Dictionary of Music - Birding America

chamber music 69Ma. The accompanying chart lists some of the manyworks for cello written after 1800; see also the chartof cello concertos under CONCERTO. Like the othermembers of the violin family, the cello traditionallyis made of wood, usually maple. In recent years twoinnovations were developed. One is a cello made ofcarbon fiber, invented by two admirers of fiberglasssailboats; unlike wooden instruments, it is imperviousto weather, making it useful for outdoor concerts.The other is the hypercello, linked with aninteractive computer (see under ELECTRONICINSTRUMENTS).cembalo (chem′bə lô′′). 1 An Italian word forHARPSICHORD, also used in Germany. 2 The Italianword for DULCIMER.cent A unit of measure for musical intervals. Onecent stands for 1/100 half tone of the equal-temperedscale; thus one octave is 1200 cents. Measurementsof intervals are useful in comparing various systemsof scales and tuning (see TEMPERAMENT).C-flat One of the musical tones (see PITCHNAMES), one half tone below C and one half toneabove B-flat. On the piano, C-flat is identical with B(see ENHARMONIC for an explanation; for the locationof C-flat on the piano, see KEYBOARD).chace (shAs) French.See CACCIA.chaconne (sh A kôn′) French. A moderatelyslow, stately dance in triple meter (any meter inwhich there are three basic beats per measure, suchas 3/4 or 3/8) with a stress on the second beat,which became a popular instrumental form duringthe baroque period (1600–1750). Some chaconnesso closely resemble works given the title PAS-SACAGLIA that it is not clear exactly how the twoforms differ. Like the passacaglia, the chaconneconsists of a series of variations, either on a harmonicpattern (a pattern of chords related to oneanother in a particular way), or on a constantlyrepeated bass pattern (see OSTINATO). The mostfamous chaconne is that found in Bach’s Partita inD minor for solo violin; its thirty-two variations arebased on a harmonic pattern.chair organSee CHOIR ORGAN; POSITIVE ORGAN.chalumeau (sh A lY mō′) French. See underCLARINET.chamber music Music for an instrumental groupin which each part is played by a single instrument,as opposed to orchestral music, in which there maybe numerous instruments to a part.The different types of chamber music are distinguishedaccording to the number of performers: trio(three players), quartet (four), quintet (five), sextet(six), septet (seven), octet (eight), nonet (nine).Some authorities regard the sonata for one instrument(usually with piano accompaniment) as chambermusic, but others feel that in such works theemphasis is on the individual instruments rather thanon how they perform together. Moreover, in manysonatas the piano accompaniment is subordinate tothe part played on the other instrument (violin, cello,flute, etc.), whereas the essence of chamber music isthe equal importance of all the parts.By far the most popular kind of chamber ensembleis the string quartet, which consists of two violins(each playing its own part), a viola, and a cello.A string trio consists of one violin, a viola, and acello; if the viola is replaced by a piano, the form iscalled a piano trio. Similarly, a string quintet consistsof five stringed instruments (usually a stringquartet plus a second viola or cello); if one of thestringed instruments is replaced by another instrument,such as a piano, horn, etc., the work is called apiano quintet, horn quintet, etc.Chamber music is so called because originally itmeant any music to be played outside the church,and it included both vocal and instrumental music.The old meaning persists in that chamber music isusually more intimate and personal than works of alarger scale, whether performed in a living room orin a concert hall. Although some of the sixteenthandseventeenth-century forms (trio, sonata, ricercar,and others) have most of the characteristics ofchamber music, the modern repertory is usuallyconsidered to begin with the string quartets ofHaydn and Mozart, written in the late eighteenthcentury. Among the finest nineteenth-century composersof chamber music are Beethoven, Schubert,