Explore the intimate art of chamber music with leading Australian concert organisation Musica Viva. Chamber Music Essentials returns in this compact 5-session introductory course focusing on the string quartet and wind music.

Become engaged in a course of active listening and response workshops, live performances, and up-close and personal discussions with prolific Australian composers Carl Vine and Ian Munro. Examination of social and historical composition context of the Classical and Romantic periods, and musical forms of the string quartet and the quintet, as well as basic music terminology underpin this journey of discovery.

Participants’ prior knowledge or experience of this art form is not required to experience how chamber music can be one of the most captivating, endlessly fascinating forms of human endeavour.

Course Content

1. How to listen to chamber music in an active and enquiring way
2. Define chamber music (including points-of-difference with other music forms)
3. Music appreciation – understanding a composer’s choices
4. The evolution of chamber music
5. The variety of chamber music instrumental forms
6. Attendance at one Musica Viva 2011 international season concert: clarinettist Sabine Meyer & the Modigliani Quartet perform works by Mozart, Schumann and Australian composer Ian Munro. (Concert ticket price is included in course enrolment fee)

Course Delivery

Four out of the five meetings are workshop seminars which include: lectures; live music demonstrations and active listening by the participants; discussions centring around the participants’ responses to the music; Q&A sessions with special guests.

The remaining meeting takes place at a Musica Viva concert and consists of two parts. The first part will be a 30 minute pre-concert talk in which a presenter will share information about the music being performed and use recorded musical examples to illustrate various points. The primary focus of this talk is to give a historical context for the music with reference to the life and times of the composer. The second part will be the concert itself, where participants will hear and see leading international chamber musicians perform.

This matinee-concert meeting will be held at City Recital Hall Angel Place, commencing at 1:15 pm with the pre-concert talk, and followed by the performance at 2pm. Finishing time will be approximately 4:30pm.

Course Outcomes

Participants will:

1. Have an understanding of the various forms of chamber music and begin to develop their listening skills
2. Have an understanding of string quartet form and what to listen for within that form
3. Have an understanding of the place of classical chamber music within the spectrum of all music
4. Have an understanding of wind quintet form and what to listen to within that form
5. Have heard one of the world’s most renowned clarinettists perform with an award-winning string quartet in Mozart’s popular clarinet quintet