# Social aspects of chamber music



## AnneCatherine (Jul 18, 2017)

Hello everyone,

I'm new here, so I'm not sure if this is in the right place for this, but here goes:

I'm interested in how musicians (professionals or students) deal with the social aspects of playing together. 
I've been playing in various chamber music groups for quite a long time, but only last year was I part of a string quartet that was somewhat high level, and quite productive. We played about a dozen (mostly small) concerts in a year and advanced quite quickly with new programmes, and actually made a little money. With rehearsals, lessons and concerts, we would be together somewhere between 2 and 4 times a week, sometimes even more than that (in very busy times).
However, the rehearsals were very unpleasant at times. We are actually friends (all conservatory students), but with very different characters, that sometimes seem incompatible. Rehearsals often escalated into fights, and then we would take a day to cool down and then either talk about it or just forget about it and move on. We had some great moments, but also a lot of drama. The concerts were always quite successful, and it was very pleasant to play together once we were actually on a stage, which made the trouble backstage worth it. We now have to take a break due to me going away for half a year, and we haven't decided yet what will happen once I'm back.

What are other people's experiences with intensive chamber music groups? How do you work around being fundamentally different in character, and in musical views? I always thought that just "behaving professionally" is the easy solution, but it seems that when dealing with music, which in itself is a very emotional and personal thing, everything around it turns personal very quickly as well.


----------



## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Can't help with personal experience, but when I bought the box set of the Takacs Quartet playing Beethoven, it came with the excerpt of a book by one of the members that sounds like it might address your questions.


----------



## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

The most near I got towards playing with others is on the piano , four hands, I wish I had the time and energy for it. My somewhat younger years nobody was studying really music, so those classes where always ( almost) empty.


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Chamber music is a social endeavor when friends come together to perform chamber music that they can handle. A lot of fun!


----------



## Harrison Clark (Jul 25, 2017)

Chamber music is intimate, perhaps that's what helps to make it so powerful. Performers have to work in much closer and personal situations and the harmonic depth is often smaller. I love what small groups can bring out!


----------



## petter (Apr 29, 2013)

AnneCatherine said:


> How do you work around being fundamentally different in character, and in musical views? .


Work around? Should it not be exactly the opposite? Be your own musical character as you can!


----------



## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

The OP might be interested in some books that detail the inner lives of string quartets. There area few but the one that comes to mind is Rostislav Dubinsky, former First Violin of the Borodin Quartet, in a book that he wrote after his defection to the West. In addition to the usual spatas amongst 4 people, the Quartet members had to worry that one of themir number might also be a KGB informant.


----------



## JCLEUNG (Sep 1, 2017)

I think that being able to get along is probably the most difficult thing to find in a group. But really --- if you think about it-- its like a professional work group --- so you dont have to be best buds --- but you need to find a way to be able to communicate and resolve disputes -- and this may just take work and perhaps some training in that part for each member --- being willing and able to be resolve conflict through other means.


----------



## JeffD (May 8, 2017)

jegreenwood said:


> Can't help with personal experience, but when I bought the box set of the Takacs Quartet playing Beethoven, it came with the excerpt of a book by one of the members that sounds like it might address your questions.


Yes that book is great. _Beethoven for a Later Age: The journey of a string quartet._ By Edward Dusinberre

Another along those lines is Arnold Steinhardt's_ Indivisible by Four: A string quartet in pursuit of harmony_. Its the story of the Guarneri Quartet.

Both are very personal very good reads.


----------

