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definitions

chamber music

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noun

music suited for performance in a room or a small concert hall, especially for two or more, but usually fewer than ten, solo instruments.

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Origin of chamber music

First recorded in 1780–90
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for chamber music

Historical Examples of chamber music

  • On that day all Kohol was at home, and they came to meet him with chamber-music!

    Stories and Pictures

    Isaac Loeb Peretz

  • After this he gave himself up to oratorio, symphony, and chamber-music.

    Great Musical Composers

    George T. Ferris

  • The idea of starting a series of matines of chamber-music occurred to me.

  • It was, however, an every-day matter especially in chamber-music.

    Beethoven

    George Alexander Fischer

  • Chamber-music did not quite satisfy him, and he had founded this band, which numbered forty-five musicians.

    My Memoirs

    Marguerite Steinheil

British Dictionary definitions for chamber music

chamber music

noun

music for performance by a small group of instrumentalists
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Culture definitions for chamber music

chamber music

Music for two or more instruments in which only one musician plays each part. Chamber music is distinguished from music for orchestra, in which, for example, more than a dozen violinists may be playing the same notes. The most familiar kind of chamber music is the string quartet.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.