People have asked me from time to time to explain to them what is meant by the term chamber music. I shall endeavor in this essay to explain the meaning of the term and describe some of the different kinds of chamber music. 

Chamber music is music that was intended by the composer to be played in the drawing room or parlor of aristocrats. Though the concept existed long before the classical period (1770-1800) chamber music really blossomed during that time. In chamber music, the number of musicians is small, the intended audience is small, and the composer had a more intimate musical experience in mind than he would have when composing a symphony or concerto, though stylistic aspects of symphonies, concertos, etc, can be found in chamber music.

The quintessential genre of chamber music is the string quartet. Josef Haydn transformed the string quartet from simple background music that might be playing while aristocrats converse and socialize, to a sophisticated composition that is aimed at connoisseurs of music. Mozart followed Haydn’s lead in this, and Beethoven took the string quartet into a very lofty realm with his late quartets. It can be said that the string quartets of the great triumvirate of composers of the classical style represents the pure essence of that style. The string quartet always consisted of two violins, viola, and cello.

Besides the string quartet, there exists string trios, string quintets, and with Brahms, even a couple of string sextets. There is also chamber music for wind instruments, for piano with wind instruments, and for various combinations of piano and strings. Chamber music with one wind instrument added to a group of strings is named after the wind instrument. An example of that would be the Clarinet Quintet by Mozart, which by the way, is an incomparable masterpiece.

The nomenclature for chamber music with strings and piano is somewhat misleading. When you hear the term piano trio, for example, keep in mind that it does not mean a composition with three pianos, but means a composition with violin, cello, and piano. A piano quartet would be a composition with a violin, viola, cello, and piano. A piano quintet is a composition for piano plus string quartet.

It is a rather interesting fact that Haydn and Beethoven realized their most profound inspirations in the string quartet, but for Mozart it was the string quintet which expresses his deepest profundity. As for the string trio, the beautifully masterful example by Mozart is the only such opus in the classical repertoire. The piano trio is a genre that seems to have elicited a more cheerful musical conception from the composers. In fact, chamber music for piano and strings is usually of a more jovial, cheerful nature than chamber music for strings alone.

If you want to hear some of the best chamber music from the classical masters, but string quartets and quintets are too serious for you, I highly recommend the piano trios of Haydn and Mozart. There are only two of Mozart’s piano trios that are great masterpieces, but there are many by Haydn. There are certain stylistic differences between the two. In Haydn’s piano trios the cello merely doubles the bass line of the piano, but in Mozart the cello is given an independent role. In my opinion neither approach is superior, just different.

Mozart composed to masterful piano quartets and five piano trios (a sixth one was left uncompleted).I highly recommend Mozart’s B-flat Piano Trio, K502 as well as the one in E major. The E-major Piano Trio, K542 of Mozart was a favorite of Chopin, who was known to have performed it in the salons of Paris with a couple of his musician friends. Haydn composed so many fine piano trios that I hesitate to recommend any of them over the others, but the one known as the Gypsy Trio is particularly fine. It has a beautiful slow movement, and the  gypsy-styled finale that gave it its name is a movement that cannot fail to please.

I have refrained from mentioning Schubert alongside of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, not because I consider him inferior (I don’t), but because he is somewhat unique. Aside from some string quartets and some chamber music involving wind instruments, Schubert left us with a beautiful string quintet, two beautiful piano trios, and a unique and wonderful piano quintet. In Schubert’s string quartet, he uses two cellos rather than the two violas of Mozart’s string quintets.  This allowed him to create some rather interesting effects in the bass register. His piano quintet, popularly known as the Trout Quintet, is unique because its scoring for piano, violin, viola, cello, and bass violin. As far as I know, this is the only use of a bass violin in chamber music. The instrument was avoided in chamber music, and this may have something to do with its cumbersomeness, but probably has more to do with the opacity of its sound. Schubert’s use of bass violin in the Trout Quintet skillfully avoids allowing the instrument to disturb the transparency of sound.

In the last decade of the eighteenth century it was a common practice for composers to create piano trio versions of popular symphonies. Some of these piano trio arrangements were not done by the composer of the symphony. Certain symphonies do not lend themselves well to piano trio reductions, and Beethoven’s second symphony was the last symphony which was given such treatment. It would be unthinkable to reduce Beethoven’s third symphony to a piano trio.

There are many wonderful pieces of chamber music by composers after Beethoven, most notably Mendelssohn and Brahms, but I have concentrated here on Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert because I feel that their chamber music represents the best examples in that genre and can be considered somewhat seminal.