Chamber Music

Question 1

In the Classical Period what is chamber music defined as?

Answer 1

Music for a small group of playes (usually three or more) with one player to a part

Question 2

Where does the term come from?

Answer 2

Earlier music played in a room (or “chamber”) in a palace or castle, rather than in a concert hall, church or theatre

Question 3

Who wrote chamber music?

Answer 3

All three

Question 4

What does a string trio consist of?

Answer 4

Violin, Viola and cello

Question 5

What does a string quartet consist of?

Answer 5

2x Violin, Viola , Cello

Question 6

What does a string quintet consist of?

Answer 6

2x Violins, 2x Violas, Cello

Question 7

What is a piano trio?

Answer 7

Piano, violin, cello

Question 8

What is a clarinet quintet?

Answer 8

Clarinet and string quartet

Question 9

What is the structure of chamber music? What is it similar to?

Answer 9

From this era is essentially a sonata for a small group of instruments, first movement is sonata form with 2 or 3 other movements

Question 10

Who shaped the string quartet?

Answer 10

Was a new and important chamber music form in the Classical period and although probably not invented by Haydn, he was the person who shaped the genre; both Mozart and Beethoven studied his string quartets

Question 11

In Vienna was the string quartet performed privately or publically?

Answer 11

Privately, giving composers more freedom to write as they choose

Question 12

What did the string quartet allow for Mozart and Haydn?

Answer 12

Was the only genre they wrote for pleasure, to play at a “quartet party” with friends

Question 13

Where could the impetus for Haydn to compose string quartets come from?

Answer 13

1. The desire to compose music without the harpsichord (found in nearly all Baroque instrumental music), possibly so could be performed outside
2. His visit to a country house, happened to be 3 other musicians who with him made a string quartet

Question 14

What is often acknowledged to be the highest form of chamber music?

Answer 14

String quartets

Question 15

What were Haydn’s early piano trios very much like?

Answer 15

Very much like accompanied sonatas, with a dominant piano and the other instruments accompanying or doubling; but his later works and Mozart’s trios began to give the strings a little more independence, a development continued by Beethoven

Question 16

At Eisenstadt , why did Haydn write 126 trios for baryton, viola and cello?

Answer 16

Because Prince Nikolaus played the baryton. The stringed instrument is bowed and is similar to a viol, but there are extra strings which can either be plucked or left to vibrate sympathetically

Question 17

Why was Mozart keen to write for the clarinet? What piece did he write?

Answer 17

He wrote his clarinet quintet K 581 for the clarinettist Anton Stadler, for whom he wrote his clarinet concerto and a trio for clarinet, viola and piano

Question 18

Why are Mozarts 6 string quintets with an extra viola argued to be better than his quartets?

Answer 18

Allowing for more depth of tone and for varying combinations of groups of two and three instruments. To accommodate the extra Viola Mozart tended to write the 1st violin and cello parts further apart.

Question 19

How many string quintets did Beethoven write?

Answer 19

A few, but many were arrangements of other works

Question 20

Mozart also wrote… quartets and other compositions for various ensembles including wind instruments and sometimes piano

Answer 20

Flute

Question 21

What other chamber combinations did Beethoven write for?

Answer 21

Various for wind ensemble, sometimes with piano, including a trio for clarinet, cello and piano