Download Chamber Music is instrumental music for an ensemble, usually

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.
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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.
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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