Listening is one of the most important skills that we develop as musicians, and playing chamber music requires me to listen expansively—to hear the totality beyond my own part. To have confidence in my own beliefs and yet remain responsive to other ideas and open to criticism has enhanced so many areas of my life. This should help articulate to any young musician with a desire to travel and see the world that these things become possible with the work and dedication it takes to become a chamber musician.
From the time I was very young, maybe seven or eight years old and just starting out with my violin, I realized that playing music could be my window to the world. I had a strong desire to travel and see the world, share my music with people from other cultures, and be able to have that experience as an artist. Of course, one gets so caught up in the nuts and bolts of operating a group, finding or creating in the case of QSF the literature to perform, working with like-minded players, and scheduling rehearsals and administrating all of this business, that it becomes easy to lose sight of the wonder one had as a young developing player.
When we get home from Korea, we have a few weeks to relax, rehearse, and prepare for our second tour in China. Many cities we have never been to or heard of, with millions of people in each one: Dailan, Yingkou, Jinan, Xuzhou, Nanchang Liuzhou, and, of course, Beijing. The excitement and anticipation of exploring these new places reminds me that I am lucky to do what I do and gives us tons of fuel to keep on doing it.
I always love returning home from any QSF tour or trip abroad, whether we are traveling domestically or internationally. I realize that this really is the manifestation of my childhood dream to see the world. For the performers, it is a shared journey to develop intellectually, emotionally, and musically, and often leads to a lifetime of friendships. Just as in life, chamber music by its very nature brings out issues such as hierarchy, balances, choices, and sometimes one must encourage a shy personality to speak up or ask another to follow instead of lead.
A year-old student and a year-old veteran can play together. People from different continents with contrasting musical, religious, socio-economic, and political views can put that aside for a common purpose.
Musicians of all levels can work as a team. Onstage, we are all one. My first-ever chamber performance scared me before it became a valuable learning resource. My part called for a quick passage of 16th notes that was supposed to anchor the tempo while the melody was playing. The melody became a solo and I became a recluse when it came to chamber music.
This is where I reconnected to music performance in an intimate setting. The piece was again Beethoven this time a sextet featuring two French horns and the cellist in the group was someone who was in that disastrous performance by me the first time around. So this had all the markings of getting another chance at bat and I could not have been happier with the results.
This allowed me to lead a music organization within a music organization, from planning to marketing and all the logistics. And my chamber-music arrangements of different genres have been performed by various groups.
Because of chamber music, I learned so many facets of music and its art form, for which I am truly grateful. Chamber music gives me a chance to be heard as an individual, and yet also to rely on the strengths and different musical personalities of my colleagues. Most of my career is focused on the string-quartet repertoire and related collaborative works, which taken together offer me the opportunity to play some of the greatest music ever written, ranging over more than three centuries.
The challenges and rewards are immense and ongoing. We try to keep ourselves in top shape as instrumentalists, and frequently have to re evaluate our interpretations, reassessing all sorts of decisions about tempos, bowings, and tone color. To delve into the mysteries of the late Beethoven quartets—to experience the intimacy and spiritual depth of the slow movements, and to catapult myself from those islands of repose into the emotional and kinetic extremes of the Grosse Fuge, for example—is a privilege for me not only as a musician but also as a human being: it grants access to aesthetic realms that would otherwise not be available to me.
Playing chamber music is one of my favorite things to do. When we could, we would round up enough players to bash through the Brahms sextets or Mendelssohn Octet—that was heaven! Summers were spent at chamber-music camps—and then, after my sophomore year of college, I got paid albeit, not a lot to perform chamber music in Ontario. Doing something I love, and getting paid for it? In an orchestra, I try to disappear within my section, but not in chamber music.
What I really love is the give and take of a small group—whether in playing or discussing the music—every voice must be heard, but within a hierarchy. Who has the melody at the moment? But the melody is always moving from instrument to instrument, and so my role is always changing.
Chamber music is dynamic that way. And while a group may work really hard at finding just the right sound in rehearsal, we may do something entirely different in performance. You are always working with, and reacting to, your chamber music partners—and you never play the same thing exactly the same way twice. One of my buddies from camp all those years ago was bitten badly by the chamber-music bug, but went into a much more lucrative field for his profession.
Mid-career, he quit to start a chamber-music center, and now, with a stable of helpers, he coaches dozens of groups of young people, including my son, who are just as sure to carry on their love of chamber music to the next generation. An essential exercise in chamber music for players of all skill levels is to rehearse sections of the piece while leaving out one or more members of the ensemble.
For example, in a string quartet, there may be a passage where the two violins are playing in thirds or sixths. Then this exercise is a good way for the violinists to polish their intonation and consolidate their sound to be more harmonious; or if there is some tricky counterpoint between the viola and cello, then these members should rehearse together to improve for instance clarity and rhythmic precision.
Meanwhile, the non-playing members should be actively listening, giving constructive criticism to their colleagues, as well as following their respective parts.
Taking things apart is not only a great way to solve problems, but through this process everyone also gains a better understanding of how the piece is constructed, and hence a better understanding of their role in the piece.
An obvious technical challenge arises when the writing is overtly virtuosic. There are many such passages in the first violin parts of classical string quartets Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven , and certainly in modern works there are examples of virtuosity in all parts. Most of the time, the manner of playing required for chamber music is entirely different from that which is needed to perform a solo concerto.
Where this is most apparent is when a part does not carry the main role — second violin and viola parts come to mind! It is true that in classical chamber music for strings, the first violin has the leading role for most of the piece. In the lessons I gave at the Zhang Violin School, I looked for opportunities to show the importance of a good accompanying or supporting role in a string ensemble, and some of the techniques involved.
I believe the main qualities at play are: precision , dexterity , and sensitivity or subtlety. We will look at some excerpts from the first movement. The reference recording here is from the Dover Quartet — not only is this a great performance, but the sound engineering is superb, allowing us to appreciate all four voices in the quartet.
At the very opening, the cello plays a pedal point with repeated quavers on a single note, C. Indeed, the excitement of this opening is entirely dependent on the momentum generated by these repeated quaver notes. Furthermore, running quaver accompaniments are found throughout the entire movement but in highly contrasting situations. Compare the opening with these two other moments:. Precision of articulation and rhythm is essential. Moreover, it requires some finesse in bow technique to be able to adapt the staccato stroke to the many different characters and contrasts in dynamics and tone colour throughout the piece.
Dexterity is usually associated with fast, agile playing — passages with fast bowstrokes, or rapid left hand movements, or a combination of both.
However, at around in the recording this is the recapitulation section , a different kind of dexterity can be observed in the second violin part. This is one of my favourite places in this quartet! The second violin has to alternate between accompaniment and melody — one moment, it is playing a syncopated rhythm accompanying the first violin, only to jump out with a little countermelody in the very next bar. This requires clear differentiation in the tone colour, and the changes happen more or less instantaneously.
Notice that all four parts are playing continuously, so the countermelody in the second violin almost sounds like an additional fifth voice, increasing the complexity of the overall texture.
This kind of seamless juggling between roles is difficult for inexperienced players, but is nonetheless a vital part of chamber music. Finally, I make a comment about the qualities of sensitivity and subtlety. Here I do not mean to encourage a discreet, timid kind of playing in chamber music. In chamber music as well as in solo playing, one should seize the opportunity to develop the widest possible dynamic range, from the barely audible ppp to the most ferocious fff.
Sensitivity and subtlety are good qualities to have in solo playing as well — the more shades of tone colour, the better, so why make a song and dance about it now? I simply think that these qualities are especially important in chamber music.
As well as achieving all the contrasts required within their own part, the individual player must also understand how their tone colour fits into the overall sound of the ensemble. It is possible for the players in an ensemble to execute their individual parts excellently, and the result could still be unconvincing if each player is not also aware of the sound of the others.
This is the extra bit of sensitivity and subtlety that I think distinguishes chamber music playing from solo playing. This extra bit also allows room for spontaneity in performance: in a great ensemble, if someone decides to something a little different, the others can adjust accordingly to support this creative decision.
Romantic Era c :. This work for violin, viola and cello has a different 4-movement design than Beethoven's Op. Although Brahms uses Classical designs and forms, he sounds very different that Haydn, Mozart or Beethoven--because he is a conservative Romantic compopser who uses more unusual harmionies, cross-rhythms, a wider range of emotional transitions, darker tone colors, and a more expressive melodic style.
Movement 1 : Fast allegro , in the "home" key of C major, based on the internal Classic form known as " sonata form ":.
Movement 2 : Slow andante con moto--slow, with momentum in the opposing key of A minor, and based on the internal Classic form known as " Theme and Variations ", in which a main musical idea is stated the "theme" , then it undergoes a series of "variations" in which aspects of the theme such as key, meter, instrumentation, mood, dynamics, etc.
Movement 4 : Fast allegro giocoso--meaning fast and merry in the home key of C major, with a sonata form which indicated that Brahms wanted a heavier finale for this work than a traditional "rondo" would have provided. Finally, chamber music is great for all musicians as it offers exposure to different styles, genres and forms of music, and almost all possible instrument combinations can be found. This allows for more concert opportunities and also for repertoire choices.
Chamber music encompasses nearly every genre and style of music, offering musicians the opportunity to step away from their standard literature and discover new horizons. Why is Chamber Music important?
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