Product Description
My Second Piano Trio is the fourth in a series of extended, multi-movement chamber works composed in 2023 and 2024. This piece is in three movements and is subtitled 'Arcs'. This concept is explored on a wide variety of levels throughout: the arc shape of many melodic phrases; the long-term build and subsiding of dynamics; the increase and decrease of textural density; the arc of harmonic development and resolution; the arch-form structure of each movement; and the sense of overall arc to the whole, 25 minute piece. Harmonically, the work is concerned with exploring a range of extended chords (7ths, 9ths, 11ths, & 13ths), usually based on the common triad. Texturally, the piece gives the three instruments a wide variety of roles, exchanging turns to deliver melodies, and particularly features themes in canon. There is much use of the percussive pizzicato doubling by the strings of accompanimental piano material.
The first movement is in a loose symmetrical sonata form, whose first subject group features a bell-like accompaniment, followed by a sentimental song-like second theme. The development uses the work's introductory material, which surrounds an unsettled, modulatory third theme, before a varied and reversed recapitulation. The second movement is a long ternary form arch. The first section features a nostalgic line of appoggiaturas which gradually morphs into a more scherzo-like middle section, via a chain of changes in time signature, before a reversed return of the opening. The finale, in the home tonal centre of F, simply alternates two main ideas. The first is a memorable 10-bar rondo-like theme, returning in textural variation (and later in canon), based on harmonies with an added 4th (or 11th). The second idea is a 16-bar section that uses the main theme in rhythmic augmentation, and with rhythmic phasing. To conclude, the first theme asserts its dominance by repetition, in a final crescendo and flourish.
The work is dedicated to Stephen Birch in Advent 2024, with admiration, in anticipation of his 60th birthday in February 2025.
The piece is accessible to the listener, and is best suited to experienced performers such as advanced students and professional players.
This PDF document is fully complete for performance, including a full score, followed by each individual part. A piano part is provided, though the pianist may prefer to play from the score
Duration: 24 minutes.
Registered with PRS (Performing Rights Society, UK).
Composer's Website: www.roberthowardmusic.co.uk
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