Classical music written for a small group of instruments is collectively known as chamber music. This term came about because such compositions were intended for play in a salon or similar gathering place in one’s home. The intimacy of the setting allows for individual instruments to take on much greater impact than if they were part of a larger ensemble, such as in an orchestra.
There are many different kinds of chamber music, although the genre remained relatively loosely defined as late as the Baroque period. For example, many works written for keyboard—Bach’s Art of the Fugue is one such example—can just as easily be played by a string quartet. In fact, many composers earned a pretty decent living by transcribing larger works (either their own or those of their colleagues; with permission, of course) such as symphonies or operas, for smaller groups. The explosion in the popularity of chamber music can be laid directly to two events: the modernization of stringed instruments and the invention of the piano. New ways of building violins, cellos, and stringed basses allowed them to impart a richer and more distinctive tone. A simple thing such as the addition of a chin rest on violins and violas—the design is attributed to violinist and composer Louis Spohr—gave musicians greater freedom of movement and enabled them to play louder and with more expression. The piano, with its dynamic personality and huge range of notes, stood in perfectly for orchestral parts of transcribed musical pieces.
The nearly endless possible combination of instruments to make up a chamber music ensemble are limited only by a composer’s imagination, although there are some basic configurations that form the standard repertoire. A string trio is made up of a violin, a viola and a cello, while a string quartet adds a second violin. String quintets, sextets and septets (five, six and seven instruments respectively) will double the viola, the cello, and also add a string bass. A piano quintet usually refers to a string quartet plus piano; a clarinet quintet is a clarinet plus string quartet, and so on.
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