The double bass, also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, the Bass Fiddle, the string bass, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched chordophone in the modern symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions such as the octobass). It has four or five strings, and its construction is in between that of the gamba (viol) and the violin family. The bass is a standard member of the orchestra's string section, along with violins, violas, and cellos, as well as the concert band, and is featured in concertos, solo, and chamber music in Western classical music. The bass is used in a range of other genres, such as jazz, blues, rock and roll, rockabilly, country music, bluegrass, tango, folk music and certain types of film and video game soundtracks. The instrument's exact lineage is still a matter of some debate, with scholars divided on whether the bass is derived from the viol or the violin family. Being a transposing instrument, the bass is typically notated one octave higher than tuned to avoid excessive ledger lines below the staff. The double bass is the only modern bowed string instrument that is tuned in fourths (like a bass guitar, viol, or the lowest-sounding four strings of a standard guitar), rather than fifths, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2. The double bass is played with a bow (arco), or by plucking the strings (pizzicato), or by slapping the strings for certain rock and roll and rockabilly styles, or via a variety of extended techniques. In orchestral repertoire and tango music, both arco and pizzicato are employed. In jazz, blues, and rockabilly, pizzicato is the norm. Classical music and jazz use the natural sound produced acoustically by the instrument, as does traditional bluegrass. In funk, blues, reggae, and related genres, the double bass is often amplified.

Charles Edward Ives (; October 20, 1874 – May 19, 1954) was an American modernist composer, actuary and businessman. Ives was among the earliest renowned American composers to achieve recognition on a global scale. His music was largely ignored during his early career, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Later in life, the quality of his music was publicly recognized through the efforts of contemporaries like Henry Cowell and Lou Harrison, and he came to be regarded as an "American original". Ives was also among the first composers to engage in a systematic program of experimental music, with musical techniques including polytonality, polyrhythm, tone clusters, aleatory elements, and quarter tones. His experimentation foreshadowed many musical innovations that were later more widely adopted during the 20th century. Hence, he is often regarded as the leading American composer of art music of the 20th century. Sources of Ives's tonal imagery included hymn tunes and traditional songs; he also incorporated melodies of the town band at holiday parade, the fiddlers at Saturday night dances, patriotic songs, sentimental parlor ballads, and the melodies of Stephen Foster.

The Gong on the Hook and Ladder or Firemen's Parade on Main Street, normally shortened as The Gong on the Hook and Ladder and also initially entitled Allegro moderato, is a short composition by American composer Charles Ives.

Hallowe'en, also initially entitled Allegro vivace: Hallowe'en, is a short composition for piano quintet by American composer Charles Ives. It was probably composed in 1907 and was part of Three Outdoor Scenes, a collection of pieces that also included Central Park in the Dark.

A clarinet–violin–piano trio is a standardized chamber musical ensemble made up of one clarinet, one violin, and one piano participating in relatively equal roles, or the name of a piece written for such a group. An example of a clarinet–viola–piano trio existed several hundred years before the clarinet–violin–piano trio; Mozart composed the Kegelstatt Trio in the 18th century, and the Romantic composer Max Bruch composed a suite of eight pieces for this combination, as well as a double concerto for viola, clarinet, and orchestra. Many of these works can be (or already have been) transcribed for a clarinet–violin–piano trio. Unlike a standard piano trio or a concerto, there is no standard form for a composition for a clarinet–violin–piano trio: a piece can have any number of movements. Acoustically, the choice of a clarinet, violin, and piano is characteristic in that most chamber music (and most music in general) contains high (soprano), mid-range (alto/tenor), and low (bass/baritone) parts. However, both a clarinet and a violin play relatively high-pitched parts, making for a less-balanced sound than a trio that contains a more possible range, such as a violin–cello–piano trio. Timbral contrast is provided between the woodwind (clarinet), bowed string (violin), and keyboard instrument (piano). Aside from its classical use, this combination of instruments is common in traditional Ashkenazi Jewish music.

The Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano is a work by the American composer Charles Ives. According to his wife, the three movements of the piano trio are a reflection of Ives’ college days at Yale. He started writing the piece in 1904, six years after graduation, and completed it in 1911. It was written c.1909–10 and significantly revised in 1914–15.

A string orchestra is an orchestra consisting solely of a string section made up of the bowed strings used in Western Classical music. The instruments of such an orchestra are most often the following: the violin, which is divided into first and second violin players (each usually playing different parts), the viola, the cello, and usually, but not always, the double bass. String orchestras can be of chamber orchestra size ranging from between 12 (4 first violins, 3 second violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos and 1 bass = 12) and 21 musicians (6 first violins, 5 second violins, 4 violas, 4 cellos and 2 double basses= 21) sometimes performing without a conductor. It could also consist of the entire string section of a large symphony orchestra which could have 60 musicians (16 first violins, 14 second violins, 12 violas, 10 cellos and 8 double basses = 60; Gurre-Lieder calls for 84: 20.20.16.16.12).

The compositions of American composer Charles Ives (1874–1954) are mostly modern classical music. Ives was prolific, revised works multiple times, and left ambiguous fragments with no title or notes. A chronology of works is especially difficult because of missing and sometimes misleading dates; as Elliott Carter put it in 1939: "[Ives] has rewritten his works so many times, adding dissonances and polyrhythms, that it is impossible to tell just at what date the works assumed the surprising form we know now." This list follows James B. Sinclair's A Descriptive Catalogue of the Music of Charles Ives. It does not include fragments or projected works.

The Escher String Quartet is an American string quartet based in New York City, where they serve as Artists of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Their name derives from the Dutch artist M. C. Escher.

The String Quartet No. 2 by Charles Ives is a work for string quartet written between 1907 and 1913. It was premiered at McMillin Theatre, Columbia University in New York City on 11 May 1946, by a Juilliard School student ensemble. Its first professional performance was by the Walden String Quartet, on 15 September 1946, at Yaddo, on a concert which prompted composer Lou Harrison to write: "This work is... the finest piece of American chamber music yet... Music of this kind happens only every fifty years or a century, so rich in faith and so full of the sense of completion." In his Memos, Ives referred to the quartet as "one of the best things I have". The quartet was first published in 1954 by Peer International, and was reprinted in 1970 with corrections by John Kirkpatrick. In 2016, Peermusic Classical published a critical edition of the quartet, commissioned by the Charles Ives Society and edited by Malcolm Goldstein.

The Gong on the Hook and Ladder or Firemen's Parade on Main Street, normally shortened as The Gong on the Hook and Ladder and also initially entitled Allegro moderato, is a short composition by American composer Charles Ives.

The compositions of American composer Charles Ives (1874–1954) are mostly modern classical music. Ives was prolific, revised works multiple times, and left ambiguous fragments with no title or notes. A chronology of works is especially difficult because of missing and sometimes misleading dates; as Elliott Carter put it in 1939: "[Ives] has rewritten his works so many times, adding dissonances and polyrhythms, that it is impossible to tell just at what date the works assumed the surprising form we know now." This list follows James B. Sinclair's A Descriptive Catalogue of the Music of Charles Ives. It does not include fragments or projected works.

A clarinet–violin–piano trio is a standardized chamber musical ensemble made up of one clarinet, one violin, and one piano participating in relatively equal roles, or the name of a piece written for such a group. An example of a clarinet–viola–piano trio existed several hundred years before the clarinet–violin–piano trio; Mozart composed the Kegelstatt Trio in the 18th century, and the Romantic composer Max Bruch composed a suite of eight pieces for this combination, as well as a double concerto for viola, clarinet, and orchestra. Many of these works can be (or already have been) transcribed for a clarinet–violin–piano trio. Unlike a standard piano trio or a concerto, there is no standard form for a composition for a clarinet–violin–piano trio: a piece can have any number of movements. Acoustically, the choice of a clarinet, violin, and piano is characteristic in that most chamber music (and most music in general) contains high (soprano), mid-range (alto/tenor), and low (bass/baritone) parts. However, both a clarinet and a violin play relatively high-pitched parts, making for a less-balanced sound than a trio that contains a more possible range, such as a violin–cello–piano trio. Timbral contrast is provided between the woodwind (clarinet), bowed string (violin), and keyboard instrument (piano). Aside from its classical use, this combination of instruments is common in traditional Ashkenazi Jewish music.

In music, a sonata (; pl. sonate) is a piece that consists of 3 or 4 movements that can be for different musical instruments. The term evolved through the history of music, designating a variety of forms until the Classical era, when it took on increasing importance. Sonata is a vague term, with varying meanings depending on the context and time period. By the early 19th century it came to represent a principle of composing large-scale works. It was applied to most instrumental genres and regarded—alongside the fugue—as one of two fundamental methods of organizing, interpreting and analyzing concert music. Though the musical style of sonatas has changed since the Classical era, most 20th- and 21st-century sonatas maintain the overarching structure. The term sonatina, pl. sonatine, the diminutive form of sonata, is often used for a short or technically easy sonata.