Trio Semi-Concertante for Viola, Contrabass and Piano [Philip Daniel; 2020]
I. Melpomene 0:00
II. Terpsichore 5:44
III. Euterpe & Calliope 12:33
Though not intended as a “programmatic work”, each movement of my Piano Trio loosely evokes the muses (Melpomene, of tragedy; Terpsichore, of dance; Euterpe and Calliope, of lyric and epic poetry respectively).
In the third, final movement – an evocation of apocalypse lasting over 12 minutes / 179 measures (without repeats) / 32 pages – new motivic material in an unusual scale (“Hungarian Major”) undergoes continual transformation, while the (related) primary theme of the first movement reemerges in various guises. The structure owes something to the traditional sonata-allegro form of exposition-development-recapitulation, although a “synthetic modal” rather than tonal basis of pitch hierarchy and harmonic functionality submerges the traditional tonal polarity of tonic and dominant.
The string writing employs various extended techniques – playing with a mute (con sordino), bowing on the bridge (sul ponticello) and the fingerboard (sul tasto) for ghostly and gentle sounds respectively, "touch-fourth" artificial harmonics (producing a pitch two octaves above the sounded pitch), bowing with the wood of the bow (col legno tratto) and striking with the same (col legno battuto) – although these techniques are not properly conveyed in this audio rendering.
Ultimately, this all comes to a head in a pulsating, ecstatic climax, leading to the appearance of the opening of the redemptive Lutheran hymn “Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern” (“How lovely shines the morning star”), which in its contour at least superficially resembles the primary theme of the first movement (from which the primary theme of the third and final movement is itself derived). The final measures affirm a G Lydian modality (G major with a sharp fourth; much literature notes correspondences with the overtone series) – Lydian is a mode that I associate with the divine, and the much darker “synthetic modes” used earlier in this and preceding movements may constitute “corruptions” of this mode.
The painting in the video is "Three Female Figures Dancing And Playing" by Edward Burne-Jones.
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