Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Chamber \Cham"ber\, n. [F. chambre, fr. L. camera vault, arched roof, in LL. chamber, fr. Gr. ? anything with a vaulted roof or arched covering; cf. Skr. kmar to be crooked. Cf. Camber, Camera, Comrade.]
A retired room, esp. an upper room used for sleeping; a bedroom; as, the house had four chambers.
pl. Apartments in a lodging house. ``A bachelor's life in chambers.''
--Thackeray.A hall, as where a king gives audience, or a deliberative body or assembly meets; as, presence chamber; senate chamber.
A legislative or judicial body; an assembly; a society or association; as, the Chamber of Deputies; the Chamber of Commerce.
A compartment or cell; an inclosed space or cavity; as, the chamber of a canal lock; the chamber of a furnace; the chamber of the eye.
pl. (Law.) A room or rooms where a lawyer transacts business; a room or rooms where a judge transacts such official business as may be done out of court.
A chamber pot. [Colloq.]
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(Mil.)
That part of the bore of a piece of ordnance which holds the charge, esp. when of different diameter from the rest of the bore; -- formerly, in guns, made smaller than the bore, but now larger, esp. in breech-loading guns.
A cavity in a mine, usually of a cubical form, to contain the powder.
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A short piece of ordnance or cannon, which stood on its breech, without any carriage, formerly used chiefly for rejoicings and theatrical cannonades.
Air chamber. See Air chamber, in the Vocabulary.
Chamber of commerce, a board or association to protect the interests of commerce, chosen from among the merchants and traders of a city.
Chamber council, a secret council.
--Shak.Chamber counsel or Chamber counselor, a counselor who gives his opinion in private, or at his chambers, but does not advocate causes in court.
Chamber fellow, a chamber companion; a roommate; a chum.
Chamber hangings, tapestry or hangings for a chamber.
Chamber lye, urine.
--Shak.Chamber music, vocal or instrumental music adapted to performance in a chamber or small apartment or audience room, instead of a theater, concert hall, or church.
Chamber practice (Law.), the practice of counselors at law, who give their opinions in private, but do not appear in court.
To sit at chambers, to do business in chambers, as a judge.
Wiktionary
n. (context music English) A genre of classical music written for a small group of instruments
WordNet
n. serious music performed by a small group of musicians
Wikipedia
Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers, with one performer to a part (in contrast to orchestral music, in which each string part is played by a number of performers). However, by convention, it usually does not include solo instrument performances.
Because of its intimate nature, chamber music has been described as "the music of friends". For more than 100 years, chamber music was played primarily by amateur musicians in their homes, and even today, when chamber music performance has migrated from the home to the concert hall, many musicians, amateur and professional, still play chamber music for their own pleasure. Playing chamber music requires special skills, both musical and social, that differ from the skills required for playing solo or symphonic works.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe described chamber music (specifically, string quartet music) as "four rational people conversing". This conversational paradigm–which refers to the way one instrument introduces a melody or motif and then other instruments subsequently "respond" with a similar motif–has been a thread woven through the history of chamber music composition from the end of the 18th century to the present. The analogy to conversation recurs in descriptions and analyses of chamber music compositions.
Chamber Music is the second studio album by California Nu metal band Coal Chamber, released on Roadrunner Records on September 7, 1999.
Chamber Music is a collection of poems by James Joyce, published by Elkin Mathews in May, 1907. The collection originally comprised thirty-four love poems, but two further poems were added before publication ("All day I hear the noise of waters" and "I hear an army charging upon the land").
Chamber Music is the fifth album by Thighpaulsandra. The album is the first to be pressed to both CD and vinyl since The Michel Publicity Window E.P.. The vinyl pressing was limited to an edition of 525, hand numbered picture discs.
The cover image, taken by Thighpaulsandra, is titled "The Hunting Party" and features two pairs of brothers: Michael and Mark Edwards, and Lee and Lance Jonathan.
Chamber Music is an album by Ballaké Sissoko and Vincent Segal. It was released in 2009 by the French label No Format! and in 2011 by the U.S. label Six Degrees Records. The result of a close collaboration between the two friends and musicians, it melds Sissoko's traditional kora playing with Segal's trip hop infused approach to the classical cello.
Chamber Music has been described as a work of quiet beauty and soulful simplicity.
Chamber music is a form of classical music written for a small group of instruments.
Chamber music may also refer to:
- Wu-Tang Chamber Music, an album by Wu-Tang Clan
- Chamber Music, an album by Blueprint (rapper)
- Chamber Music (Coal Chamber album), 1999
- Chamber Music (Thighpaulsandra album)
- Chamber Music (Ballake Sissoko and Vincent Segal album)
- "Chamber Music" (Berio), a composition by Luciano Berio
- "Chamber Music", a song by Wu-Tang Clan from the 2000 album The W
- "Chamber Music", a song by Xzibit from the album 40 Dayz & 40 Nightz
- "Chamber Music", a song by Paolo Nutini from the album Sunny Side Up
- Chamber Music (book), a collection of poems by James Joyce
- Chamber Music (play), a 1962 play by Arthur Kopit
Chamber Music is a composition in three sections for female voice, clarinet, cello and harp by the Italian composer Luciano Berio. It is a setting of three poems from the collection of poetry Chamber Music by James Joyce, whose work was to be a frequent source for Berio. The songs were composed in 1953, and show the influence of Luigi Dallapiccola with whom Berio had studied in 1952 at the Tanglewood Music Center.
About his composition Berio said that,
[a]s often happens to me with important encounters, I reacted to Dallapiccola with four works: Due pezzi, for violin and piano, Cinque variazioni, for piano (based upon the three-note melodic cell—"fratello"[014]—from Il prigioniero), Chamber Music (setting poems by Joyce) and Variazione, for chamber orchestra. With these pieces I entered Dallapiccola's "melodic" world, but they also allowed me to escape from it.Chamber Music is a 1962 one-act play by absurdist playwright Arthur Kopit. The story is set in 1938 and concerns eight famous women from different historical periods who all are interned in the same insane asylum.
The women are — or at least believe they are — author Gertrude Stein, martyr Joan of Arc, activist Susan B. Anthony, politician Queen Isabella I of Spain, Constanze Mozart (wife of the famed composer), pilot Amelia Earhart, silent-film actress Pearl White, and explorer Osa Johnson. They have come together to represent the women of the asylum in planning for an attack they believe is soon to come from the men's ward. The doctor is an omnipresent figure in the asylum, checking in on the women.
In the context of the play, it is suggested that the woman who claims that she is Amelia Earhart could be telling the truth instead of being insane, given the time frame and that Earhart went missing.
There are beliefs that they play is meant to symbolize the sexist, and unjust treatment of women throughout history.
The play was published by Hill and Wang, New York, and was first performed at Society Hill Playhouse.
Chamber Music (German: Kammermusik) is a 1925 German silent drama film directed by Carl Froelich and starring Henny Porten, Ida Wüst, Harry Halm and Ferdinand von Alten.
The film's art direction was by Franz Schroedter.
In addition to his orchestral and vocal compositions, Anton Bruckner composed a few works for chamber ensembles during his stays in Linz and Vienna.
Usage examples of "chamber music".
At this point, the dumb girl put down her samisen and took up a bamboo pipe from which issued weird cadences and, though it was by no means the climax of the play, this dance was the apex of the Professor's performance for, as she stamped, wheeled and turned to the sound of her malign chamber music, Lady Purple became entirely the image of irresistible evil.
Highly formalized chamber music, possibly, or thunder-andlightning opera scores.
At the moment only a half dozen of its musicians were playing, a sort of preliminary chamber music.
STARLING WOKE to distant chamber music, and the tangy aromas of cooking.
Labyrinth worried about this, because he loved music, because he hated the idea that some day there would be no more Brahms and Mozart, no more gentle chamber music that he could dreamily associate with powdered wigs and resined bows, with long, slender candles, melting away in the gloom.
His parents had only taken him to church once, to a cousin's wedding, and didn't go much themselves except for chamber music, when one of the local places of worship was used as a concert hall.
It harbored a community of bees, at their work of chamber music and honey.