Chamber Music

Chamber music is one of the most interesting and exciting ways of experiencing music. It is an area that is rich with fantastic repertoire by many well- known composers such as Haydn, Mozart and Brahms, to name but a few. The detail and intimacy in the writing of these works transfers out to the playing, creating a wonderful environment to discover the world of ensemble playing and to develop musicianship and technique, hand in hand. String quartets are particularly in abundance. Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), known as "the father of string quartets" wrote 83 quartets. It now takes 23 CDs to record the complete set. Some of them have magical titles such as The Sunrise or The Lark.

  As a player, to rehearse and perform chamber music, whether you are a professional, amateur, student or a child learning, chamber music playing has great advantages. It helps to maintain and develop technique at any level, develop ensemble skills, and encourages one to start to interpret and understand composers. This is extremely rewarding.

 It is a very sociable activity and as the numbers of players are small it’s easy to organise a performance in your own living room and invite some of your family and friends to hear your achievements. This can be done for all standards as there is chamber music published at all levels, there is even music suitable for tots. It is very healthy to move out of the practice room into a group to enjoy the musical journey in good company while building confidence as a performer.

 The first thing to do is to form a group yourself. It doesn't have to be a quartet, it could be a duo, a trio or a piano trio or a more unusual group. Music can always be found. Choose a piece, then grab a score and a recording. Have a listen. Read about the composer. Start playing and enjoy!