Kar Ming:

>Hmmm....interesting....I've always thought that composers write music for
>the listeners rather than the performers.  Can anyone provide examples of
>composers writing for performers? - Bach probably comes to mind with most
>of his keyboard works.

Most chambermusic was written for performers in the first place.  Haydn's
baryton trios are a famous example, together with Quantz's works for flute
(in this case including the concerti).  But think of Beethoven.  Most of
his string quartets were ordered by noblemen who payed him for that.  They
bought them in order to play them.  There was a condition: Beethoven was
allowed to sell them to a publisher as well, but only after a few months or
so.  So these rich people could first have them some time for themselves.
After they were printed, the sheet music was bought by amateurs.  Well,
they complained already about the technical difficulty of Mozart's last
quartets, so imagine what they thought about Beethoven!

During Beethoven's life the bourgeois class (the class that could afford a
piano) grew, and consequently the market for piano music grew.  Schumann's
and Brahms's pianomusic were meant for those people.

Thinking of Haydn's quartets: aren't they in the first place a highly
intellectual way of conversation? I don't play any of the prescribed
instruments, but it most be a joy to play them with friends.

Frank