The Development of Chamber Music
Corelli and the "Sonata da Camera"--His distribution of
instruments--John Adam Reinken and the "Hortus Musicus"--Music
at the Court of Weimar--Bach and Gossec--The quartets of
Haydn--Mozart's chamber music--Beethoven and romanticism in
quartets--Brahms and Dvorak.
By chamber music is meant all that class of compositions written for
small collections of instruments and therefore suitable for performance
in small rooms only. It embraces trios, quartets, quintets, sextets,
septets, and octets, named according to the number of instruments
employed. The trio is most frequently written for piano, violin, and
'cello, but other combinations, such as piano, violin, and horn, etc.,
are used. When the word "quartet" is used alone, it signifies a string
quartet, consisting of first violin, second violin, viola, and 'cello. A
"piano quartet" is one in which the second violin is absent and a piano
appears. A quintet for strings may be for two violins, two violas, and
'cello (the usual arrangement), or two violins, one viola, and two
'celli. A piano quintet has a piano instead of the second viola or
second 'cello. Compositions for more than five instruments seldom use
the piano, but frequently introduced wood or brass instruments. But it
is not possible to fix any definite distribution of instruments in
chamber music, as there are compositions for almost every conceivable
combination, including those of wind instruments only.
It is not difficult to understand that chamber music originated in the
early medieval custom of accompanying banquets with music. Small bodies
of instrumental players formed for this purpose soon created a demand
for a separate kind of music for their performance, as well as a desire
to hear such music. Indeed chamber music, as such, existed before
orchestral music, for the old sonatas in four-voiced counterpoint,
written _da cantare e sonare_, when performed as instrumental
compositions, constituted what we should class to-day as chamber music.
But genuine modern chamber music began to take form when the violin
began to assert its true position and the correct balance of strings
began to be perceived. This, as we have seen, was subsequent to the time
of the violin maker Maggini (1581-1631) and previous to that the
violinist Corelli (1653-1713). In his labors tending toward the
development of the sonata form Corelli wrote real chamber music. His
compositions were classed either as "Sonate di Chiesa" or "Sonate da
Camera,"--church sonatas or chamber sonatas. The sonatas employed small
combinations of instruments in which the violin and the organ were the
chief principals, together with lutes and other stringed instruments.
Their relation to the development of the sonata form has already been
pointed out. The distribution of instruments, as leading toward modern
chamber music is what now concerns us. Corelli's first publication in
this line was "XII Sonate a tre, due violini e violoncello, col basso
per l'organo," opus 1, Rome, 1683. In 1685 (the year of Bach's birth) he
published twelve "sonate da camera" for two violins, 'cello, and
cembalo. He published other collections, one of which contained sonatas
for four violins, violoncello, and bass, two violins and the 'cello
playing the principal parts and the other instruments re-enforcing them
in the ensemble passages. The successors of Corelli followed his lead
and produced many compositions for small collections of instruments,
though it must be borne in mind that the idea of formal concerts of
chamber music, such as we have now, did not exist then.
When the development of instrumental music began to take a definite
direction in Germany, chamber music pure and simple made its appearance,
and Germany is the home of this kind of composition. John Adam Reinken
(born at Deventer, Holland, 1623, died at Hamburg, 1722, an organist,
studied under Swelinck, of the last period of the Netherlands school)
wrote a composition called "Hortus Musicus" for two violins, viola, and
bass, published at Hamburg, 1704. This composition is what we should now
call a suite, and it shows that the art of writing music for a quartet
had made considerable progress. We get some light as to the sort of
encouragement given to this kind of music from the fact that
instrumental performances by small bodies were cultivated earnestly at
the ducal court of Weimar between 1708 and 1715, chiefly because the
duke's nephew, Johann Ernst, "showed considerable talent for playing the
violin and clavier, and even for composition" [Spitta's "Life of Bach"].
Frederick the Great played the flute, and it is thought that this had
some influence with Sebastian Bach, who was much admired by the king. At
any rate Bach wrote a sonata for clavier, violin, and flute. He also
wrote a trio for two violins and bass, and other works which belonged to
the chamber music class. Quartet writing had made its way into France,
where François Joseph Gossec (1733-1829) published his first quartet in
1759, the year in which Haydn wrote his first symphony.
Chamber music known to the modern concert room dates from the first
quartet of Haydn, written in 1755. In the earlier works the form was
uncertain, and it was not until the sonata took definite shape that
composers discovered that the sonata form was the best adapted to the
development of thematic ideas suitable for chamber music, as well as
that of those suitable for symphonies. Scientific musicians were at
first prone to scoff at the string quartet as too slight in texture to
afford a vehicle for the display of genius. That was because they had
not fully mastered the art of writing a four-part harmony with
occasional transitions into the pure polyphonic style,--a method of
writing which is indispensable to quartet composition,--and also because
they did not yet thoroughly understand the scope and value of each
individual instrument. It cannot be said that even Haydn penetrated the
secrets of the capacities of his four instruments, for his quartet
writing shows frequent baldness in this respect; but he did write in
four-part harmony, and his quartets beyond all question set the pattern
for all that have followed them. Haydn wrote seventy-seven quartets, and
naturally his latest show an advance in style and treatment over his
earliest. These quartets are characterized by the fluency and simplicity
of their melodies, the conciseness and symmetry of their form, the
clearness and balance of their part writing, and the sunny sweetness of
their prevailing mood. There is nothing in the shape of instrumental
music much pleasanter or easier to listen to than one of Haydn's
quartets. The best of them hold their places in the concert rooms of
to-day, and they seem likely to live as long as there are people to
appreciate clear and logical composition which attempts nothing beyond
"organized simplicity."
Mozart wrote a great quantity of chamber music, including string
quintets, a quintet for clarinet and strings, a quintet for horn and
strings, thirty quartets, a quintet for piano, oboe, horn, clarinet, and
bassoon, two piano quartets and eight trios. His six early quartets,
dedicated to Haydn and published in 1785, do not make any alterations in
the form fixed by Haydn. But, to quote the words of Mozart's biographer,
Otto Jahn, "following a deeply rooted impulse of his nature, he
renounced the light and fanciful style in which Haydn treated them [the
features of the form], seized upon their legitimate points, and gave a
firmer and more delicate construction to the whole fabric. To say of
Mozart's quartets in their general features that, in comparison with
Haydn's, they are of deeper and fuller expression, more refined beauty,
and broader conception of form, is only to distinguish these as Mozart's
individual characteristics, in contrast with Haydn's inexhaustible fund
of original and humorous productive power." What is here said of
Mozart's early quartets applies fairly to all his chamber music. His
part writing is always delightful in its clearness and in its
preservation of the balance of power among the instruments. Every one
has something agreeable to say, and the saying of it never becomes a
muddle of sound. The composer's peculiar feeling for vocal style,
already mentioned, gives his various parts a fluency of melody not to be
found in the works of some more pretentious composers.
The complete establishment of the quartet as an art-form worthy to rank
beside the symphony is due to Beethoven. The list of Beethoven's chamber
music comprises the following: two octets in E-flat for wind, one septet
for strings and wind, one sextet in E-flat for strings and wood, one
sextet in E-flat for wind, two quintets for strings, sixteen quartets
for strings, two "Equali" for four trombones, five trios for strings,
one trio for strings and flute, one trio for wind, three duos for wind,
one quintet for piano and wind, one quartet for piano and strings, eight
trios for piano and strings, ten sonatas for piano and violin, five
sonatas for piano and 'cello, and a few other works. The trios are
uncommonly fine compositions, but the quartet was Beethoven's especial
choice among chamber music forms, and he used it for the embodiment of
some of his noblest thoughts. All that has been said about his treatment
of the piano sonata and the symphony applies to his treatment of the
quartet. Beethoven could not by any possibility take up such a
peculiarly intimate form of music without infusing into it a new life.
He made it the vehicle for the expression of a marvellous depth of
feeling. In doing so he made variations in the established form, but
without overthrowing or ignoring any of its fundamental principles.
Sir George Grove says, "The obscurity and individuality of the thoughts
themselves, and their apparent want of connection until they have become
familiar, is perhaps the cause that these noble works [the later
quartets] are so difficult to understand." But it is generally conceded
by critics and musicians that Beethoven's quartets, particularly those
in F, E minor, and C, dedicated to Count Rassoumoffsky, and called the
"Rassoumoffsky Quartets," are the noblest specimens of chamber music
extant. In his "Life of Mozart" Otto Jahn says:--
"The string quartet offers the most favorable conditions for the
development of instrumental music, both as to expression and
technical construction, giving free play to the composer in
every direction, provided only that he keep within the limits
imposed by the nature of his art. Each of the four combined
instruments is capable of the greatest variety of melodic
construction; they have the advantage over the piano in their
power of sustaining the vibrations of the notes, so as to
produce song-like effects; nor are they inferior in their power
of rapid movement. Their union enables them to fulfil the
demands of complete harmonies, and to compensate increase of
freedom and fulness for the advantages which the pianoforte
possesses as a solo instrument."
OPENING OF SLOW MOVEMENT OF BEETHOVEN'S SEVENTH QUARTET.
[Music: _Adagio molto e mesto._
VIOLIN 1.
VIOLIN 2.
VIOLA.
'CELLO.]
The listener to Beethoven's quartets will be impressed with the
applicability of these words to them, and he will in a measure be
prepared to see where some of Beethoven's successors have failed.
Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Spohr, and other German composers wrote
admirable chamber music. So have some of the French and Italian
composers. But it cannot be said that this branch of instrumental art,
its purest and most thoroughly symmetrical form, has made any advance
since Beethoven's day. On the contrary, it has retrograded. This is from
two causes: first, the frequency with which piano parts are written in a
style so massive and brilliant as to overwhelm the strings in trios or
piano quartets and quintets; and second, the unwise attempts of some
composers to imitate heavy orchestral effects with only four or five
stringed instruments.
Among those who have produced the best chamber music in recent years
must be mentioned Brahms and Dvorak, who have been named in the chapter
preceding this. The chamber music of Brahms includes a sextet for
strings, three piano quartets, a piano quintet, several trios, three
string quartets, a string quintet, and a quintet for clarinet and
strings. These works are conspicuous for the completeness of their
musical organism, the originality, profundity, and artistic reticence of
their style, the deep learning with which they treat modern thoughts in
a revised polyphony, and the breadth of their intellectual earnestness.
It is difficult to understand how any one can deny the genius of Brahms
after hearing a good performance of such music as the slow movement and
scherzo of his piano quintet.
Dvorak has written a considerable quantity of chamber music, but no
final criticism can yet be passed upon it. The composer himself realizes
that his earlier quartets and trios, though melodious and clear,
contained a great deal of discursive matter. His later writings show an
immense improvement in conciseness, strength, and closeness of
development. His American quartet and quintet are admirable as examples
of form and of treatment of instrumental voices.