This three-volume set serves as a comprehensive reference work designed to organize and document the historical development and technical facets of chamber music. Walter Willson Cobbett, a prominent British amateur musician and patron, compiled this work to provide a systematic overview of the genre. By integrating original historical entries with a supplementary volume, the text establishes a framework for understanding the evolution of chamber music compositions and performance practices across global regions.

Musicologists and historians frequently cite this set as a foundational reference for early 20th-century chamber music scholarship. Readers often note the academic density of the prose and the historical value of the original 1929 entries.