Piano Trio

Piano, violin and cello, three lines where nobody can hide

Related

Chamber MusicPianoCelloViolin

A piano trio is piano, violin and cello, the three instruments sharing melody, bass and harmony, with three lines in which any player stopping is heard.

Origins and era

In the middle of the eighteenth century a keyboard sonata plus two strings produced the accompanied piano trio, and Haydn and Mozart cast it in three movements. In the nineteenth century, as pianos gained volume and range, Schubert and Brahms let the cello carry themes and the three players became equals. In the twentieth century the trio became a standard chamber grouping, with works by Debussy, Ravel and Shostakovich.

What you hear

Three instruments and only three lines. The usual division gives the piano harmony and rhythm, the violin the tune and the cello the bass, while mature works move the theme between all three and let the piano fall back into accompaniment. Follow the bass first, then hear who takes the theme, whether the piano's left hand doubles the cello, and whether the strings drop to pizzicato for rhythm. Three or four movements, a first in sonata form, a slow movement usually handed to the strings, and a rondo or variations to close. Balance is the daily problem of this grouping, since one piano chord can cover two strings, so composers write the strings above the piano's middle register or ask for a lighter touch. Schubert gives the cello the theme of the slow movement in D. 929 with the piano following in chords, turning that imbalance into structure.

Key figures

Haydn and Mozart set the three-movement shape, Schubert's two trios stretched length and lyricism to their limit, Brahms made the three instruments interlock in motif, and twentieth-century composers used the trio as a testing ground for new scorings.

Lineage

It comes from the Baroque trio sonata and from keyboard-plus-strings accompaniment and leads to the piano quartet, the piano quintet and twentieth-century chamber groupings.

Common misunderstandings

A piano trio is not three pianos, since the piano is only one of the parts. Nor is it a solo with accompaniment, because after 1800 the three players are close to equal and the piano's bass often divides the work with the cello.

Sources

• The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., entry Trio, 用于核对钢琴三重奏的编制演变
• Charles Rosen, Sonata Forms, 用于核对十八世纪键盘与弦乐的分工

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.