Adam Zolty

Instrumentation: for violin, horn, and piano

 

Duration: 8'00"

​

Three Pieces (2025)

I. Cantus Firmus

II. Pastoral

III. Echoes and Canons

​​​

Program note: 

​

Three Pieces for Horn Trio takes inspiration from historical compositional forms and techniques.

​

The first movement, I. Cantus Firmus, centres on a continuous piano melody that extends through the entire composition and forms the foundation of the music, much like how secular or sacred melodies underpin early cantus firmus compositions from the Middle Ages to the Baroque. This continuous piano melody is doubled in various ways by the horn and violin, creating a heterophonic texture that hints at two or more simultaneous voices in a technique called "compound melody."

​

The character of this movement is dynamic and persistent, drawing on the energetic articulation and performance techniques of fast Baroque string writing. The sound is focused and up-close, creating a dramatic listening experience.

​

The second movement, II. Pastoral, contrasts the first by evoking a more distant and resonant sound world. It references traditional musical evocations of the pastoral through open intervals - particularly fourths and fifths - and the use of open strings in the violin. The horn enters gradually, enhancing the sense of openness and space, before the music returns to the quiet violin-piano duet that opened the piece.

​

The final movement, III. Echoes and Canons, begins in a spacious, nebulous sound world that gradually coalesces and achieves clarity as the music unfolds. Motifs pass lightly between the instruments, first muted, whispered, or in harmonics, before the full canon theme gradually emerges and grows toward an expressive peak.

​

​Premiere: 13/03/2025 by Marie Schreer of Riot Ensemble (vln.),  Chloe Harrison (hrn.), and Milda Daunoraite (pno.) at Folkstone New Music Festival, The Grand, Folkstone UK.

​

Listen: ​​​