composition (symphonic, with cords, of harmony, Brass band…).

Design of these duet S, trio S, quartet S, quintet S, sextets, septuors, octuors, little nuns and dixtuors… request with the type-setters a knowledge of the Harmonie, Polyphonie, counterpoint, Organologie that only some knew to lead to their apogee. In classical music, the composition of string quartets is generally regarded as one of heights of the musical writing.

This whole of some soloists, carrying out their voice independently of the others, generally has like " meneur" the acutest instrument (the first Violin in the String quartet, the Flutist in the Wind quintet…), but certain more complex works or of a more important manpower, require the presence (always optional, but often essential) of a Leader ( Gran Partita for 13 wind instruments in major B flat of Mozart, Sérénade in minor D op.44 for winds, violoncello and double bass of Dvořák…).

History

If the expression " music of chambre" appears at the period baroque, because intended to be played in the intimacy of the interiors of noble or fortunate amateurs (from where his name), as of the Moyen-âge and during the Renaissance of many whole of cords, wood, coppers, mixed or in Consort are formed and played independently of the vocal polyphony, but according to generally its writing rules to four votes (soprano, viola, tenor and low).

Duets

There exist many types of duets which can carry the most various titles.

of the same instrument: often written with a teaching aim, some exceeded the framework of an instrumental class, for example those for 2 horns of Mozart, 2 violoncellos of Offenbach, those for 2 clarinets or 2 violins of Bartok or for 2 saxophones of Hindemith. The piano is of course a particular case with the works written for piano four hands or two pianos (not to confuse, it is not at all the same writing: for the first, each musician uses part of only one keyboard, for the second the possibilities of two instruments); there there exists a specific repertory of concert and very varied, original works like the military Marches of Schubert, the Hungarian Danses of Brahms, the Slavic Danses of Dvořák to quote most known) or of arrangements sometimes made by the authors themselves like Ravel and its Boléro.

of two different instruments:

* for two melody instruments, they are often works of order for two friends; (…)

* most frequent associates a melody instrument and a polyphonic instrument like the immense repertory of the sonatas for instrument and keyboard (piano, harpsichord but also organ, toothing-stone, guitar…). The first examples are for " above and low continue" : the " dessus" being able to be a violin, a recorder or bridging piece, an oboe, a haversack… ; the " low continue" can include/understand several instrumentalists (théorbe, viola da gamba, virginal, violoncello, harpsichord, bassoon or guitar…) but she is always regarded as only one vote since all double the basic part. The sonatas exist for all types of combinations and some Compositeur S as Paul Hindemith was given for goal to write some for each instrument of the Orchestre.

Trios

In Baroque music, the Sonate in trio (sonata has tre, triosonate) indicates a writing with three parts, but being able to be played by:

a musician, for example Six sonatas in trio for organ of Jean-Sebastien Bach, (BWV 525 with BWV 530), a hand by keyboard plus the low one with the pedals;
two musicians, sonatas for violin and concerting harpsichord (BWV 1014-1019), a voice for the violin, for the right hand and for the left hand of the harpsichord; the latter, outgoing of the role of Basse continues, can be occasionally doubled by a violoncello or a bassoon;
three musicians, all solutions possible without low continues ;
four (or more) musicians, the " sonata in trio" is then written for two tops and a Basse continues, the latter being played by low melody (viola da gamba, violoncello, bassoon…) and one or more polyphonic instruments (théorbe, guitar, virginal, harpsichord, positive, organ…) .

Thereafter, in fact especially the trios with piano dominate, but one finds also whole of of the same instruments family like the trio with cords (violin, viola and violoncello), the trio of Anche S (oboe, clarinet, bassoon), the trio of coppers (trumpet, horn, trombone). Certain type-setters used of more daring formulas like Mozart with his " trios for basset horns " , Haydn and its 126 Barytontrios for baritone with cords, low viola and, Beethoven and its trio for two oboes, cor anglais… During the 20th century, trios much more daring (…)

Quartets

Ideal of the traditional Western music, this formula emphasizes to the maximum the potential of the polyphonic Musique and Harmonique. It initially vocal, then instrumental and was based on the writing with four superimposed votes Soprano, viola, Ténor and low. The formation queen of the chamber music is obviously the String quartet, whose immense repertory is at the same time a model, a goal to reach and a source of concern for each type-setter who dares to risk himself there… Of course, there exist many other quartets of of the same instruments family: one thus finds quartets of saxophones, of Trombone S, Clarinette S, Violoncelle S, Flûte S, percussions… There exist of course quartets Hétérogène S, like the Quatuor with piano (violin, viola, violoncello and piano), the quartet of sheers (oboe, clarinet, saxophone and bassoon), even of the units combining wood, cords and instruments polyphonic as Quartet COp 22 of Anton Webern (violin, clarinet, saxophone and piano).

Quintets

Often an extension of the quartets to another instrument like the quintets for string quartet and double bass (a kind of " small orchestre"), piano, or clarinet for example. There exist however two entirely original formulas: the wind quintet (flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon) and the copper quintet (2 trumpets, horn, trombone and tuba).

Sextets, septuors, octuors, little nuns and dixtuors…

The most known formulas are for cords (Brahms), but also for percussions, clarinets. But it is often the occasion for a type-setter to intermingle with the sonorities very varied as in the " Sextetto mistico" of Heitor Villa-Lobos: flute, oboe, saxophone, Glockenspiel, toothing-stone and guitar. Beyond seven instruments, one often joined the " small ensembles" , which in general requires the presence of a Leader, though Mozart (inter alia) wrote octuors of wind instruments.

In theory, the term excludes the parts comprising a left sung, in spite of the character intimist which often cover the melody and the Lied. Certain type-setters of the 20th century however introduce the voice into whole of chamber music, like Schönberg in its second string quartet (COp 10). It is true that Schubert and Brahms had already written Lieder where a horn, a flute or a clarinet united with the song and the piano. There exist also recent works where the type-setter chooses to associate part of Sons fixed (magnetic band or CD for example) at the acoustic instruments, even them Amplifier using Microphones, or to even transform their sound thanks to the Ordinateur.

Simple: Chamber music

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