Concise History of Western Music
Quizzes Home
Chapter Index Chapter 1: Music in Ancient Greece and Early Christian Rome Chapter 2: Chant and Secular Song in the Middle Ages, 400Ð1450 Chapter 3: Polyphonic Music from Its Beginnings through the Thirteenth Century Chapter 4: French and Italian Music in the Fourteenth Century Chapter 5: England and Burgundian Lands in the Fifteenth Century: The Beginnings of an International Style Chapter 6: The Age of the Renaissance: Music of the Low Countries Chapter 7: The Age of the Renaissance: New Currents in the Sixteenth Century Chapter 8: Church Music of the Late Renaissance and Reformation Chapter 9: Church Music of the Late Renaissance and Reformation Chapter 10: Opera and Vocal Music in the Late Seventeenth Century Chapter 11: Instrumental Music in the Late Baroque Chapter 12: Music in the Early Eighteenth Century Chapter 13: The Early Classic Period: Opera and Instrumental Music in the Eighteenth Century Chapter 14: The Late Eighteenth Century: Haydn and Mozart Chapter 15: Ludwig van Beethoven Chapter 16: Romanticism and Nineteenth-Century Orchestral Music Chapter 17: Solo, Chamber, and Vocal Music in the Nineteenth Century Chapter 18: Opera, Music Drama, and Church Music in the Nineteenth Century Chapter 19: European Music from the 1870s to World War I Chapter 20: The European Mainstream in the Twentieth Century Chapter 21: Atonality, Serialism, and Recent Developments in Twentieth-Century Europe Chapter 22: The American Twentieth Century
 

Outlines:

  - Music for Solo Piano
  - Chamber Music
  - The Lied
  Quiz
  Listening Guide
Chapter 17: Solo, Chamber, and Vocal Music in the Nineteenth Century
Chamber Music
  1. Schubert

    1. Early string quartets
      1. His earliest quartets were modeled on those of Mozart and Haydn.
      2. His Quartettsatz (1820) marks the beginning of his mature style.

    2. Mature quartets
      1. The A-minor Quartet (1824) uses melodies from his other works.
      2. The D-minor quartet, D. 810 ("Death and the Maiden") uses his lied Der Tod und das Mädchen (Death and the Maiden) as the basis for variations.

    3. String Quintet in C major, D. 956
      1. Composed in the last year of his life
      2. For string quartet plus an added cello
      3. Long melodic lines with profound lyricism and mastery of counterpoint
      4. The final movement is playful, with rapid modulations.

  2. Brahms

    1. Considered the true successor of Beethoven in chamber music.

    2. Twenty-four works in many combinations.

    3. Piano quintet Op. 34 (1864).
      1. He reworked a previous work for this medium on the advice of his good friend Clara Schumann.
      2. He treats the opening idea in "developing variations."
      3. The scherzo is in the tradition of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.

    4. His sonatas for violin, cello, and clarinet with piano are noteworthy.