The History of Chamber Music - 895 Words

The History of Chamber Music What is chamber music? It is ensemble instrumental music for up to about ten performers with typically one performer to a part. Since circa 1450, there has been instrumental music designed for private playing. These pieces used many instruments and (in Germany) it was common that the folk songs would contain 2-3 countermelodies to expand and elaborate the whole, and to arrange the outcome for groups of instruments. Although the pieces were never written for particular instruments, we can, through art/paintings, reasonably guess that the viol was a predominant early chamber music instrument. A more important source of later chamber music is to be found in the†¦show more content†¦Parallel to the developments that led from the vocal chanson, in France, to the instrumental canzona, primarily in Italy, was the development of the dance suite. Early sixteenth-century dance tunes in all countries of Western Europe usually had appeared in pairs: one was slow, stately in mood and in duple metre (i.e., with two beats to the bar); the other fast, lively in mood, usually in triple metre, and often melodically similar to the first. Through much of the sixteenth century, composers in the several countries sought to expand the dance pair into a unified dance suite. Suites based on variations of one movement appeared in England; suites in which each of four dances had its own rhythmic character, melodically based on the first dance, were written in Germany; sets of dances with no internal relationships to each other were common in Italy. The most influential steps were taken in France by composers for the lute or the clavecin (harpsichord). Consisting essentially of four dance forms that were then popular – the allemande, courante, sarabande, and gigue – the suites they composed were based on contrasting tempos, metres, and rhythmic patterns. The French version of the dance suite became the prototype for later chamber-music forms. It was not until the middle of the seventeenth century that two types of composition –Show MoreRelatedHistory of the Violas Role in Part-Writing for Chamber Music975 Words   |  4 PagesCarolyn Hunter Music 700 November 1, 2009 Mini-Research Paper #2 History of the Viola’s Role in Part-Writing for Chamber Music There is considerable debate amongst scholars as to whether the birth of the viola preceded or succeeded that of the violin. However, iconographic and documentary evidence indicate that the violin, viola, and cello most likely evolved together as a family of instruments very early in the sixteenth century and almost certainly in northern Italy. Part-writingRead MoreEssay about Handel and Bach Comparisons840 Words   |  4 PagesJacob Zeller Professor Davidson History of Music 114:01 15 November 2012 Bach v. Handel When thinking of composers, whose works changed the world of music forever, many names may come to mind. Among those on that list, both Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel are figures whose effect on music has been felt worldwide. Born in the same year, these composers have much in common and many differences that illustrate their importance to their era and music as we see it today. Their individualismRead MoreThe Van Beethoven s Musical Style And Innovations1263 Words   |  6 PagesLuwig Van Beethoven Ludwig Van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany and spent his musical career in Vienna. Beethoven is â€Å"widely considered to be one of the pre-eminent classical music figures of the Western world† (Beethoven 5). 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Carter received his undergraduate degree in English at Harvard University, but he also studied music there, as well as at the