Trio (music)

Last updated
The Schumann-Halir-Dechert [de] Piano Trio (violin, cello, and piano) Schumann - Halir - Dechert Trio.jpg
The Schumann-Halir-Dechert  [ de ] Piano Trio (violin, cello, and piano)

In music, a trio (from the Italian) is any of the following:

Contents

Composition

A trio is a composition for three performers or musical parts. Works include Baroque trio sonatas, choral works for three parts, and works for three instruments such as string trios.

In the trio sonata, a popular genre of the 17th and early 18th century, two melodic instruments are accompanied by a basso continuo, making three parts in all. But because the basso continuo is usually played by two instruments (typically a cello or bass viol and a keyboard instrument such as the harpsichord), performances of trio sonatas typically involve four musicians. However there are also examples for a single performer such as Bach's Organ Sonatas or Trios, BWV 525–30 for two hands and a pair of feet, and also for two performers, such as his Violin Sonatas, Viol Sonatas and Flute Sonata, in which the harpsichordist's right hand performs a melodic part.

In vocal music with or without accompaniment, the term terzet is sometimes preferred to "trio". [1]

Form

From the 17th century onward, trio has been used to describe a contrasting second or middle dance appearing between two statements of a principal dance, such as a minuet or bourrée. This second dance was originally called a trio because of the 17th-century practice of scoring it for three instruments, and later examples continued to be referred to as trios, even when they involved a larger number of parts. [2] The Menuet of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 (1721) is a late nod to the original practice, with trios for two oboes and bassoon as well as two horns and a third part played by three oboes in unison. 19th-century forms derived from the minuet, such as the scherzo, also often contain contrasting trios. It usually has a lighter texture than the principal statement of the dance or march. [3]

The term is also used for the contrasting section of a march, the middle section in a march with da capo or the final section of one without. March trios in major typically modulate to the subdominant of the principal key.

Ensemble

Derived from the compositions, trio often denotes a group of three solo instruments or voices. [2] The most common types of such compositions are the piano trio of typically piano, violin and cello, and the string trio of commonly violin, viola and cello. [4]

Other types of trio include [ citation needed ]:

References

  1. ↑ McClymonds, Marita P.; Cook, Elisabeth; Budden, Julian (1992). "Trio [terzet]". In Sadie, Stanley (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Opera . London: Macmillan Press Ltd. ISBN   978-0-93-585992-8.
  2. 1 2 Randel, Don Michael (2003). "Trio". The Harvard Dictionary of Music (4th ed.). Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN   978-0-67-401163-2.
  3. ↑ Laitz, Steven G. (2016). The complete musician: an integrated approach to theory, analysis and listening (4th ed.). Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press. p. 602. ISBN   978-0-19-934709-4.
  4. ↑ Schwandt, Erich (2001). "Trio". In Sadie, Stanley; Tyrrell, John (eds.). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2nd ed.). London: Macmillan Publishers.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.