While there is lots of great music out there, chamber music is special. Unlike solo, orchestral, or choral music, chamber music is by its nature built on close collaboration individual artists, each playing an essential role in the architecture of the piece. Some of the greatest composers who write in multiple genres — notably Mozart, Beethoven, Debussy, Copland, and many others — save their most forward-thinking and complex ideas for the intimacy of chamber settings.

There is a separate, more ideological reason to love chamber music: it is socially progressive. (Is it any surprise that a sick proto-Nazi like Wagner hardly wrote a note of chamber music?) There are no sectionals, so each musician must freely express their innermost thoughts using their own technical mastery of the instrument. Yet, without a conductor or soloist, everyone is at once a leader and a follower, working toward the common goal of the ideal performance. Therefore, chamber music, both musically and in practice, promotes social egalitarianism — which makes it all the more beautiful of course! All power to the players!

Johann Sebastian Bach Flute Sonatas, BWV 1030-1035 Top Lists