Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any "art music" that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part. The word "chamber" signifies that the music can be performed in a small room, often with an intimate atmosphere. However, it usually does not include, by definition, solo instrument performances.

Resources

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

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

Performance

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

Ensembles

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This is a partial list of the types of ensembles found in chamber music.

| Instrumental Duo || any instrument and pno || Found especially as instrumental sonatas; i.e., violin, cello, viola, horn, bassoon, clarinet, flute sonatas). |rowspan=3| Duet || Piano Duet || 1 pno, 4 hands | Vocal Duet || voice, pno || Commonly used in the art song, or Lieder. | Instrumental Duet || 2 of any instrument | Piano Trio || vln, vc, pno | Clarinet, Viola and Piano || cl, vla, pno || Mozart's trio K498, other works by Robert Schumann and Max Bruch | Flute, Viola and Harp || fl, vla, hrp || Famous works by Debussy and Arnold Bax | Clarinet-violin-piano trio || cl, vln, pno || Largely a 20th century invention, but growing in popularity; famous compositions by Béla Bartók, Milhaud and Khachaturian.

Horn Trio || hrn, cl, pno || 19th cenutry works; specifically the Trio in Eb Op. 40 by Brahms]] > |rowspan=2| Piano Quartet || vln, vla, vc, pno | vln, cl, vc, pno || Rare; famous example: Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps; less famous: Hindemith (1938), Walter Rabl (Op. 1; 1896). | vln, vla, vc, cb, pno || An uncommon instrumentation used by Franz Schubert in his Trout Quintet. | Woodwind Quintet || fl, cl, ob, bsn, hrn | String Quintet || 2 vln, vla, vc with additional vla or vc | Brass Quintet || 2 tr, 1 trm, 1, tuba, 1 hrn | Piano Sextet || 2 vln, vla, vc, cb, pno | Piano and Wind Quintet || fl, ob, cl, bsn, hrn, pno || Such as the Poulenc Sextet. | || cl, 2 vln, vla, vc, pno || An example is Prokofiev's Overture on Hebrew Themes Op. 34. | String Octet || 4 vln, 2 vla, 2 vc || Popularized by Mendelssohn's String Octet Op. 20. | Double Quartet || 4 vln, 2 vla, 2 vc || Two string quartets arranged antiphonically. | Wind Octet || 2 ob, 2 cl, 2 hrn, 2 bsn

Number of Musicians	Name	Common Ensembles	Instrumentation	Comments
2	Duo	Piano Duo	2 pno
3	Trio	String Trio	vln, vla, vc
4	Quartet	String Quartet	2 vln, vla, vc
5	Quintet	Piano Quintet	2 vln, vla, vc, pno
6	Sextet	String Sextet	2 vln, 2 vla, 2 vc	Important among these are Brahms' Op. 18 and Op. 36 Sextets.
7	Septet		cl, hrn, bsn, vln, vla, vc, cb	Popularized by Beethoven's Septet Op. 20.
8	Octet		cl, hrn, bsn, 2 vln, vla, vc, cb	Popularized by Schubert's Octet D. 803, inspired by Beethoven's Septet.
9	Nonet
Index: vln - violin; vla - viola; vc - cello; cb - double bass; pno - piano; fl - flute; ob - oboe; cl - clarinet; bsn - bassoon; hrn - horn; tr - trumpet; trm - trombone

The standard repertoire for chamber ensembles is rich, and the totality of chamber music in print in sheet music form is nearly boundless. See the articles on each instrument combination for examples of repertoire.

References

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

External links

• The Amateur Chamber Music Players publishes a contact list of musicians worldwide who play chamber music for their own enjoyment. They also publish lists of repertoire.
• http://www.composerplanet.com/cgi-bin/wiki.cgi?ChamberMusic
• Art of the States: Chamber/small chamber music (3-8 instruments) by American composers
• Art of the States: Chamber/large chamber music (9+ instruments) by American composers

Chamber music | Musical groups

Kammermusik | Kammermusik | Kammermuusika | Música de cámara | Musique de chambre | Musica da camera | מוזיקה קאמרית | Kamermuziek | 重奏 | Kammermusikk | Kammermusikk | Chamber music | Komorna glasba | Kamarimusiikki | Kammarmusik | 室内乐