Piano trio

Description

Duration

12 1/2 min.

Instrumentation

violin, cello, piano

Program Notes

My piano trio is cast in two movements of equal length (12 ½ minutes total), parallel in expressive trajectory but different in form. The first is a sonata form using a row of expanding intervals (rather than pitches) to generate thematic materials. Notwithstanding this, it is still centered on A, with recognizable harmonic functions. The 2nd movement is a set of variations on a tune by Federalist-era composer Jeremiah Ingalls, distinctive for its alternation between sharp and natural leading tones. The variations are a sort of musical Pilgrim’s Progress, moving farther from the theme and becoming wilder until collapsing into serenity.

The work was premiered at the University of Akron on May 1, 2005, at the 5th annual Akron New Music Festival, by Takako Masame, violin, Linda Atherton, cello, and Nicholas Underhill, piano, members of the Cleveland Chamber Collective. Subsequent performers have included the Gramercy Trio.

Experience

Come all ye saints and sinners near.
Come listen awhile and you shall hear t
he wonders of almighty grace
which set me free to sing His praise.
I heard of Jesus, who they say
could wash a sinner’s sins away.
How to find Him I did not know,
nor how to meet with Him below.

I laid me down to take my rest,
Bemoaning of my dreadful case.
I thought I would for mercy wait
but then I feared I’d come too late.
I never thought He’d been so nigh.
His speaking made me smile and cry.
He said, “I’ve come to you my love.
I have a place for you above.”

Jeffrey Quick (b. 1956, Cass City MI) is assistant music librarian at Case Western Reserve University. He got his BM from the University of Michigan in 1978 and his MM in composition from Cleveland State in 1991. Information on his works can be found at www.jeffreyquick.com