Reunion (Piano Trio)

Hello, guys. It's been very long since I posted anything here. Was busy with uni and graduated rather recently, but still composing here and there.

This piano trio, titled Reunion, is intended for the Chinese New Year. But I decided to post this early given I just managed to complete the second movement. This piece is partially inspired by Charles Ives' Piano Trio.

The first movement, March, was actually intended to be for string quartet, which I started before going into university (about six years before), but I only worked until the middle of the exposition and left it aside, until I worked on a minuet and fugue for piano trio (which became the third movement). I gathered what material I have for this movement and rearranged it for piano trio. This movement is in modified Sonata form. The main theme is borrowed from Da Di Hui Chun (大地回春), while the second theme is He Xin Nian (贺新年). The development section features Ying Chun Hua (迎春花); I felt it's rather fitting for a march-like piece.

The second movement, Nocturne, is largely petatonic and inspired by Debussy. Some material was actually adapted from a pre-college music assignment, which I didn't so well in because, honestly, I misunderstood that assignment (which wanted us to compose a study piece either on pitch or rhythm, and not both). But I decided to revisit this piece for Mid-Autumn and repurpose some material around as I focus more on the pentatonicism. This is in rounded binary form, because, admittedly, I didn't really have more ideas on how to develop the motifs further.

The third movement was composed for a music assignment when I took a music composition course in college. The lecturer wanted us to compose something related to local heritage, so this piece incorporated two Chinese melodies: 明月千里寄相思 (Ming Yue Qian Li Qi Xiang Si) for the Minuet and Waltz sections, and an abstracted version of A Common Man's Voice in the Fugue (Trio) section. It's because of this composition that I decided to revisit what I did before, to put together what I had for a complete three-movement Piano Trio. I enjoyed composing the middle section for this piece as it tried to juxtapose 6/8 with 3/4.

I still plan to rework some parts if I have the time, but I decided to share it as-is for now, and I welcome any feedback and comments.I. Piano Trio (march).pdf

II. Piano Trio (nocturne).pdfIII. Piano Trio (Minuet, Fugue and Waltz).pdf

Edited 59 minutes ago59 min by zhenkang