New Music USA Online Library

Triomusic

Don Freund

Triomusic is something of a musical “stream of consciousness”; its identity and cohesiveness emanate from the patterned contrasts and dramatic flow of its sharply profiled, thematically and stylistically incongruous sections. Two ideas create a context for the others. One is the gentle tune with which the pianist introduces Part One and which returns near the end of Part Two. The other is the driving 11/8 - 5/4 ostinato which is first heard in alternation with the “tune” when it reappears in Part Two, but outgrows balanced proportions to become the propulsive, obsessive concluding section.

The first-time listener might feel more secure being guided through the two parts of the piece by the following sectional outline: 

Part One — piano tune; violin “fiery” cadenza; heavy triple “rock” feel which gradually dissipates; biting, brittle aphorisms; quasi 14th-century chorale (violin and clarinet only); unison statements with sound-space reverberations; enigmatic postlude.

Part Two — frenetic triple cadenza; piano chorale; bright imitative tarantella; another piano chorale, foreboding (Ach wie flüchtig, ach nichtig...How fleeting, how void is life); desperate fortissimo trills yielding to pianissimo whispers, segue to return of the piano tune and ostinato finale.

Triomusic was composed in 1980 for the Verdehr Trio.

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