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Chamber Music is instrumental music for an ensemble, usually ranging from two to about ten players, with one player for each part and all parts of equal importance. Chamber music from about 1750 has been principally for string quartet (two violins, viola, and cello), although string quintets as well as duets, trios, and quintets of four stringed instruments plus a piano or wind instrument have also been popular. It is called chamber music because it was originally meant for private performance, typically in a small hall or a person's private chambers. Public concerts of chamber music were initiated only in the 19th century. In the classical era (about 1750 to about 1820) Austrian composer Joseph Haydn developed chamber music as a style distinct from other ensemble music. Haydn established the string quartet as the most common chamber music ensemble. His quartets were usually written in the four-movement sonata structure (a fast movement, a slow movement, a minuet, and another fast movement), a form which predominated in the classical era. Chamber music in the classical era, as developed by Haydn and his compatriot Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, was also distinguished by finely wrought, complex, intimate interplay between the four instruments. Chamber music in the romantic era (about 1820 to about 1900) tended to follow classical traditions. Composers often used the four-movement sonata structure, and the string quartet continued to be a favored combination of instruments. As composers sought to express intense emotion in their works, pieces featuring the piano, such as the Trout Quintet (1819) by Austrian Franz Schubert, and the Piano Quintet in F Minor (1864) by German Johannes Brahms, became popular, since the piano possessed a greater dynamic and expressive range than other chamber instruments. German composer Ludwig van Beethoven greatly expanded the dimensions of the string quartet while preserving its intimate character as well. Public performances of chamber music also became common, and composers often created chamber music intended for public performance, thus changing chamber music's original function. Several trends emerged in 20th-century chamber music. - Classical genres such as the string quartet were infused with contemporary idioms and techniques in works of French composers Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, Hungarian Béla Bartók, Austrians Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, Russian composer Dmitry Shostakovich, and American Elliott Carter. - Chamber music ensembles of varied composition—often including voices, harp, guitar, and wind and percussion instruments—became primary vehicles for new music by composers such as Schoenberg, Webern, Russian-born Igor Stravinsky, and French Pierre Boulez. Chamber music, once the domain of amateurs, playing for their own pleasure, has become increasingly popular with concert-hall audiences. Numerous professional chamber music groups flourish in the United States and around the world. Contributed by: Genevieve Vaughn