Trio II (2004)

Trio II suggests the notion of a series of similar pieces in which the first piece should have already appeared. Actually the first trio was not called Trio I but Trio Variations and was composed in 1990. It was an unusual piece for me, because for the first time I introduced soloistic aspects which had been less frequent in my compositions before 1990. In addition, the piece was intended to be performed with dance, and even included improvisational elements (later changed in the score to a fixed version).

Consequently – and in concordance with my current ideas in composing music - Trio II also has a higher degree of soloistic writing. The solos always convey a particular character, such as ‚dominating,’ ‚inviting,’ rejecting,’ and at the beginning appear within a collective framework, although the collective framework at that point is not ‚perfect.’ Musically the collective framework means a texture which consists of basically the same material in each instrument, differing only by slight alterations and deviations, or including even canonic elements. During the course of the piece the part writing becomes more and more individual and can be perceived on two levels: a reduction of the accented chords, and an increase in soloistic activity.

An interesting feature in the choice of instruments is the rarely heard heckelphone, a kind of baritone oboe, sounding one octave lower than the normal oboe. The instrument has a wide sonoric tessitura and can produce most unusual sounds which I took into consideration while designing the particular harmonic structure of the piece.