Chamber Music - What is it?

 development to date

    In the chambers or saloons of eighteenth-century palaces, a small number of guests would gather to listen to the music of small musical groups, composed almost entirely of strings passed. The compositions intended for these groups were therefore called chamber music.

During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, chamber music was reserved for the European upper class, until it gradually spread to small concert halls and private homes, as it was much more profitable. At the end of the 18th century the string quartet was the highest form of composition. Mozart and Haydn introduced forms that clearly distinguished chamber music from the orchestral symphony.

From the musical practice of the Middle Ages to the late Baroque, the technique of music composition was based on the simultaneity of several musical lines. Musical composition in chamber music is also based on the simultaneity of several independent musical lines (counterpoint), which made listening and enjoying difficult.

Within the framework of proposals that have been developed over the last few decades, European society has proposed a "simplification" of musical composition. European society proposed a "simplification of the musical material" and in most cases reduced it to a single main melody with an accompaniment, this was called the galante style.

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The composers who wrote chamber music adopted the new style of music, also influenced by the advent of the pianoforte. They worked in new ensembles using this instrument, such as piano and violin (or flute) duo, piano and cello, piano trio, piano quartet, etc. Writing for the quartet format (string quartet and flute quartet) also had an important acceptance in the in the classical society and later especially the string quartet, the quartet for one of the most important string quartets in history. 

In the 19th century, chamber music, while still rooted in domestic conventions as a domestic practice, was cultivated with the same importance and seriousness as orchestral music composition had in meaning and seriousness.

Smaller ensembles now occupy the same stages as previously only orchestras. This used to only be the case with orchestras, as the latter was a luxury only the big cities could afford.