chamber music

A work of chamber music is a musical composition intended for a small ensemble of strings, woodwind, brass or percussion, which traditionally, before the rise of public concerts, could fit in the 'great chamber' of a palace. Each part is written for a single instrumentalist, with originally neither conductor nor designated soloist. When some voices are doubled or tripled, particularly among the strings, it is called a chamber orchestra; beyond that, it is called an orchestra, qualified by its instrumental make-up (symphonic, string, wind, brass band).

Writing for these ensembles — duos, trios, quartets, quintets, sextets, septets, octets, nonets and dectets — requires composers to have a command of harmony, polyphony, counterpoint and organology. In classical music, writing string quartets is often considered one of the pinnacles of musical composition.

These ensembles of a few soloists, each pursuing their own voice independently of the others, are most often 'led' by the highest instrument (the first violin in a string quartet, the flautist in a wind quintet), but some more complex works, or those with larger forces, require the presence (always optional, but often essential) of a conductor (Mozart's Gran Partita for 13 wind instruments in B-flat major, Dvořák's Serenade in D minor, Op. 44 for winds, cello and double bass).

In principle, the term excludes pieces featuring a sung part, despite the intimate character often carried by melody and lied. Some 20th- and 21st-century composers, however, introduce voice into chamber ensembles, such as Schoenberg in his second string quartet, Op. 10 (1908), Ottorino Respighi in Il tramonto (1914), Olivier Greif in his String Quartet No. 3 with voice (1998) and Elena Ruehr in her second quartet 'Song of the Silkie' (2000). In some recent works, the composer chooses to add a part for fixed sound (magnetic tape or CD, for example) to the acoustic instruments, or even to amplify them using microphones, or to transform their sound using a computer.