chamber music
Music composed for a small ensemble, typically one player per part.
In Depth
Chamber music is written for small ensembles with one player per part, originally intended for performance in a room (chamber) rather than a concert hall or church. The most common configurations are the string quartet, piano trio, wind quintet, and various sonata pairings. The intimate scale of chamber music demands a different kind of playing — every performer is both soloist and accompanist. Haydn is considered the father of the string quartet, while Beethoven's late quartets pushed the form to its expressive limits. Chamber music remains one of the most refined and collaborative forms of musical performance.
Beethoven's late string quartets were considered so strange at their premiere that one critic wrote they could only be enjoyed by a person who has lost his hearing — not realising Beethoven had.