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Classical Chamber Music
Haydn had neither the flashy individuality of
Mozart nor the brooding, romantic passion of
Beethoven. He was more of a middle-management
type.
   .  ₍
 ₎
Listening Introduction
Listen to the example of music that represents this chapter, String Quartet
op. 33, no. 3 (“The Bird”), fourth movement, by Haydn, and make notes about
what you hear. Give some attention to the following:
❚ Can you guess at the tempo?
❚ Can you detect the meter?
❚ Can you tell what instruments are playing?
❚ Can you hear a melody at the beginning that returns later?
❚ Can you hear anything that caused people to call the piece “The Bird”?
Keep these notes to compare with your impressions about the music after you
study the information in this chapter.
Chamber Sonatas
Despite the popularity of the orchestra, music for smaller ensembles continued to
thrive as wealthy patrons commissioned works to be performed in their palaces
for private audiences. We call music for small ensembles chamber music. Most
chamber music is composed for from two to nine instrumentalists. The pieces are
often titled according to the number of players as follows: duet (2), trio (3), quartet (4), quintet (5), sextet (6), septet (7), octet (8), and nonet (9). Sometimes the
names of the works make it obvious what instruments are needed to play them.
For example, a guitar duet is a work for two guitars. In other cases, the titles are
not so telling. A piano trio is written for violin, cello, and piano; a piano quartet
is written for violin, viola, cello, and piano; and a piano quintet is for string quartet and piano. Sometimes chamber works are given titles such as sonata followed
by the names of the instruments needed to play them.
Normally, chamber music is performed with one player on each part, but
occasionally string players double or triple up on the parts to create a chamber
orchestra. Mozart’s “Eine kleine Nachtmusik” (“A Little Night Music”), for example, was composed for a string quintet (five players), but it is often performed by
a string orchestra. Such a change does not require any revision to the music; the
sound is just much fuller.
One of the great beauties of chamber music is its intimacy. No conductor is
needed because the musicians can communicate among themselves about such
things as when to start or what tempo to use. A mere nod or two from one of the
players is enough to tell the group to begin. Chamber music is often referred to
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  
The Performance of Chamber Music
Because chamber music is performed with a single
player on each part and by groups of no more than
nine musicians, a conductor is not necessary to
determine the tempo, keep the players together,
balance the dynamics, indicate when musicians
should come in, or direct the phrasing. Similarly, a
concertmaster/mistress is not needed to “bow”
string parts or oversee tuning. The bowing of string
parts involves deciding when the players should
play up or down with the bow. Because down
bows tend to sound a bit heavier than up bows,
their use greatly affects the phrasing.
As is also the case with orchestras, the real
work in chamber music happens during rehearsal
sessions. A chamber group will often use their
first rehearsal to simply “read through” the music
they will perform, playing the music to give the
musicians an idea about what the composer
intended and how they will eventually interpret it.
Depending on how comfortable each player feels
with his or her part and what ideas come up in
discussions about the music, further rehearsals will
be planned as necessary. Players responsible for
particularly difficult sections will take their music
home to practice their own part so they will be
ready for the next rehearsal. Difficult or awkward
sections of the music will often be practiced
through many times until the entire group is
comfortable with the way they play together.
Typically, musicians who have performed together
before need less rehearsal time than those who are
unfamiliar with one another’s playing styles.
Chamber music sometimes begins with a single
musician playing solo, which makes it easy for the
others to join in where appropriate. Often, however,
all of the musicians begin playing at the same time,
and that requires some planning. Because the
musicians will have agreed on the exact tempo they
will use, it usually takes only a single nod from the
assigned musician to have them all start together.
That same player will often nod in tempo at other
times when he or she wants the group to gradually
slow down, speed up, or make any other changes to
the speed of the beat at which the group is playing.
Unlike members of a large orchestra, chamber
musicians can easily hear one another in both
rehearsals and performances. This allows them to
balance dynamics to make certain that all players
are heard equally or to have one or more players to
stand out while they are playing. Because chamber
musicians each play their own part with no other
member of the group playing the same notes, they
can each phrase their part themselves up to a
point. In rehearsal, the group will decide together
how crisply they want to play the staccato
(detached) notes or how smoothly they want to
play a legato (connected notes) phrase and will
pencil those indications into their music. Orchestral
musicians do this too, but the directions are given
to them by the conductor.
At a chamber music concert, the audience
generally applauds when the musicians walk out on
stage. They will bow, take their seats, check their
tuning, and look at the group member who will give
the nod to begin. One might question the need for
tuning the instruments in front of the audience
since the instruments have surely been tuned
before. The last-minute tuning is necessary
because stage lights tend to be very hot and heat
affects an instruments’ pitch. If there is a keyboard
instrument included in the group, the other
musicians will tune to that.
as the music of friends because of the close proximity of the players and the fact
that each player can be heard clearly within the group sound.
The multimovement sonata structure that we encountered in the symphony
was also used in chamber music for a wide variety of instrumental combinations.
The string quartet, consisting of a first and second violin, a viola, and a cello,
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became in the classical era the most important chamber music medium. Its
popularity continued well into the twentieth century in the works of Bartók,
Hindemith, and others. “The Live Experience: The Performance of Chamber
Music” discusses this type of music in detail.
Franz Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) was the first great master of string quartet
composition. Haydn was born in Rohrau, a small Austrian village located near
the Hungarian border southeast of Vienna. His parents, both of peasant stock,
seem to have encouraged their son’s musical ability and entrusted his earliest musical training to a relative, Johann Franck, a schoolteacher and choirmaster in the
nearby town of Hainburg. At age six, Haydn was already singing in Franck’s
church choir and had begun playing the clavier (a generic name for a keyboard
instrument) and violin.
In 1740, the composer and choirmaster at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna
stopped in Hainburg to recruit singers for his choir. Impressed with the eightyear-old’s voice, he arranged to take the young boy back with him to Vienna.
For the next nine years, Haydn was employed as a Catholic choirboy. He
received a smattering of elementary education at St. Stephen’s choir school and
continued with violin and voice lessons, but his training in composition and theory was so erratic that he was largely self-taught. In 1749, when his voice began to
mature, Haydn was dismissed and had to find work outside the church.
The following years were hard ones. At first Haydn made his living teaching
clavier by day and playing in street bands and serenading parties by night. His reputation as a teacher and vocal accompanist, however, gradually spread, and he
started serious composition. In 1759, he was appointed Kapellmeister (conductor)
and chamber composer to a Bohemian nobleman, Count Morzin. He composed
his first symphonies for the count’s small orchestra.
Franz Joseph Haydn. The
composer is depicted here
directing a string quartet
rehearsal.
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Esterházy Palace in Fertod,
Hungary, was where Haydn
composed and debuted
much of his work.
The year 1761 proved to be good for Haydn. He was hired as assistant music
director to Prince Paul Anton Esterházy, head of one of the most powerful and
wealthy Hungarian noble families. Haydn’s contract stipulated that he was to
compose whatever music was required of him (which would become the property of his patron), keep the musical instruments in good repair, train singers,
and supervise the conduct of all of the musicians.
Despite the rigid and burdensome requirements of his contract, Haydn enjoyed his work and was to say later, “My prince was pleased with all my work, I
was commended, and as conductor of an orchestra I could make experiments,
observe what strengthened and what weakened an effect and thereupon improve,
substitute, omit, and try new things; I was cut off from the world, there was no
one around to mislead and harass me, and so I was forced to become original.”
Haydn remained in the employ of the Esterházy family for almost thirty
years, serving first Prince Paul Anton and then his brother, Prince Nikolaus. Despite his isolation at their country estate, his fame gradually spread throughout
Europe. He was able to work on commissions from other individuals and from
publishers all over the continent.
Prince Nikolaus loved music and invited many important guests to his palace
to hear Haydn’s compositions. These included symphonies; chamber works of all
kinds, particularly string quartets; and operas. The prince played a cello-like
bowed string instrument called the baryton and enjoyed playing with Haydn and
other musicians in the privacy of his own quarters. Haydn also provided the
music for those sessions.
Haydn’s music has a wonderful sense of humor and, although he was a hired
servant, he had a good relationship with the prince. Both his humor and his ability to communicate with the prince are evidenced in his Symphony no. 45, the
Farewell (1772). It was composed after a long summer during which Prince
Nikolaus had entertained hundreds of guests and had required much music for
their entertainment. It was the time of year for the musicians, who did not live
at the summer palace full-time, to go back to their primary residences and be
with their families. Not able to directly tell the prince that the musicians needed
leave, Haydn composed Symphony no. 45 to communicate the message for him.
During the last movement, one or two of the musicians at a time stopped playing,
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snuffed out their candles, and left the room. Only two violinists, the concertmaster and Haydn, were left to finish the symphony. The prince was confused at first,
but then got the point and allowed them to go home for their winter break.
When Prince Nikolaus died in 1790, Haydn was retained as nominal
Kapellmeister for the Esterházy family, but he was now independent. Moving to
Vienna, he resumed his friendship with Mozart, whose talent he had admired
since their first meeting in 1781. Haydn also gave lessons to a young, rising composer named Ludwig van Beethoven. He made two successful trips to London
(1791–1792, 1794–1795), where he conducted a number of his own symphonies,
written on commission for the well-known impresario Johann Salomon. After
his second London visit, he ceased writing symphonies, turning instead to the
composition of Masses and oratorios. After 1800, his health began to fail, and he
lived in secluded retirement. He died in 1809 at the age of seventy-seven.
Haydn’s opus (work number within the collected works of a particular composer) 33 is a set of six string quartets. The set is sometimes called the Russian
Quartets, because the audience for their première performance included the
Russian Grand Duke Paul (later Tsar Paul II) and his wife, who were visiting
Vienna. Number 3 is nicknamed “The Bird” because of the birdlike trills and
ornaments in the first, second, and fourth movements. We will listen for bird
sounds in the fourth movement.
This movement introduces a form we have not heard before, the rondo. A
rondo is an extended alternating form in which the first theme, “A,” returns several
times with contrasting music (represented by letters B and C) between the A’s. Using
letters to identify the order in which the themes appear, the most common rondo is
ABACA or ABACABA. The rondo we will listen to differs slightly from the norm in
that it has two sections of development, in which the themes are tossed around and
reduced to two notes. Because development sections are usually part of the singlemovement sonata form, this form combines the two names and is called a sonata
rondo. Listen, then see “Hearing the Difference: Mozart’s Symphony no. 40, first
movement, and Haydn’s String Quartet op. 33, no. 3, fourth movement.”
Listening Guide
String Quartet op. 33, no. 3 (“The Bird”), fourth movement   
CD 1
Track 13
Year: 1781
Texture: Homophonic with some polyphony in the first
development section and a monophonic repeated note in the
second development
Tempo: Presto (very fast)
Meter: Duple
Form: Sonata rondo (A-B-development-A-B-development-A)
Instrumentation: Two violins, one viola, one cello
Duration: 2:48
Special feature: Bird calls are imitated in some melodies.
continued
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Timing
Form
Instrumentation
0:00
0:13
A
0:35
B
Bouncy theme, staccato, repeated
Repeated-note bird calls, motive from bouncy theme
accompanies; repeated, clear stop
More flowing theme, repeated; goes directly into:
Development
0:57
1:25
1:32
1:42
Opening motive of bouncy theme and repeated-note
fragment developed in rapid-fire polyphony; four-note
motive tossed back and forth, reduced to two-note
motive; sudden pause
Bouncy theme
Repeated-note theme, goes directly into:
Flowing theme, goes directly into:
A
B
Development
1:54
2:08
2:12
2:25
A
Coda
Long notes in first violin, bouncy theme motive
accompaniment; flowing theme motive repeated, reduced
to repeated monophonic note, transition back to:
Bouncy theme
Repeated-note theme, clear stop at end
Two-note motive and bouncy motive tossed back and forth,
move quickly to pause; moves further to apparent emphatic
closing; piano (soft), bouncy motive and repeated-note
motive to actual quiet close.
  
Mozart’s Symphony no. 40, first movement, and Haydn’s
String Quartet op. 33, no. 3, fourth movement
Symphony no. 40, first movement
String Quartet op. 33, no. 3,
fourth movement
Tempo
The tempo is fast, allegro
The tempo is very fast, presto
Meter
Duple meter
Duple meter
Form
Sonata form (exposition, development,
recapitulation, coda)
Sonata rondo form (A–B–development–
A–B–development–A)
Sound
Full orchestral sound
A much lighter sound of only four
string instruments
Themes
Themes repeat and contrast but are
not composed to represent anything
other than music
The second, repeated note, theme is
reminiscent of a bird call
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Summary
Chamber music is usually composed for from two
to nine instrumentalists, each playing his or her own
distinct part. Classical composers wrote chamber
works for any number of combinations of instruments,
their choices often being dictated by their patron or
their knowledge of what instrumentalists were available. String quartets were among the most popular of
the chamber ensembles.
Franz Joseph Haydn was a master of string quartet
composition. His primary patron, Prince Nikolaus
Esterházy, played the cello and an instrument similar
to the cello, the baryton. The prince enjoyed playing
music himself, and many of Haydn’s string quartets or
chamber works for baryton were composed for his
patron.
The string quartets in Haydn’s opus 33 are called
the Russian Quartets because they were first performed for an audience that included the Russian
Grand Duke Paul (later Tsar Paul II) and his wife, who
were visiting Vienna.
New People and Concepts
chamber music
piano quartet
septet
clavier
piano quintet
sextet
duet
piano trio
sonata rondo
Franz Joseph Haydn
première
string quartet
nonet
quartet
trio
octet
quintet
opus
rondo
Finale
Listen again to String Quartet op. 33, no. 3 (“The Bird”), fourth movement, by Haydn, and compare your
impressions now with your notes from your first listening. Do you hear more now than you did before? You
should now be able to answer the following questions:
❚ What is the tempo?
❚ What is the meter?
❚ What instruments are playing?
❚ Can you hear a melody at the beginning that returns later?
❚ What caused people to call the piece “The Bird”?