ABSTRACT
Music for the “broken consort,” to carry that term up from the Renaissance, or for a mixed group such as might play a Baroque chamber sonata, was not unheard of in the nineteenth century, but it was unusual. It also falls only uncertainly into the rubric of chamber music. Beethoven’s Septet, Op. 20 (17991800), for clarinet, French horn, bassoon, violin, viola, cello, and double bass, sounds much like the serenades and cassations of the late eighteenth century, light music for mixed ensembles. Schubert’s Octet of 1824 is modeled, at least in some respects, on Beethoven’s septet; in addition, it was a commission for the specific instruments involved, as was much of the subsequent chamber music that used nonstandard groups of instruments. The most famous example is Brahms’s chamber music for clarinet-two sonatas for clarinet and piano; the Trio for Clarinet, Cello, and Piano; the Clarinet Quintet-all written for the clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld.
