The Basics - Solo & Chamber Music

Welcome to the Solo & Chamber Music Basics playlist, part of a new three-part series, exclusively curated for IDAGIO by Joanna Wyld. Designed to provide an engaging introduction that will appeal to beginners and aficionados alike, they will take you on a wide-ranging musical journey across the centuries. With “Solo & Chamber Music” we chart the history of music written for individual instruments and small groups, from music for viols by Thomas Morley to Steve Reich’s “Electric Counterpoint”.

Morley
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A Plain and Easy Introduction to Practical Music: Air for 3 viols
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Marais
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Pièces en trio pour les flûtes, violon, et dessus de viole
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Suite No. 5 in E minor • Fantaisie
Purcell
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Fantasia à 7 in G minor Z 747
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Fantasia à 7 in G minor Z 747 "In nomine"
Bach
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Partita for Solo Violin No. 2 in D minor BWV 1004
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V. Ciaccona
Beethoven
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Große Fuge for String Quartet in B flat major op. 133
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Overtura. Allegro – Fuga
Schubert
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Piano Quintet in A major op. posth. 114 D 667 'Forellenquintett' ('The Trout')
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IV. Theme. Andantino – Var. I-V – Allegretto
Borodin
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String Quartet No. 2 in D major
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III. Notturno. Andante
Ravel
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Introduction et Allegro for Harp, Flute, Clarinet and Strings M 46 (1905)
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Introduction. Très lent – Allegro
Joplin
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Maple Leaf Rag (1899)
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Tempo di marcia
Granados
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Goyescas, Suite for Piano
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Book 2 • 4. Quejas o la Maja y el Ruiseñor
Webern
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Movement for String Trio (1925)
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Ruhig fließend
Crawford Seeger
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Suite for Wind Quintet (1952)
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I. Allegretto
Reich
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Electric Counterpoint (1987)
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2. Slow

Many people will have strong views on what they consider to be the ‘essential’ pieces of classical music, and for every piece chosen several others might have easily been used in its place. What we’ve tried to include is a range of famous, popular works which may already be familiar, with less familiar but magnificent examples of each style. The three playlists takes us on a broadly chronological journey through Western music history.

In Early Western music what is now known as chamber music was written for small groups called ‘consorts’; we hear a delightful piece for three viols by Renaissance composer Thomas Morley, before moving into the early French Baroque with elegant music by Marin Marais. Purcell’s viol fantasias are amongst the most exquisite works in the genre, and J.S. Bach’s Chaconne for solo violin is a pinnacle of Western music, the composer creating intricate lines using only one instrument. The string quartets of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven dominated in the Classical era; we hear Mozart’s ‘Dissonance’ Quartet, which was truly ahead of its time, as was the extraordinary ‘Grosse fuge’ by Beethoven.

Schubert’s glorious ‘Trout’ Quintet and Mendelssohn’s Octet follow; there are deliciously Romantic works from Chopin, Borodin and Granados, and a jaunty ragtime piece by Scott Joplin. Ravel’s ambitious ‘Introduction & Allegro’, written early in the 20th century, is a masterpiece of chamber music, expansive and colourful, and Webern took us firmly into a new, modern era with his miniature Movement for String Trio. Messiaen’s ‘Quartet for the End of Time’ is a deeply-moving work written in a concentration camp during World War II. We hear the lightest of its movements, the ‘Intermède’. Strings often dominate chamber music but numerous fine works have been written for the wind quintet; we hear an example by Ruth Crawford Seeger, and the contemporary era is represented by the minimalism of American composer Steve Reich in his piece for electric guitar and tape, ‘Electric Counterpoint’.