How Chamber Music began—Early Chamber Music compositions—Musical position of England—Purcell—J.S. Bach—Great violin makers—Haydn and Mozart—Corelli and the compass of the violin—William Shield and 5/4 time. “In the time of the Frankish kings,” says Mr. H.E. Krehbiel,[3] “the word chamber was applied to the room in the royal palace in which the monarch’s private property was kept, and in which he looked after his private affairs. When royalty took up the cultivation of music it was as a private, not as a court function, and the concerts given for the entertainment of the royal family took place in the king’s chamber or private room. The musicians were nothing more nor less than servants in the royal household. This relationship endured into the present century. Haydn was a _Haus-officier_ of Prince Esterhazy. As vice-chapelmaster he had to appear every morning in the prince’s ante-room to receive orders concerning the dinner music and other entertainments of the day.” [Footnote 3: _How to Listen to Music_, p. 45.] [Sidenote: =How Chamber Music began=] This may be taken as one explanation of the origin of chamber music. Another is that near the end of the fifteenth century, madrigals and other pieces which no doubt were originally intended for singing began to be described as “madrigali et arie per sonare et cantare,” or, in the plain English of the time, “apt for voices and instruments,” by which is meant that the instruments joined with the voices probably at first to support them, both performing the same music. About the same period and earlier it became customary to introduce instrumental music at the banquets of the wealthier classes, and what may be regarded as chamber music was used as a stimulus and a cover for conversation, a practice not even yet quite obsolete. [Sidenote: =Early Chamber Music Compositions=]