Piano Trio No. 1 (2009)

For Violin, Cello, and Piano

Duration 6'50

Premiered by Kenny Heinemeir, violin, Steven Brindle, cello, and Nicholas Saffos, piano on April 11, 2010 at the Ferguson Center for the Arts in Newport News, VA. 

Program Notes

Oddity abound… This work tells the strange tale of two creatures meeting in a magical wood.  The premise is a fawn and an extinct horse called a Tarpan meet in the forest to find that the two creatures have starkly different personalities, each coming through in their own movement.

The first movement begins by setting the scene of a beautiful, quiet forest.  Just through the trees a fawn appears.   The movement acts as a pastoral scene as the fawn quietly moving through the woods.  The melody of the fawn is passed through each of the instruments individually before coming together and finishing in a cannon.

The fawn stumbles across an extinct mammal, the Tarpan in the second movement.  This small, muscular horse is preoccupied with trying to overcompensate due to his small stature.  The music represents this creature in every way.  First it displays his frantic and energetic nature through a fast gallop.  The middle segment displays his attempts to overcompensate due to his size.  The piece finishes with a brief return to the gallop section.

- Chris Lamb, March 2013