CHAPTER XIV

THE BEGINNINGS OF CHAMBER MUSIC

The term ‘chamber music’; fifteenth-century dances; lute music, early suites; vocal ‘chamber music’--Early ‘sonatas’: Gabrieli; Rossi; Marini; etc.--Vitali, Veracini, Bassani and Corelli; Corelli’s pupils; Vivaldi; Bach and Handel.

I

In giving an account of early chamber music we may confine ourselves to the consideration of early instrumental music of certain kinds, although the term at first did not apply to pure instrumental music alone. Chamber music in the sixteenth century meant instrumental or vocal music for social and private purposes as distinguished from public musical performances in churches or in theatres. In its modern sense chamber music applies, of course, only to instrumental ensembles, and it is therefore not necessary to dwell upon the vocal side of chamber music beginnings, except where, as in its incipient stages, music was written for both kinds of performances.[59] In searching for examples of early chamber music, therefore, we must above all consider all such music, vocal or instrumental, as was not composed for the use of the church or theatre. Properly speaking the accompanied art-songs of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, which were discussed in Vol. I,