Chamber Music

Chamber Music

an essential history

Mark A. Radice

The University of Michigan Press Ann Arbor

Copyright 2012 by Mark A. RadiceAll rights reserved

This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publisher.

Published in the United States of America byThe University of Michigan PressManufactured in the United States of Americac Printed on acid-free paper

2015 2014 2013 2012 4 3 2

A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Radice, Mark A.Chamber music : an essential history / Mark A. Radice.

p. cm.Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 978-0-472-07165-4 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-472-05165-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Chamber musicHistory and criticism. I. Title.

ML1100.R34 2012785.009dc23

2011037284

ISBN 978-0-472-02811-5 (e-book)

To My Mom and DadAlways there, always ready

Contents

Introduction 1

1 The Nature of Early Chamber Music 5

2 The Crystallization of Genres during the Golden Age of Chamber Music 24

3 Classical Chamber Music with Wind Instruments 55

4 The Chamber Music of Beethoven 62

5 The Emergence of the Wind Quintet 83

6 Schubert and Musical Aesthetics of the Early Romantic Era 90

7 Prince Louis Ferdinand and Louis Spohr 102

8 Champions of Tradition: Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Brahms 114

9 Nationalism in French Chamber Music of the Late Romantic Era: Franck, Debussy, Saint-Sans, Faur, and Ravel 171

10 National Schools from the Time of Smetana to the Mid-Twentieth Century 189

11 Nationalism and Tradition: Schoenberg and the Austro-German Avant-Garde 209

12 The Continuation of Tonality in the Twentieth Century 224

13 Strictly Condential: The Chamber Music of Dmitri Shostakovich 245

14 Two Fugitives from the Soviet Bloc: Gyrgy Ligeti and Karel Husa 263

15 Benchmarks: Chamber Music Masterpieces since circa 1920 274

Table of Chamber Pieces According to Ensemble Size 297

Notes 315

Index 345

Introduction

The term chamber music was introduced in the seventeenth century by thetheorist Marco Scacchi. For him, chamber music was one of three contextsin which music was ordinarily found; these were musica ecclesiastica (churchmusic), musica theatralis (theater music), and musica cubicularis (chambermusic). These categories had nothing to do with the number of players, thenumber and sequence of movements, or the formal design of individualmovements. Indeed, details of the actual compositions could not be de-duced on the basis of Scacchis three classications. The designation cham-ber music indicated only that a particular composition was intended to beperformed in a private residence rather than in a church or in a theater.Many works that were initially performed in private residences hardlyseem to be chamber music to the present-day music lover: The Branden-burg Concertos of Johann Sebastian Bach, for example, and BeethovensFourth Symphony were rst heard in aristocratic homes.

There are several reasons why the Brandenburg Concertos might seem tous poor examples of chamber music. Since they are concertos, we expect acontrast between the ensemble of soloists and the orchestral tutti. Also, itis quite likely that the harpsichord player would have led the performancefrom the keyboard. These factors are at odds with our contemporary no-tion of chamber music, which typically presumes a work requiring morethan a single performer, but having only one player per part. In addition,most chamber music is performed without a conductor.

With the demise of western European aristocracy during the late eigh-teenth and early nineteenth centuries, courtly ensembles were replaced bydomestic gatherings, often of amateur musicians. Domestic ensembles

tended to be smaller and to play music of only moderate difculty. It wasduring this time that the principal genres of chamber music became stan-dardized: the sonata for keyboard and one or more melody instruments,the string quartet, and the piano trio. Music of this sort became a highlymarketable commodity. Music publishing shops opened throughout Eu-rope, and magazines and other periodicals commonly published multi-movement chamber pieces in installments. Soon, however, musicians induos, trios, and quartets who performed together on a regular basis be-came specialists in the repertoire for their particular group. Composerswho were often members of such ensemblesresponded by writing musicof a more demanding nature. Franz Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang AmadeusMozart, for example, wrote some of their nest chamber works for ensem-bles of which they were members. In so doing, they gradually pushedchamber music repertoire out of the reach of typical amateur groups.

Nineteenth-century Europe and America witnessed dramatic changesin demographics. In general, rural populations declined, and urban popu-lations grew. Two extreme cases are seen in the instances of London andNew York City. The population of London jumped from one million in1800 to 6.7 million at the end of the century. For most of the nineteenthcentury, it was the most populous city in the world. In New York City, thepopulation jumped from 49, 487 in 1790 to 2,581,541 in 1890.1 In order toaccommodate these larger populations, buildings intended for music per-formance changed dramatically during that century. Whereas the typicalconcert hall of the eighteenth century accommodated an audience of ap-proximately 550 people, the average nineteenth-century hall was designedfor an audience of approximately 2,400.2 These gargantuan halls weresuited to the high-prole genres of the day, such as operas, concertos, ora-torios, and symphonies, but they were hardly congenial to the intimacy ofchamber music. Many of the Romantic centurys leading composers caredlittleif at allfor composing chamber music. Hector Berlioz, FranzLiszt, Richard Wagner, Anton Bruckner, and Richard Strauss are just a fewof the composers who might be cited as examples. Those composers whodid write chamber music were often fascinated with music historylikeFelix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumannor, believed that they were up-holding standards that had been established by the giants of the late eigh-teenth century. Working in Vienna, where the music critic EduardHanslick guarded the citys musical heritage, Johannes Brahms felt a spe-cial responsibility to uphold the chamber-music tradition that virtuallyoriginated there during the Classical era.

With the transformation of tonality that took place at the close of the

2 chamber music

nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, chamber music en-sembles provided the ideal venue for experimentation with new and oftendifcult idioms. Many of these experimental styles rejected traditional har-mony, melody, and meter. At the same time, timbre, register, and rhythmassumed greater importance; consequently, composers turned to ad hocchamber ensembles, often with unusual instrumentation. Debussy, for ex-ample, thoroughly reconstituted the traditional trio for piano, violin, andcello with one consisting of ute, viola, and harp. Chamber ensembles thusbecame a testing ground for progressive ideas and novel sonorities. Con-temporary chamber ensembles are remarkable equally for the types of mu-sic they play and for the fact that they are not chamber music ensembles atallat least, not in the sense that Scacchi had imagined when he coined theterm. Instead, they are concert artists who specialize in the performance ofrecent repertoire. Ensembles such as Earplay, the Kronos Quartet, and theVerdehr Trio are just a few outstanding examples of groups that specializein contemporary chamber music.

The instrumentations of chamber ensembles became still more diversewith the advent of academic programs in ethnomusicology. Traditional in-struments of China, Japan, Korea, and many other nations began to appearwith Western instruments in chamber ensembles. In some cases, too, Asiancomposers write for Western instruments in the manner of traditionalAsian instruments. Composers such as Chou Wen-chung, Chen Yi, andZhou Long have made great accomplishments in combining Asian artisticconcepts with Western musical materials. The non-Western curiositiesof the 1950s have now yielded to masterpieces that draw their musical ma-terials from global resources.

In the pages that follow, the turning points briey outlined here will beconsidered in greater detail. This study examines the personalities involvedwith the creation, dissemination, and performance of chamber music aswell as representative compositions, considered both as autonomous musi-cal structures and as mirrors of the societies in which they came into being.

Musical examples occasionally call attention to distinctive features of aparticular piece, but since music students and professionals will necessarilyprocure complete scores and recordings of those works that strike theirfancy, examples are concise. Access to scores has become much easier ow-ing to recent electronic sources, such as the following:

Alexander Street Press Classical Scores Library (http://alexander-street.com/)International Music Score Project (http://imslp.org/)

Introduction 3

ScorSer (http://www.scorser.com/)Digital Scores from the Eastman School of Music(https://urresearch.rochester.edu/viewInstitutionalCollection.action?collectionId=63)Variations Project, University of Indiana(http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/variations/scores/)

Readers should also consult the University of Michigan Press home pagefor listings of related links.

Listening resources available on line have also burgeoned during thepast several years, and now Classical.com (www.classical.com), the NaxosMusic Library (http://www.naxos.com/), and other online sources putrepertoire at our disposal with ease. Indeed, one can even nd many worksin live performances on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/).

I have kept detailed, theoretical discussions to a minimum, preferringinstead to focus on the cultural, aesthetic, and philosophical circumstancesthat led composers to their particular artistic visions. The Table of Com-positions According to Ensemble Size will be useful primarily for practicalmusicians looking for repertoire for actual performance situations.Throughout the text, pitches are given as capital letters. Pitches in the oc-tave of middle C are indicated simply as C, D, E, and so forth. Octavesabove the middle-C octave are designated with capital letters and super-script numbers (e.g., C1, C2, etc.); octaves below with subscripts (e.g., C1,C2, etc.).

4 chamber music

one

The Nature ofEarly Chamber Music

Haut and Bas instruments

Music for domestic performancechamber musicis the focus of thisbook. Aristocratic homes of medieval Europe often had rather expansivemusic rooms, but these spaces were generally smaller than a church or the-ater. Less volume was required to ll them with sounds, and ensemblestended to be smaller.

Early musical instruments were classied either as haut (i.e., high-vol-ume) or bas (low-volume). The high-volume instruments included thetrumpet, trombone, shawm, buisine, and so forth. The low-volume instru-ments included the viol, lute, bandora, chitarrone, and the violin family(which came into common use only in the early seventeenth century), aswell as the more subtle wind instruments, such as the recorder and trans-verse ute.

instrumentation in the music of the late medieval era and the renaissance

Idiomatic instrumental and vocal styles came into being during the earlyBaroque. Older repertoire was constructed according to the laws of voice-leading without regard to instrumentation. This abstract approach to com-position led to a singular style that was used both for voices and for instru-ments. Compositions from this era can often be found in multiple versions,some with texts, others without. Almost any late medieval or Renaissancescore could be converted into a piece of instrumental chamber music sim-

5

ply by performing it on bas instruments with suitable ranges for the partic-ular musical lines.

early musical instruments

Instruments of the medieval and Renaissance fell out of use during theClassic and Romantic eras, but instrument builders and early music en-sembles have stimulated interest in these antiques. Some of the most im-portant early instruments are described in the following list.1

Early Musical Instrumentsbandora Plucked stringed instrument, similar in construction to the lute but

tuned differently, having six or seven courses.buisine Brass instrument constructed like the ancient tuba, but with a long

slim pipe curved round and terminating in a funnel-shaped bell.chitarrone See lute.cittern Small stringed instrument having a pear shape, at back, six courses

and frets; the cittern was usually strung with wire and played with a plec-trum.

clavichord Keyboard instrument in which the string was activated by a tan-gent attached directly to the key; tone was subtle in the extreme, but the in-strument was capable of producing graduated dynamics.

cornetto Curved woodwind instrument with nger holes front and back; con-ical bore; played with a mouthpiece similar to that of a trumpet, but madeof wood and more shallow; available in consort; bass instrument of this sortwas curved into the shape of an S to provide access to the nger holes andwas therefore called a serpent.

crumhorn Family of capped double-reed instruments; cylindrical bore; ngerholes front and back; shaped like the letter J; literally bent horn.

curtel Family of double-reed instruments with two parallel conical boresjoined at the bottom. The bore often terminated in a small bell. The bassversion of the instrument was the ancestor of the modern bassoon. Thename is a corruption of the word curtail.

dulcian See curtel.dulcimer Stringed instrument with at soundboard; strings usually activated

by striking with hand-held hammers.harpsichord Keyboard instrument often with multiple sets of strings; the

strings were activated by a plectrum that plucked the strings when the keywas depressed.

lute Stringed instrument with rounded back and shaped like a halved pear; of-

6 chamber music

ten with eleven strings in six courses; at ngerboard with gut frets; smallerinstruments of this type called mandola; related to modern mandolin; con-struction varied widely, especially as regards length of ngerboard as re-lated to body. The chitarrone, a large bass lute, was especially popular dur-ing the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as a continuo instrument.

nackers Type of kettledrum usually used in pairs and struck with mallets.pandora See bandora.panpipes Wind instrument consisting of a number of tuned pipes of different

sizes bound together with glue; pipes are typically stopped at one end andblown across the top; also known as vertical utes.

psaltry Similar in construction to dulcimer, but strings were activated byplucking with the ngers or with a plectrum.

racket Family of double-reed instruments in which the tube is continuouslydoubled back on itself in order to form nine verticals alternately joined attop and bottom with U-shaped crooks to yield one continuous column ofair. This design was devised to keep the instrument compact.

recorder Most popular type of pple ute (i.e., end-blown); cylindrical bore;nger holes front and back; available in full consort.

regal A small pipe organ constructed with reed pipes exclusively.sackbut Ancestor of the modern trombone; distinctive features included a U-

shaped slide for changing pitch and a ared bell.shawm Family of double-reed instrument; ancestor of the modern oboe;

nger holes front and back; reed was held directly in the players lips.slide trumpet Early brass instrument with the characteristics of a trumpet but

without valves or pistons; some exibility in pitches played was achieved byequipping the instrument with a slide; design proved impractical, conse-quently the instrument was not widely used.

sordune Family of instruments constructed, like the dulcian, with the tubedoubled back on itself. It differed from the dulcian in that it had a cylindri-cal rather than a conical bore. This feature gave it a somewhat more gentle,mellow sound.

vihuela Stringed instrument with at front and back; ancestor of modern gui-tar; at ngerboard with frets; often as vihuela da mano.

viol Family of stringed instrument; at back; fretted ngerboard; typically hadsix strings; bowed with an underhanded grip (as many present-day doublebass players can be seen using). The bow was shaped as a gentle curve, andthe tension on the bow hairs was regulated by the players nger.

virginal English or Italian type of harpsichord constructed in a rectangularcase with strings running at right angles to the keys; activated by a plec-trum, like the harpsichord.

The Nature of Early Chamber Music 7

optional scoring

With the advent of music publishing in the early sixteenth century, optionalscoring became increasingly desirable since it resulted in a wider market forprinted compositions. Ottaviano de Petrucci issued the Odhecaton, the ear-liest example of printed music, in 1501. Although the majority of thesecompositions were originally vocal pieces, the absence of complete textssuggests that they may have been performed by instrumental ensembles.2

Similarly confusing cases exist in manuscript sources of the period. Inan early sixteenth-century manuscript prepared for King Henry VIII,twenty-four instrumental consort pieces and six puzzle canons are sand-wiched among numerous texted part songs.3 An even dozen of the consortswere written by Henry himself; one each came from the pens of WilliamCornish and Thomas Farthing. The remaining ten are of unknown au-thorship. The pieces are about equally divided into works in three and fourvoices. Most pieces are in duple meter, but triple meter also appears. Imi-tation appears in most of the consorts.

In published works of the period, optional scoring is often invited bythe composer and/or publisher. Paul Hofhaimer (14591537), who wasactive at the court of the Emperor Maximilian, issued his Harmoni poet-ic in the year 1539. On the title page, we read: Harmoni poetic . . . mostexcellently suited for voices as well as for instruments. Similar exibilityis apparent in Orlando Gibbonss First Set of Madrigals and Mottets of 5Parts: Apt for Viols and Voyces (London, 1612).4 In both cases, voices and in-struments might have been mixed depending upon the resources at hand.In his collection of dance music published in 1599, Anthony Holborne(ca. 15601602) indicates that the volume contains Pavans, galliards, al-mains and other short irs both grave, and light, in ve parts for viols, vi-olins, or other musicall winde instruments. Optional scoring was com-mon until the late Baroque era. The autograph manuscript of theBenedictus of Bachs B-minor Mass, for example, does not specify theobbligato instrument.

the broken and full consorts

Instrumental ensembles of the Renaissance are frequently described withthe words broken or full. A broken consort combined instruments ofdifferent types.5 Conversely, the full consort used instruments from a sin-gle family. Broken consorts were used more often than full consorts duringthe Renaissance.

8 chamber music

The instrumentation of a broken consort was not standardized, but oneof the more common combinations included ute, lute, treble viol, cittern,bass viol, and bandora, the ensemble specied by Thomas Morley (ca.15571602) in his two volumes of Consort Lessons (1599, 1611).

The repertoire for full consort was limited almost exclusively tostringed instruments, especially the viol.6 From the late sixteenth centuryto the last quarter of the seventeenth century, the viol family enjoyed greatprestige and popularity, particularly in England. The polyphonic chambermusic for full viol consort was often written in six parts and required twotreble viols, two mean (i.e., middle-range) viols, and two bass viols. A set ofsix constituted a chest of viols because the instruments were stored inchests specically designed as protective cases.

paired dances and suites

Both broken and full consorts were used throughout the Renaissance forplaying dance music. Dances varied from one country to the next, but inmost countries it was common to nd them in pairs: the rst in a slow du-ple meter, the second in a faster triple or compound meter. In France andEngland, the most common pair of dances was the pavane and the galliard.In Italy the passamezzo and the saltarello were comparable. In Germanythe Tanz and Proportz were a common pairing.

Dance music was nothing new in the sixteenth century, but its avail-ability in printed editions was. Publishers like Tylman Susato (ca. 1500ca.1564) in Antwerp, Pierre Attaingnant (ca. 14941552) in Paris, JacquesModerne (ca. 1495ca. 1562) in Lyons, and Thomas Morley (15571602)in London were at the forefront of this enterprise, and their publicationspreserve hundreds of samples from this repertoire.

During the seventeenth century, newer dances were added to the con-ventional pairs. The particular dances added depended upon regionaltrends and preferences. In France, for example, the minuet became verypopular; or, in English scores, one might nd the hornpipe. Dances assem-bled into groups are commonly called suites.

chamber music based on imitative polyphony: the Canzona

Some of the most fascinating music written during the late Renaissanceand the early Baroque achieves its structural unity by treating a particularmotif in imitation. The imitation may be free or strict. From the closing


decades of the fteenth century until the beginning of the eighteenth, themost important genre using free imitation was the canzona.

The word canzona means song, but most canzonas are instrumentalpieces. The explanation for this disparity actually reveals the origin andtypical stylistic features of the canzona. During the high Renaissance pe-riod, Josquin des Pres (ca. 14401521), Pierre de la Rue (ca. 14601518),Loyset Compre (ca. 14451518), and other Flemish composers wrote sec-ular part songs called chansons, which employed motivic imitation in somesections but free counterpoint or homophony in others.

The chanson had no predetermined form, and the music of its varioussections was freely invented to accord with the poetry being set. These sec-ular part songs quickly became popular in Italy, sometimes with theirFrench texts, but more often without them. The Italians referred to a pieceof this sort as a canzona francese, or French song.

In many cases, these songs were performed on instruments ratherthan sung. Italian composers soon began writing canzonas that had no textsat all; instead, these canzonas simply reproduced the characteristic inter-play of voices, the lively rhythms, and the contrasting sections that charac-terized the French chanson.7

Florentio Maschera (ca. 1540ca. 1584) and his teacher, ClaudioMerulo (15331604), played an important role in the history of the can-zona. Merulos organ canzonas served as the compositional models forMaschera, but it was Maschera who rst published a set of canzonas writ-ten especially for an instrumental ensemble. His volume entitled Libroprimo de canzoni da sonare a quattro voce (First book of canzonas to be playedin four parts) was the rst of hundreds that used the designation da sonareto specify instrumental performance.8

The Italian word sonare means to sound in the sense of producingsound from an instrument. In Renaissance and Baroque scores, the word isused in contrast to cantare, to sing; hence, instrumental music carried theinstruction da sonare, and vocal music was designated as repertoire dacantare. Eventually the cumbersome designation canzona da sonare wasshortened to the more familiar word sonata.

The hundreds of composers who contributed to the canzona repertoirecannot be discussed here, but many fascinating examples of the genre canbe found in collections like the Canzoni alla Francese a quattro voci per sonareof Adriano Banchieri (15681634), the Canzoni da sonare a quattro, et ottovoci of Florio Canale (ca. 1550ca. 1603), Il primo libro delle canzoni a quat-tro voci per sonare con ogni sorte de stromenti musicali by Tarquinio Merula (ca.15941665), and the Canzoni a 3: doi violini, e violone, col suo basso continuo of

10 chamber music

Maurizio Cazzati (ca. 16201666). Cazzatis collection was later reprintedas Canzoni da sonare a tre.9

These canzonas reveal a growing distinction between vocal and instru-mental music, which led ultimately to idiomatic styles of writing suited tospecic instruments and voice types. This stylistic renement was one ofthe major achievements of the Baroque era.

In their musical settings, many of the chanson texts were tted to adactylic rhythm in duple meter. This rhythm and meter came to be a char-acteristic feature of the earliest instrumental canzonas. The eleven can-zonas contained in Banchieris 1596 collection, for example, are uniformlyin common meter. Canzona subjects are energetic, often beginning with adactylic rhythm.

Duple meter was predominant in the earliest canzonas, but later exam-ples of the genre frequently introduced contrasting sections in triple orcompound meter. Very often, sections were set off one from another by dy-namic contrasts or by varied tempo indications. Imitative sections tendedto be in lively tempos, whereas passages in free counterpoint or ho-mophony were at a slower pace. Precise instrumentation was seldom indi-cated in the scores of canzonas da sonar.

Formal designs within canzonas were as varied and numerous as were thecomposers. In Banchieris canzonas, two or three sections may be relatedthematically and call for repeats. Other pieces consist of continuous manip-ulation of a single motif. Ordinarily, a single voice states the primary motif,which then appears at regular intervals in the imitating voices. Contrapuntalsections in which all voices commence simultaneously are rare. A distinctivefeature of Banchieris collection is his use of titles for each canzona.

In most canzonas, little continuity is apparent from one section to thenext. Within the context of the original, vocal chansons, the text held thecompositions together. As instrumental music, the free-form canzona wasless effective. Composers experimented with various techniques in order toachieve coherence. Some canzonas conclude with a return to the openingthematic material. Others involve a systematic alternation between imita-tive and homophonic sections. The most ingenious structures appear in atype of canzona known as the variation canzona, in which imitative portionsare built on thematic variants of the opening motif.


chamber music based on imitative polyphony:Ricercar-type pieces

The high Renaissance motet exerted a powerful impact on contemporane-ous instrumental music based on strict counterpoint. In Italy, the termsricercar or capriccio were commonly used to designate motet-like instru-mental pieces. In Spain, tiento or fantasia was the more typical designation.In England, the customary labels for such pieces were fancy, fantasia, orfantasy. The word ricercar is derived from cercare: to search. Exactly whatthe search (or research, in this case) entailed differed at various times inthe history of the genre. The earliest pieces bearing the label ricercar wereintended to test the tuning of strings and the placement of the frets on thelute. Ricercari of this sort can be found mainly in the early sixteenth-cen-tury works of composers like Francesco Spinacino and Joan AmbrosioDalza, whose ricercari appear in Petruccis 1507 publication of the Intabo-latura de lauto. In its more common application, the term ricercar designatesa piece exploring the possibilities of elaborating a subject or series of sub-jects. The typical ricercar subject is abstract in character and well ttedfor its function of displaying contrapuntal artice.10

A monothematic ricercar is based on one single motif, whereas thepolythematic ricercar employs a variety of subjects. In either case, thecomposer will present a musical motif, called the dux, or lead voice,which will then be imitated in the remaining voices. When an imitatingvoice enters at a tonal level other than the tonic, it is called an answer, orcomes. The answer is described either as a real or a tonal answer. If theintervallic content of the dux is reproduced exactly in a strict transposition,then the answer is real. If any of the intervals of the dux is changed in thecomes, the answer is described as tonal. A special type of answer that issometimes found in music of the seventeenth century is the so-called in-ganno, a permutation of the original subject obtained by using its solmiza-tion syllables rather than its intervallic content.11

Imitative works of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries typically al-ternate between the tonic and dominant levels or, perhaps, the tonic andsubdominant. This regular alternation of tonal planes was by no meansstandardized in the fteenth and sixteenth centuries. Variable also is thelength of time between the initial statement of the motif and its successiveimitations. Some composers, like the Venetian Gioseffe Zarlino(15171590), advocated widely spaced entries of the principal motif in or-der to permit the greatest possible diversity and imagination in the con-struction of the musical subject. Other composers, like Thomas Morley

12 chamber music

(ca. 15571602), preferred short themes in close imitations so that per-formers and listeners could more easily follow the subjects.

Spacings between entries of the subject can also have a dramatic effect.As a piece nears its conclusion, the composer may shorten the gap betweenthe subject and its answer so that entries are stacked one upon the other inrapid succession. This device is called strettothe Italian word for pres-sure or stress.

The leading masters of the Italian ricercar were Adriano Willaert andGirolamo Frescobaldi. Willaerts ricercari appeared in two mid-sixteenth-century collections of Fantasie et recerchari. He generally preferred thepolythematic ricercar. Frescobaldi wrote his ricercari a bit later. They arelandmarks of the early Baroque style, especially since the subjects arehighly expressive, and the harmonies are often daringly chromatic.

The seventeenth-century capriccio was a special type of ricercar that dis-played some unpredictable behaviorfor example, extensive chromati-cism, or irregular resolutions of dissonances.

Most Italian composers who wrote ricercar-type pieces were church or-ganists, and the repertoire that they produced were pieces da chiesa (forchurch) rather than da camera (for chamber), but in England imitativepolyphony made its way into the domestic music-making of amateurs. Theensemble most often used to this music was a full consort of viols.

Viol playing had become popular in England by the close of the six-teenth century. Publishers cultivated the amateur viol player by issuing in-struction books on how to play the viol. Christopher Simpsons The Di-vision-Violist appeared in London in 1659. Thomas Maces compendium,Musicks Monument, was published there in 1676. Musicks Monument con-tains three sections. The last is entitled The Generous Viol, in Its Right-est Use.

The popularity of the viol fantasia evoked scores from the pens of lead-ing composers like William Byrd, Giovanni Coprario (ca. 15751626), Al-fonso Ferrabosco (ca. 15751628), Orlando Gibbons (15831625), JohnJenkins (15921678), and William Lawes (16021645). Their combinedworks form a genuine treasure trove of chamber music for strings.

Owing to the growing market for chamber compositions, music pub-


lishing ourished in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. WilliamByrd, who had been granted a patent for music publishing in 1575 byQueen Elizabeth, was a key gure in the dissemination of this repertoire.The three collections of fantasies by Orlando Gibbons are also importantto the history of music publishing since one of these collections, the Fan-tasies of Three Parts (London, n.d.), was cut in copper. Copper-plate en-gravinga fast, accurate, and relatively cheap way of producing scoresbecame the most common way to print music during the eighteenthcentury. At the time of Gibbonss publication, though, it was a process that,as the title page states, was not heretofore extant.

the In Nomine

A type of piece cultivated exclusively by English composers was the Innomine. These were secular, instrumental consort pieces; however, they allused the Sarum rite plainchant for the text Gloria tibi Trinitas qualis in oneway or another.

The pieces were called In nomine because the plainchant melody wasknown to composers of the era in the context of John Taverners Missa Glo-ria tibi Trinitas, which states the full melody in the mean voice at the ap-pearance of the words in nomine Domine at the close of the Sanctus.12

Many composers contributed settings of the In nomine tune: John Bull(ca. 15621628), William Byrd, Alfonso Ferrabosco, Orlando Gibbons,Robert Parsons (ca. 15301570), Thomas Weelkes (15761623), and manyothers. Despite their churchly origin, some pieces based on the In nomineare humorous. Christopher Tye (15051573), for instance, composed a set-ting (known as In nominee Crye) in which cries of London street ven-dors hawking their goods are woven around the plainchant. The In nomineremained an important genre of English instrumental music until the timeof Henry Purcell (16591695), who contributed a number of outstandingexamples.

The early-music revival has resulted in the use of this tune in severalcontemporary works. Peter Maxwell Davies (b. 1934) has written two ele-gant orchestral fantasies based on it, and between 1963 and 1965, he com-posed seven settings for chamber ensembles.

the early baroque sonata

To a musician of the Baroque era, the term sonata designated a piece to besounded (suonare) rather than sung (cantare). The most important sonata

14 chamber music

literature of the Baroque era consists of the so-called solo and trio sonatas.These terms are confusing. The solo sonata often required two or threeplayers: the solo violinist and the accompanying basso continuo groupconsisting of the bass line instrument (cello possibly with violone) and thechord-playing instrument (a harpsichord, lute, harp, or guitar in secularworks; or, an organ in church works).13 For a trio sonata, three or fourplayers were needed: two equal, treble instruments (usually violins), andthe basso continuo group.

the sonata da Chiesa

Depending upon whether the pieces were intended as service music forchurch or music for amusement at home, the sonatas were described as be-ing either da chiesa (for church) or da camera (for chamber). The da chiesasonata typically has three or more movements in contrasting tempos.14

Tempos are indicated by Italian words such as grave (i.e., serious), allegro(i.e., happy), vivace (i.e., lively) and so forth. These words indicated moods,but they in no way had the specicity of metronome markings. Sonatas of-ten had a succession of four movements in the tempos slow-fast-slow-fast;but this pattern was not universal. Even within the four-movement plan,Archangelo Corelli (16531713) and his contemporaries frequently intro-duced contrasting subsections within movements. Sonatas da chiesa oftencontain movements in contrapuntal texture as well as occasional move-ments in closely related keys. Since organ was available in Italian churchesat the time, it was generally part of the continuo group in church sonatas;however, other chord-playing instruments may have been added.

Starting in the mid-sixteenth century, the art of violin building our-ished in Italy. The trade was usually passed from fathers to sons in families.Some of the most important families were the Amati, Guarneri, Stradivari,and Guadagnini. Many of these builders were active in the tiny north-Ital-ian town of Cremona, which is about twenty-ve miles southwest of Bres-


cia and seventy-ve miles northwest of Bologna. These two music centerskept the Cremonese string builders productive during the heyday of theBaroque era.15

Perhaps the most important composer of Baroque string sonatas wasCorelli, whose orderly publications became for historians the paradigms ofthe genre. Corelli was highly regarded during his own lifetime and becamea model for many other Baroque composers, including John Ravenscroft(d. ca. 1708), Francesco Geminiani (16871762), George Frideric Handel(16851759), and Johann Sebastian Bach (16851750). In contrast to mostmusicians, Corelli died a rich man with considerable cash assets as well asa ne collection of paintings.

Little is known about Corellis early life and training. We do know thatbetween 1666 and 1670, he was active in Bologna. By 1675, he had settledin Rome, where he found willing benefactors in Queen Christiana of Swe-den and Cardinal Pamphili. From 1690 until his death, Cardinal PietroOttoboni was also among Corellis patrons.

Corellis output consisted of six sets of instrumental organized as table1 shows.

Corellis music reects the state of the art of Italian instrumental musicat the turn of the century. Functional harmony, major and minor mode, se-quences and suspensions, and respect for the role of the leading tone hadbeen rmly established in practice, though theoretical explanation of thesestructures did not appear until Jean-Philippe Rameaus Trait de lharmonie(1722).16

Corellis melodies often use thematic transformations like those we ndin the variation canzona repertoire. For instance, the principal themes ofthe rst and second Allegro movements in the Sonata in G minor, Op. 1,No. 10, are closely related in their pitch content; however, whereas the for-mer theme appears in common time, it is transformed in the second Alle-gro by its use within 6/8 meter.

Corellis melodies tend to be derived from persistent rhythmic guresand pitch congurations (such as sequences). Melodies exhibiting this con-

16 chamber music

table 1. Publications of the Works of Arcangelo CorelliOp. 1 1681 12 trio sonatas da chiesaOp. 2 1685 12 trio sonatas da cameraOp. 3 1689 12 trio sonatas da chiesaOp. 4 1694 12 trio sonatas da cameraOp. 5 1700 11 solo sonatas da chiesa and da camera; variations of La folia dEspagneOp. 6 1714 8 concertos da chiesa, 4 concertos da camera

tinuous forward motion are said to employ Fortspinnung, which may betranslated as spinning forth. In Corellis trio sonatas, neither the rst vi-olin nor the second violin can be said to dominate. Voice crossings are verycommon, and the music appearing in the rst violin part is frequentlytransferred later to the second violin and vice versa. Key signatures ofpieces in the minor mode typically omit that status of scale degree six sincethe theoretical model for Corelli and his contemporaries was Dorian moderather than our diatonic natural minor with lowered third, sixth, and sev-enth scale degrees.

the sonata da Camera

The sonata da camera consisted of a suite of dances. The names of thedances were sufcient to suggest appropriate tempos; thus, there was noneed for Italian tempo words. Harpsichord, lute, guitar, or harp was nor-mally used in the continuo group. Little emphasis was placed on scholarly,contrapuntal writing. The core dances of the typical sonata da camera,along with their characteristic meters and tempos, are shown in table 2.

These dances are in binary form. Each half of the structure (e.g., IV :||VI :|| in major, or iIII :|| IIIi :|| in minor) is to be repeated with im-provised ornamentation.

With the exception of the sarabanda, these dances normally began withan anacrusis, or pickup beat. This feature was inherited from functionaldances in which the foot was lifted to begin the choreography; however,most sonatas da camera were clearly not intended for practical use on thedance oor.

Sonatas of the sort that we have described began to appear in the earlyseventeenth century in the works of Salomone Rossi (1570ca. 1630), Gio-vanni Paolo Cima (. 16101622), and Giovanni Battista Buonamente (late1500s1642). They spread throughout Europe, and important contribu-


table 2. Characteristic Dances, Meters, and Tempos in Sonatas da CameraAllemanda duple moderateCorrente triple, frequently with hemiola fastSarabanda triple usually slow, but sometimes allegro or

presto in Corelli; agogic accent onsecond beat

Gavotta duple moderate to fastGiga duple compound or triple,

frequently with hemiola fast

tions to the repertoire were made in England by Henry Purcell (16591695), in France by Francois Couperin (16681733), and in Germany by J. S. Bach (16851750). They remained in vogue until the late eighteenth-century works of Francesco Maria Veracini (16981768). Sonatas of thelate Baroque display an astounding mixture of elements includingpolyphony, double stops, bariolage, scordatura (i.e., irregular tunings), andspecial types of bowing.

the concerto da Camera

Early chamber concertos were distinguished from church concertos be-cause, like the sonatas da camera, the chamber concertos were based upona series of dances. Three types of concertos were cultivated during theBaroque era: the solo concerto, the concerto grosso, and the ripieno con-certo.

The solo concerto featured a single soloist who was alternately accom-panied by or pitted against the orchestral tutti. The solo concerto providedopportunities for the featured player to extemporize brilliant passage work.As the emphasis on virtuosic playing grew, the solo concerto became cor-respondingly popular. The concerto grosso utilized several soloists, mostoften, the two violins and cello of the trio sonata. Additional players wereadded on each voice of the trio-sonata texture to create contrasting groups:the concertino of soloists, and the ripieno of multiple players. The ripienoconcerto achieved variety and contrast by juxtaposing the various orches-tral choirs of strings, woodwinds, and brass instruments. Instruments couldalso be grouped according to dynamic level or by range.

the keyboard part in baroque sonatas

Baroque sonatas contain either of two distinctly different types of key-board. In the continuo sonata, the keyboard part is a gured bass. The key-board player would have lled in harmonies based upon the intervals abovethe bass line indicated by the composer. In sonatas of this sort, the obbli-gato instrument(s) carry the main thematic elements of the composition.The continuo bass line may imitate important motives from time to time;however, the thematic involvement of the basso continuo is not essential.The texture of a sonata for obbligato soloist(s) and continuo, therefore, isgenerally homophonic.

In other sonatas, the keyboard part is fully written out on two staffs.Aside from the typical sorts of ornamentation that might have been sup-

18 chamber music

plied by any eighteenth-century keyboard player, nothing is left to the per-formers invention. The texture in this type of sonata is different from thatof the continuo sonata because the keyboard part is equally important asthe instrumental part. Both performers are responsible for the presenta-tion and development of themes.

In the sonatas with obbligato keyboard parts, no bass-line instrument isneeded for performance. The texture of a sonata for solo instrument withobbligato keyboard usually consists of three real parts: the bass line andone of the treble lines to be played on the keyboard instrument, and an-other treble line to be played by a melody instrument, usually a violin orute. This texture derived from the conventional trio sonata. One sonataby J. S. Bach exists in two versions. One version is the four-movement TrioSonata in G major for Two Flutes and Continuo, BWV 1039. The other,BWV 1027, distributes the same musical lines between a viola da gambaand a harpsichord. Fully written-out keyboard parts became increasinglycommon as the eighteenth century progressed. Of the instrumental cham-ber sonatas composed by Bach, those with obbligato keyboard parts out-number those with basso continuo parts by approximately two to one.17

vocal chamber music: the cantata

Just as the term sonata designates any composition performed as instru-mental music, the designation cantata species a piece involving voices. Inseventeenth-century Italy, the cantata was typically a secular piece for a vo-cal soloist with basso continuo and one or more obbligato instruments.The texts for these vocal chamber pieces were often the work of aristo-cratic amateurs or literati, such as clergy and lawyers. Performances typi-cally took place in the palaces of ruling families or high-ranking clergy inthe Roman Catholic ChurchQueen Christiana of Sweden, Cardinal Ot-toboni, and Cardinal Pamphili, for instance. The poems typically includedpassages with lines of seven or eleven syllables (and suitable for recitatives),in alternation with strophic, rhymed lines with a consistent syllable count(and suitable for arias). Cantatas of a more elaborate nature, including a va-riety of recitatives, arias, ariosos, and perhaps even instrumental introduc-tions, interludes, and codas are often called arie di pi parte (arias with mul-tiple sections).

Alessandro Stradella (16391682) ranks high among the early cantatacomposers. We are not certain of the origin of all of his works, but thosecantatas with texts by poets active in Rome were almost certainly composedby late January 1677, since he left for Venice at the beginning of February


of that year.18 Most of these pieces are for a single or several vocalists withaccompaniment of basso continuo with one or more obbligato instruments.Because many of these pieces were composed for special occasions and per-formed for family and friends at private, evening entertainments, they aresometimes called serenatas. Stradellas tale of the two jealous lovers Tirsi(bass) and Licori (soprano) has a modest ensemble of two violins and bassocontinuo. The piece, Lasciate chio respiri, ombre gradite G. 1.412,opens with a sinfonia in two movements for instruments, and continueswith ve arias and two duets. The chamber ensemble of violins and bassocontinuo accompany the voices throughout. The instrumental parts are allquite easy and can be managed with minimal rehearsal.

Of the seventeenth-century Roman composers of cantatas, AlessandroScarlatti (16601725) was the most prolic. The texts of his cantatas dealnot only with men and women in love and the associated issues, but alsowith history and mythology. Scarlatti, who was also a prolic opera com-poser, sometimes used da capo structures in his cantata arias. In some can-tatas, such as Su le sponde del Tebro, Scarlatti augments the ensemble of twoviolin parts and basso continuo with virtuosic solo trumpet to pair with thesolo vocalist. When this is the case, several players should be assigned toeach of the rst and second violin parts.

Though the Italians generally preferred secular cantatas, the composersof Lutheran Germany almost invariably chose spiritual texts. In his threevolumes of Symphoniae sacrae (sacred ensemble pieces; 1629, 1647, 1650),Heinrich Schtz used the techniques he had learned during his two trips toItaly in 1609 and 1628 to study with Giovanni Gabrieli and Claudio Mon-teverdi respectively. The few-voiced concertato pieces of the Italianswere especially important during Schtzs second Venetian trip, and he ex-amined this repertoire carefully. Although Alessandro Grandi had leftVenice only a few months before Schtzs arrival there in 1628, his musicwas still easily accessible to Schtz.19 In fact, Schtzs O Jesu s, wer deingedenkt, SWV 406, is an arrangement of Grandis Lilia convallium. BySeptember 1629, Schtz had compiled his rst volume of Symphoniaesacraeall with Latin texts, incidentallyfor publication by the Venetianrm of Gardano.20 Of the twenty pieces in the rst volume, some musthave been composed before Schtz left Germany. Because wind instru-ments played a lesser role in Venetian music-making than in German en-sembles, the pieces featuring winds are most likely those that Schtzbrought along for inclusion in volume 1. Among those pieces with winds isthe stunning Fili mi, Absalon, for basso, four trombones, and basso con-

20 chamber music

tinuo. The text, from 2 Samuel 19:1, recounts the reaction of King Davidto the news of the death. The piece is in four sections. The solemn open-ing for trombones and continuo only makes it clear that the message we areabout to hear is a gravely serious one. At the same time, it demonstratesSchtzs magisterial command of counterpoint. The rst vocal section de-claims the text with basso continuo only before repeating the text withinthe context of dense counterpoint including the trombones. King Davidsopening statement is followed by another purely instrumental segmentwritten in the imitative contrapuntal style of the Italian canzona. The con-cluding section again delivers the text sung without trombones. The nalsection combines voice with the full instrumental ensemble while repeat-ing text that has already been clearly heard.

The unusual instrumentation for bass soloist, four trombones, andbasso continuo is identical to that of Schtzs Attendite, popule meus,SWV 270, which has a comparable, multisectional design alternating con-trapuntal segments for instruments only, passages for voice and continuoonly, and others utilizing the voice as one strand within the contrapuntalfabric of the piece. Other interesting combinations of instruments in vol-ume 1 appear in In te, Domine, speravi, SWV 259, for alto, violin, bas-soon, and continuo; Anima mea liquefacta est, SWV 26364, for twotenors, two cornettos, and continuo; Domine, labia mea aperies, SWV271, for soprano, tenor, cornetto, trombone, bassoon, and continuo; Jubi-late Deo omnis terra, SWV 262, for bass, two recorders, and continuo;and In lectulo per noctes, SWV 27273, for soprano, alto, three bas-soons, and continuo.

This type of few-voiced concertato based on sacred texts provided thefoundation for German cantatas of the later Baroque. Dieterich Buxtehude(ca. 16371707) wrote several secular cantatas, both in Italian and German,but the vast majority of his cantatas with obbligato instruments are on spir-itual themes. His texts for the sacred works are mostly German, but ahandful of pieces are in Latin. The scoring is usually for solo soprano voicewith one to four solo string players plus basso continuo. Ironically, Buxte-hude never worked in a church situation that would have required any ofthese sacred vocal compositions, and none of them is genuine liturgicalmusic for the Lutheran church.21 His cantata Singet dem Herrn ein neuesLied, BuxWV 98, for violin, soprano, and basso continuo is a ne exampleof his work that shows features of the arie di pi parte. The eight sections ofthe piece include three for instruments only as well as different tempos andmeters for the various sections. In this cantata, an exuberant setting of the


words singet, rhmet, und lobet (sing, glorify, and praise) brings thepiece to its conclusion. In other cantatas, Buxtehude applies similar treat-ment to the words Amen or alleluia.

In his O dulcis Jesu, BuxWV 83, for two sopranos, two violins, and bassocontinuo, Buxtehude sets the prose passages in a free recitativo or ariosostyle, whereas the poetic passages assume the character of an aria. Struc-turally, this design parallels the secular cantatas of the Italians. It has beensuggested that Buxtehude composed this piece for an Italian castrato visit-ing the Marienkirche.22

It is well known that J. S. Bach knew and admired the music of Buxte-hude. From mid-October 1705 until early February 1706, he was absentfrom his post at the Neue Kirche in Arnstadt, having gone to Lbeck forthe purpose of attending Buxtehudes famous Abendmusiken (evening mu-sic) at the Marienkirche. These programs would have included some ofthese cantatas or similar ones. The impact of Bachs experience was bothimmediate and long-range: Within weeks of his return to Arnstadt, theConsistory of the Neue Kirche complained about his outlandish and ex-travagant harmonizations of the traditional Lutheran chorale tunes.These, they contended, confused the congregation and disrupted the ser-vices. Years later, when Bach was cantor of the Lutheran churches ofLeipzig, he wrote ve cycles of cantatas for the liturgical year. Among thesurviving cantatas are some real gems for solo vocalist, obbligato instru-ment, strings, and continuo.

The original version of Cantata 82, Ich habe genug, dates from 2 Febru-ary 1727. It was composed for the feast of the Purication. The scripturalimpetus for the libretto (authorship unknown) is the Song of Simeon(Luke 2:2932), the text of the Nunc dimittis, customarily used at Ves-pers services. In its original version, bass soloist is paired with oboe soloagainst the backdrop of strings and continuo. In one of the subsequent ver-sions (1731), Bach gave the vocal solo to a soprano, the obbligato part to aute, and changed the key to E minor. Another (1735) uses a mezzo-so-prano and changes the key to C minor. In still other versions (1745/1748),the oboe da caccia (oboe of the hunt, an oboe with a brass bell) is a curi-ous addition to the score.

The formal design of the aria Schlummert ein is an interesting ex-pansion of a conventional ve-section da capo aria plan whereby two addi-tional reprises of the ritornello result in a rondo-like form, a design thatwas also used from time to time by George Frideric Handel.

That Bach was fond of this cantata is apparent from the fact that por-tions of it appear in the Anna Magdalena Klavierbchlein (begun 1725);

22 chamber music

however, it is clear that the transcription was made from the cantata intothe little keyboard booknot vice versa.23

Cantata 51, Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, is another of Bachs Leipzigcantatas, probably composed for 17 September 1730, after Bach completedhis ve cycles of cantatas for every Sunday of the church year. The desig-nation In ogni Tempo (at any time [of the church year]) probably indi-cates that Bach was less strict in linking the text of this cantata to the scrip-ture readings of a particular occasion.

The cantata is a showpiece for the two soloists, soprano and trumpeter.(Incidentally, a version of the piece by Bachs son Wilhelm Friedemannadds a second trumpet and timpani to his fathers original score.) This in-strumentation is most curious in German, Lutheran repertoire; however, itis common enough in Italian, secular cantatas of the time, such as Alessan-dro Scarlattis previously discussed Sul le sponde del Tebro. Because thoseItalian pieces were secular compositions, women would have sung the vo-cal portions. But what about Bachs sacred, Lutheran cantata? Could hehave had a woman in mind? A leading Bach scholar claims that in conser-vative Leipzig, to think of a female soprano would be utterly out of thequestion.24

Concerning the trumpeter, we are on rm ground: The part wouldhave been taken by Gottfried Reiche (16671734), the leading clarinoplayer in the Leipzig, municipal wind players.

Despite its modest duration, Cantata 51 is remarkable for its composi-tional diversity. It employs ve characteristic formal designs of theBaroque: concerto (movement 1), monody (movement 2), ostinato varia-tions (movement 3), chorale [trio sonata] (movement 4), and fugue (move-ment 5).25


two

The Crystallization of Genresduring the Golden Age of

Chamber Music

tuning, temperament, and form

Important changes took place in the art of music around the end of the rstquarter of the eighteenth century. One of the most signicant was the in-troduction of well-tempered tuning for keyboard instruments. With theadvent of well-tempered tuning, all twenty-four major and minor keys be-came available to composers. The rst volume of Sebastian Bachs Well-Tempered Clavier appeared in 1722. In this same year, Rameaus ground-breaking Trait de lharmonie appeared in print.

The availability of all led to the creation of new musical forms based onthe contrast between stable and unstable structural components. This con-trast became the basis of the pattern forms used throughout western Eu-rope in what is now generally called the Classical style.

With the advent of well-tempered tuning, it became possible to expandthe simple binary forms of the early eighteenth century by introducing nu-merous tonalities, often quite remote from the original tonic, at the begin-ning of the second half of the binary plan. Initially, this tonal freedom wasexploited in an almost childlike fashion. One scholar has observed that:Pre-Classic composers and writers seem to have taken special pleasure inmodulations for their own sake. The empndsam composers used them fortheir shock value as they indulged in one sea of modulations after an-other (to use Burneys term for Emanuel Bachs improvisations).1 By thelast quarter of the eighteenth century, composers had learned to utilize

24

shifting tonalities for purposes of form and expression. Ultimately, thebroadened harmonic palette made possible by equal temperament led to anexpansion of all of the tonally unstable components within the binary form,including the modulatory transition section in the rst half, as well as thedevelopment section, and the retransition section in the second half.

The advances made by the end of the rst quarter of the eighteenthcentury in tuning and temperament not only provided composers with amore diverse harmonic vocabulary, but also enabled them to expand con-siderably the dimensions of an individual movement while maintaining itsstructural integrity. Similar tonal and architectonic expansion can be seenin the rondos and other harmonic forms of the later eighteenth century.

In multimovement works, the rondo is often placed as the concludingmovement to balance in energy and complexity with the opening, expandedbinary form movement. Internal movements generally are points of relativerepose, and, therefore, tend to make fewer demands of the listeners har-monic consciousness. The formal designs of inner movements are quite di-verse, but some of the more commonly encountered ones include themeand variations, minuet and trio, scherzo and trio, or song form.

the advent of the pianoforte

Though Bartolomeo Cristofori (16551731) had already built pianos inthe opening decade of the eighteenth century, the instrument did not comeinto popular use until after the midcentury. Accordingly, many keyboardcompositions of the later eighteenth century appeared with titles like theone we nd in the Sonatas, Op. 3 of Leopold Kotzeluch: Trois sonatas pourle clavecin ou le forte-piano avec accompagnement dun violon et violoncelle(Three sonatas for the harpsichord or the fortepiano with accompanimentof a violin and violoncello).2

The question invariably arises: Do the scores of these works for theharpsichord or the fortepiano betray any stylistic features that wouldmake them more suitable for one instrument than the other? In manycases, the decision is easily made. The prominence of echo passages, for ex-ample, would suggest that the music was conceived for harpsichord, sincethat instrument typically possessed two manuals that could be set in ad-vance with stops that would produce contrasting dynamic terraces. Simi-larly, the presence of graduated dynamics would indicate that the musicwas intended for the fortepiano. Unfortunately, not all cases are so clear-cut. Title pages were often written with one eye on musical aesthetics,while the other was xed steadfastly upon the commercial market.

The Crystallization of Genres 25

music for the bourgeoisie

The rise of the bourgeoisie during the second half of the eighteenth cen-tury accounted for the increased importance of chamber music. Musicmaking became a pastime for amateurs. Many compositions appeared withtitle pages indicating that the works were suitable especially for music lov-ing amateurs. Some composers, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (17141788)for example, attempted to appeal to the dilettante and the professional mu-sician alike by titles like that of his famous Sonaten fr Kenner und Liebhaber(Sonatas for connoisseurs and amateurs). A booming music-publishing in-dustry came into being, and everything from solo sonatas for harp to mul-timovement symphonies became available to the general public. Popularmagazines of the day included scores that appeared one movement at atime over a series of several issues. Music instruction manuals became ab-solutely commonplace. C. P. E. Bach set the standard with his famous Ver-such ber die wahre Art das Klavier zu spielen (Essay on the true art of play-ing keyboard instruments; 175362).3 Other treatises of the period includeJohann Joachim Quantzs Versuch einer Anweisung die Flte traversiere zuspielen (Essay of instruction for playing the transverse ute; Berlin, 1752),4

and Leopold Mozarts Versuch einer grndlichen Violinschule (Essay on fun-damental violin technique; Augsburg 1756).5 Later eighteenth-century tu-tors of note are Daniel Gottlob Trks Clavierschule (Keyboard tutor; 1789)and Muzio Clementis Introduction to the Art of Playing on the Piano Forte(London, 1801). To this short list, dozens of other titles could be added.

The increasing importance attached to the amateur player accountedin large part for the proliferation of chamber music genres. It also ac-counted for the characteristic style that came to be associated with cham-ber music of the mid-eighteenth century, a style that was light, pleasant,and agreeable.

This phase of midcentury chamber music is well documented in thewritings of contemporary theorists. Johann Adolph Scheibe (17081776),for example, wrote: The ultimate purpose of the chamber style is above allto delight and enliven the listener. He is thus brought to splendor, to joy,and to laughter. . . . From this can be determined the general character ofchamber music. It must above all be lively and penetrating.6

music publishers of the eighteenth century

The growing popularity of chamber music during the later eighteenth cen-tury was due in large part to technological progress. The use of mass me-

26 chamber music

dia for the dissemination of musical scores contributed directly to the ex-panding number of amateur musicians. Increased demand for reasonablypriced scores led to further advances in the printing process. Perhaps themost important development in late eighteenth-century music printingwas the invention of lithography by Aloys Senefelder (17711834). Thistechnique, which was used for the printing of Haydns sonatas Hob.XVI/4042 in 1797, enabled publishers to produce scores in large num-bers, quickly, and with high quality.7 Many composerseven the heros ofour musical heritage, like Haydn and Beethovendeliberately modiedtheir musical styles for the purpose of increasing the market for theirworks.8

Among the music publishing rms came into being during the mid-eighteenth century, several merit discussion here. Johann Gottlob Im-manuel Breitkopf took over his fathers meager business in 1745 andturned it into the most progressive music-publishing enterprise in Ger-many. Breitkopf sold the rm to Christoph Hrtel in 1796. Equally impor-tant was the publishing company opened in Vienna in the fall of 1778 byDomenico Artaria. He and his brothers became the publishers for FranzJoseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Anto-nio Salieri, Muzio Clementi, and many other luminaries of the later eigh-teenth century. Another important Viennese publisher was Johann Andr,whose third son, Johann Anton, took over the rm after his fathers deathand greatly expanded it. Johann Anton was also responsible for the pur-chase from Constanze Mozart of her husbands unpublished manuscriptsin the year 1800.

In France, the rms of Boyer, Bailleux, Huberty, and Pleyel catered tothe increasing demand for accessible music at reasonable prices. Hubertywas one of the primary publishers for the repertoire of the Mannheimschool. He relocated in Vienna in 1777. Ignaz Pleyels shop, which oper-ated during the years from 1796 to 1834, issued the rst complete editionof Haydns string quartets in 1802. Haydn had been Pleyels compositionteacher, and so, these editions are of particular historical importance.

In London, the rm of Longman and Broderip opened in 1767. MuzioClementi also operated a music-publishing house there beginning in 1798.The enterprise was successful, and he began manufacturing musical instru-mentshis pianos are perhaps the nest that were available at that time.

Even small towns like Augsburg and Nuremberg enjoyed the benetsof a local music publisher. Listing all of the music publishers of the lateeighteenth century would ll an entire volume, but several other rms thatshould at least be mentioned include those of Franz Anton Hoffmeister


(17541812), Tranquillo Mollo (1772?), and Christoph Torricella (17151798) in Vienna.

Hoffmeister published some of Mozarts most important works: HisQuartet in D minor, K. 499, known as the Hoffmeister Quartet, is only oneproduct of the congenial relationship that existed between the composerand this publisher. Mollo had once been a member of the rm of Artaria,but opened his own company in the summer of 1798. The publishinghouse of Torricella saw its heyday during the 1770s and early 1780s. Itspublications included works by Haydn, Mozart, J. C. Bach, LeopoldKotzeluch, Franz Anton Hoffmeister, and others. Torricella also acted as adistributor for Antoine Huberty. Torricellas platesall of engraved cop-perwere acquired by Artaria in the summer of 1786. The catalogs ofthese rms present in detail the changing tastes of the music-loving publicand the evolution of chamber music and its principal genres during the lateClassical era.

ensemble sonatas of the later eighteenth century

Some of the most typical fare to be found in the average later eighteenth-century music shop was the sonata repertoire for keyboard (i.e., harpsi-chord, clavichord, piano, or organ) with the accompaniment of one ormore instruments. The vogue for such works was inaugurated in Paris byJean-Joseph Cassana de Mondonville (17111772), who published hisPieces de clavecin en sonatas in 1734. Some years later, Johann Schobert (ca.17351767) made his career in that same city by writing such works. HisOp. 1 was a set of two Sonatas pour le clavecin qui peuvent jouer avec laccom-pagnement de violon (Sonatas for the harpsichord that may be played withthe accompaniment of a violin).9 Schoberts title invites performance eitherwith or without the violin, but he was not alone in allowing such exibility:Leopold Kotzeluch (17471818), Jan Ladislav Dussek (17601812), andmany others published pieces with indenite scoring.

Some eighteenth-century collections of sonatas combine pieces for key-board alone with others including added instruments. Marie-EmmanuelleBayons collection of Six sonates pour le clavecin ou le piano forte dont trois avecaccompagnement de violon oblig, uvre 1 (Six sonatas for harpsichord or pianoforte, three with obligatory violin accompaniment, Op. 1), which were pub-lished in the late 1760s, is a good example of a mixed collection.10

Titles sometimes involve a single melody instrumentusually a violinor a ute. At other times, two instruments are mentionednormally one

28 chamber music

treble and one bass instrument. Either or both parts may be described asaccompanimental, obbligato, or ad libitum.

In this sonata repertoire, it is impossible to differentiate between solos,duets, and trios.11 The performance of any given sonata depended mainlyupon the instrumentalists at hand and their respective skills at sight read-ing or improvising parts, and the relationship of instruments in this reper-toire is variable. In some pieces, the keyboard part is clearly the primaryone, and it carries the main melodies and harmonies. On the other hand,the titles of some works suggest a fully developed, concertante sonata forkeyboard and melody instrument. For example, a set of three sonatas by Ja-copo Gotifredo Ferrari (17631842) contains the designation: Trois sonatespour clavecin ou forte-piano avec violon oblig et basse ad libitum . . . uvre IIm.12

(Three sonatas for harpsichord or fortepiano with obbligato violin and bassad libitum, Op. 2.)

It is a mistake to assume that the interaction of the instruments in theseensemble sonatas became more complex and highly integrated as the genreprogressed historically. In fact, There is not a direct line of progressfrom an early optionally-accompanied style to the fully developed concer-tante sonata of Mozart and Beethoven. Rather, the two styles existed sideby side from mid-century and even beyond the turn of the century.13 Theaccompanied style sonata persisted even in the very latest works by Mozart.

For the sake of clarity, sonatas with real, obbligato parts for melody lineinstruments will be referred to as duo keyboard sonatas, whereas those writ-ten in the optionally accompanied style will be called accompanied keyboardsonatas. The neutral designation ensemble keyboard sonatas will be used ingeneral references to both types of pieces simultaneously.14

The Schobert sonatas of Op. 2 are representative of the ensemblesonata with keyboard during the midcentury. The overall plan normally in-cluded several movements. Two-movement and three-movement formatswere about equally popular.15 In two-movement sonatas, both movementswere ordinarily in the same key, though a change in mode was possible. Acontrast in tempo is also to be expected, but the precise tempo of each ofthe two movements was never standardized. Three-movement sonataswere typically arranged with the inner movement in the subdominant, rel-ative minor, dominant, or (less frequently) the relative major. The temposequence of the various movements was not regulated, although three-movement sonatas in the order fast-slow-fast are common.

Schoberts sonatas are remarkably dramatic and expressive; the youngMozart realized that when he rst encountered them during the sojourn he


made to Paris with his family in 1764. Mozart was not alone in his admira-tion for this type of writing, and Schoberts works became immenselypopular and continued to be reprinted throughout the century.16

In the later eighteenth-century sonata repertoire, a harp was sometimessubstituted for the keyboard instrument. Gotifredo Jacopo Ferraris works,for instance, include the Trois grandes sonates pour harpe avec accompagnementde violon et basse, Op. 18.17 Antonn Kammel (17301787) is more liberal inpermitting any of three possibilities in the instrumentation of his Sixsonates for the piano forte, harpsichord, or harp with accompaniments for a violinand violoncello, opera IX.

Though some of these titles suggest a trio of two melody instrumentswith some chord-playing instrument, very few examples of this texture arepresent in the scores of the mid-eighteenth century. In many cases, the bassline instrument simply doubles the lowest part of the harpsichord, piano,or harp.

Among the earliest chamber pieces to include an obbligato treble in-strument, a written-out keyboard part, and an independent string bass partwas Jean-Philippe Rameaus Pieces de clavecin en concert, avec un violon ou unete, et une viole ou un deuxieme violon (Harpsichord pieces in ensemble withviolin or ute and viol or cello), published in Paris in 1741.18 Even here,though, some pieces can actually be playedwith Rameaus full approvalas solo harpsichord works.

mozarts sonatas for violin and piano

In the course of his brief career, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (17561791)wrote more than forty sonatas for piano and violin.19 The earliest of thesewere youthful works during the grand family tour of Europe undertakenfrom June 1763 until November 1766. In the index of Wolfgangs composi-tions that was assembled by his father in 1768, the rst entry is: Sonates pourle clavecin avec laccompagnement de violon dedies a Madame Victoire de Francepar Wolfgang Mozart ag de sept ans. A Paris. uvre I. His last such work, theSonata in F major, was composed in Vienna during the summer of 1788, thesummer that witnessed the composition of his last three symphonies.

The fact that Mozarts father, Leopold (17191787), was himself a neviolinist ensured that as a young composer, Wolfgang came into contactwith important repertoire for that instrumentand probably some unim-portant repertoire as well.20 If not by his fathers doing, then, at least, as aresult of his travels between 1762 and 1779, Mozart was thoroughly famil-iar with stylistic developments taking place in western Europe during the

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mid-eighteenth century. One scholar has assembled a list of important mu-sical centers that Mozart visited during these years. That list includes Mu-nich, Vienna, Pressburg, Augsburg, Schwetzingen, Mainz, Frankfurt,Coblenz, Aachen, Brussels, Paris, London, den Hagg, Amsterdam,Utrecht, Malines (= Mechelen), Dijon, Lyons, Geneva, Lausanne, Berne,Zurich, Schaffhausen, Donaueschingen, Biberach, Innsbruck, Rovereto,Verona, Milan, Parma, Bologna, Florence, Cremona, Mantua, Lodi,Rome, Naples, Venice, Turin, Padua, Vicenza, Mannheim, Nancy, andStrasbourg.21 This tally does not include recurrent visits that took placeduring the course of Mozarts numerous tours.

Despite the ascendancy of the music-publishing industry during themid-eighteenth century, musical styles at the time were still largely re-gional affairs involving distinctive musical practices.22 These journeys pro-vided Mozart with comprehensive and rsthand knowledge of later eigh-teenth-century styles. Notorious but often vaguely dened styles like thestyle galant, the Empndsamer Stil, and the rococo, were, for Mozart, part ofa living musical culture. In all probability, he would have been aware of stillother musical dialects that never made their way into the history books.

Like his father, Mozart was a skilled violinist. As a leading pianist of theera, though, Wolfgang brought to this repertoire the insight of the key-board player and that of the violinist simultaneously. Accordingly, Mozartssteady production of ensemble sonatas from the early 1760s until the sum-mer of 1788 can be traced as a guide through that literature in the latereighteenth century.23

Most of Mozarts sonatas for piano and violin begin with movements induple meter; only about one-fth of them are in triple meter; there are twosonatas, K. 305 and 526, with opening movements in duple compound me-ter. Major mode is used for most opening movements; only three sonatas,K. 59, 60, and 304, begin in the minor mode. They may have two or threemovements, and some commence with slow introductions. Perhaps thebest known of these is the Largo opening of the Sonata in B-at major, K.454, which Mozart wrote in 1784 and performed with the twenty-year-oldItalian violinist Regina Strinasacchi, who was making her concert debut inVienna.

The duo Sonata in C major, K. 296, was written in Mannheim duringthe month of March in the eventful year 1778. At the time, Mozart hadgrown weary of the Salzburg court and was looking for a new position. Hecomposed the C-major Sonata for Therese Pierron Serrarius, who was theteenage daughter of one of the Mannheim court dignitaries and a pianist ofsome skill. The piece was intended as a gesture of gratitude for accommo-


dations that the family had provided for Mozart and his mother; hence, theoverall mood of each of the three movements in the sonata is cheerful,poised, and rened. The opening Allegro combines duple and triple subdi-visions of the beat, a characteristic rhythmic feature of the style galant. Theviolin part is idiomatic to be sure. It begins with a full, C-major triad andcontinues with rich writing with more triads and double stops.

In this sonata, it would be impossible to eliminate the violin: The imi-tations of the principal motif that appear in measures 9 to 14 of the expo-sition and in the corresponding passage in the recapitulation and countlessother details of the score could not be condensed into a single part for pi-ano solo. The concluding movement of the sonata, a modied rondo form,was subsequently revised and expanded to become the nale of the Con-certo for Flute and Harp, K. 299.

Later compositions, such as the accompanied Sonata in F major, K.547, conrm that there is no evolutionary line that leads from one ensem-ble keyboard sonata to the next. This sonata is a small keyboard sonata forbeginners, with a violin. Although the rst movement contains some in-teresting interplay between the keyboard and violin, the violin has a paltryrole in the concluding, third movement, a set of variations that Mozartlater arranged for keyboard solo (K. 547b).

Despite the fact that the Sonata in F major was written ten years afterthe Sonata in C major, the interplay of the two instruments in the earliersonata is far more complex and effective. For that matter, even early works,like the Sonata in C major, K. 10, contain passages such as those in theminuet in the manner of a carillon, where the violin is an essential part-ner in a duo texture. Throughout his career, Mozart produced both duokeyboard sonatas and accompanied keyboard sonatas, but it is clear that thechoice fell to the one or the other as a result of circumstances rather thanstylistic or technical evolution.

chamber music without keyboard

Figured-bass keyboard parts persisted throughout the eighteenth centuryin theatrical and orchestral music, but they rapidly disappeared in chamberworks. Terminology is not always helpful in determining what type of piecewe are looking at. During the mid-eighteenth century, what we call astring quartet could have been labeled a sonata a quattro, sonate en quatuor,concerto, concertino, sinfonia, divertimento, cassation, serenade, or notturno aquattro. It may be helpful to note the following guideposts in addressingsuch issues:

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In Viennese ensemble music from 1750 to 1780, Divertimento was thetitle of preference for every nonorchestral scoring. Before ca. 1760, thetitle Partita also served the same function. The alternate titles Cassation,Notturno, Serenade, and Concertino designated light music in variousscorings from 1750 on. The titles Quartet and Quintet occurred infre-quently before ca. 1770 and supplanted Divertimento as customary des-ignations for serious chamber music only after 1780. . . . Each of theve principal genres of Viennese chamber music in this periodthesonata for melodies and bass; the Classical string trio, quartet, and quin-tet; the Classical scorings with an obbligato wind instrument; the cassa-tion for mixed ensemble with two horns; and the partita for windsistransmitted under the title Divertimento as well as more specializedones. Thus Divertimento did not designate a genre at all; it was a generaltitle for nonorchestral instrumental music.24

In addition to the confusion of genres, ensembles, and forms, stylistictrends were also numerous and not entirely distinct. To think that we areany more certain today about these stylistic distinctions than the musiciansof the eighteenth century would be a mistake. Our present-day terminol-ogy includes a befuddling array of terms that have been applied in such di-verse ways that they have lost whatever meaning they may have had. Con-sider, for example, the words rococo, Empndsamkeit, Sturm und Drang, andstyle galant.25 No decisive termination of Baroque style is evidenced in therepertoire per se. Some Baroque genres were carried into the later eigh-teenth century with little or no modication; others were discontinued al-together and only appear as curiosities in the works of the most atavisticcomposers; and some genres came into being as a reaction against or as asynthesis of existing genres of the early eighteenth century.

the string trio

The two violins and string bass of the Baroque trio sonata did remain as thetypical ensemble in the midcentury string trio without keyboard: Of thetwenty-one authenticated string trios written by Franz Joseph Haydn dur-ing the 1760s, this scoring is used in all save one; nevertheless, this combi-nation seems to have had limited appeal during the eighteenth century orsince then. The removal of the basso continuo resulted in an awkward voidbetween the high violins and the bass line.

The limited repertoire for string trio from the later eighteenth centuryincludes a few interesting pieces. One of them is Haydns Echo Sonata, Hob.II/39, which requires two string trios seated in different rooms. The nick-


name of this piece is an apt one, since the two ensembles play nearly iden-tical phrases antiphonally and only combine to form a sextet at elided ca-dence points.26

Only one of the authenticated trios, Hob. V/8, is scored for violin, vi-ola, and cello. Among the works of questionable authenticity, only Hob.V/D6, V/E-at 1, and V/G7 indicate a scoring for treble, alto, and bassstringed instruments. The String Trios, Op. 53 are arrangements of two-movement sonatas for keyboard solo that Haydn had composed between1782 and 1784 and dedicated to Princess Marie Esterhzy.

Mozarts only important example of the string trio is K. 563, the Diver-timento in E-at. Beethoven contributed to this genre with his Opp. 3 and9, but not as richly as did Luigi Boccherini, for whom the medium had aparticular appeal. Ultimately, the string trio was superseded by the stringquartet, the most important medium for Classical chamber music.27

the string quartet

There is no single parent source for the Classical string quartet. Thoughisolated works like Gregorio Allegris Symphonia for two violins, viola, andbass (1650) and Alessandro Scarlattis four Sonate a quattro per due violini,violetta e violoncello senza cembalo (ca. 171525) appear well in advance of themidcentury, these were isolated rather than the origin of the genre.28 In or-chestral writing of the Baroque, four-part string texture was common.Many orchestral works could have been string quartets if performed withone player per part without continuo. The symphony, sinfonia, overture,and concerto all contributed something of their formal and stylistic fea-tures to the evolving quartet, as did the diverse compositions that werecalled divertimento, notturno, serenade, and cassation, but this repertoirewas usually predicated two-part counterpoint of the outer voices with har-monic ller in the inner parts. Within this two-voice texture, doubling wascommon, and the viola often duplicated the violin melody an octave below,or the bass line an octave above, while the cello was normally doubled atthe octave below by the double bass.

Different instruments often play from the same written line eventhough the doubling instrument might be in a different octave. Usually theinstruction colla parte (with the part) was simply written at the beginning ofthe part along with an indication of the intended doubling instrument.This type of writing, commonplace throughout the century, was essentiallyorchestral in conception; consequently, not all scores that have two trebleclefs, an alto clef, and a bass clef are necessarily genuine string quartets.

34 chamber music

The principal challenge of quartet writing was nding a way to pro-mote equality among all voices. This textureknown in late eighteenth-century French sources as the quatuor concertantposed difculties notonly for the composers but for the performers as well since, in such a piece,each voice of the musical fabric is essential.

The title of J. B. Ferays Quatuor de petits airs, varis et dialogus pourdeux violons, alto et basse, uvre 1er (Quartet of little songs, varied and setin dialogue for two violins, viola, and bass, Op. 1) makes it clear that thelittle songs were intended to be familiar, easily accessible, and appeal-ing. Quartets made up of familiar songs were actually a French specialtythat went under the designation quatuor dairs connus (i.e., quartet of fa-miliar airs). Quartet arrangements of this sort remained popular in Francewell into the nineteenth century. Richard Wagner (18131883), duringhis poverty-stricken years in Paris, agreed to arrange favorite tunes fromFromental Halvys opera La reine de Chypre (1841) for string quartet.29

Perhaps it was this distasteful task that turned him for ever against thestring quartet as a genre!

The quartet of popular tunes was complemented in France by thequatuor brillant, in which the rst violin played virtuosic passages while theother three players provided a simple accompaniment. Such quartets per-sisted well into the nineteenth century.

Both the quartet of popular tunes and the quartet of brilliance exertedan undeniable inuence on the writing of later quartet composers, but nei-ther provided the foundation for the string quartet as a genre. The reper-toire of the Classical era depended fundamentally upon formal integrity,harmonic interest, and thematic vitality in all four parts. String quartetsbased on sonata form seem to have originated in the works of Italian com-posers including Boccherini, Cambini, and their contemporaries. In theirquartets, the inuence of the opera sinfonia is apparent: Its three-move-ment plan and the formal designs of those movements correspond pre-cisely to the structure of the earliest Italian string quartets. The four-movement was largely the work of the Viennese Classicists, Haydn,Mozart, and Beethoven; but even in their works, many examples that de-part from the four-movement design can be found.

Much obscure repertoire will have to be examined before the denitivehistory of the string quartet can be written. The pages of the Einzeldrckevor 1800 of RISM list hundreds of midcentury quartets that have neitherbeen accounted for in scholarly literature to date nor been issued in mod-ern editions.30 Until we have a more comprehensive view of the earliestquartet literature, we must accept the traditional view that Franz Joseph


Haydn and his colleagues in and around Vienna were the composers whoestablished the Classical string quartet.31

Among this group of Viennese composers, Franz Aspelmayr (17281786) played an important role. He was a violinist, and he performed someof Haydns quartets in 1782perhaps those of Op. 33. He also knew bothLeopold and Wolfgang Mozart personally. Aspelmayr published two setsof quartets, Op. 2 and Op. 6, with six in each set. These were his only quar-tets that appeared in print during his lifetime.

Frantisek Xavier Dusek (17311799), a close friend of Wolfgang Mozartand his wife, Constanza, also wrote string quartets. The immensely prolicJan Van&hal (17391813) wrote approximately one hundred quartets. Healso performed quartet literature with Haydn, Mozart, and Karl Ditter vonDittersdorf (17391799), and so he must have known at least some ofHaydns and Mozarts quartets, and they must have known some of his.

Dittersdorf published a set of six quartets with Artaria in 1788. He alsowrote an isolated Quartet in E-at major. Important too are the works ofCarlos Ordonez (17341786), who, despite his Spanish name, was a nativeof Vienna. His Op. 1 was a set of six quartets published around 1775; Op.2 was another set of six quartets. He wrote many other quartets that sur-vive only in manuscript copies. Wenzel Pichl (17411805) was absentfrom Vienna during the years Mozart lived there, but he h

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