Piano Trio (Chopin)

Piano Trio

by Frédéric Chopin

The composer in 1835

Key| G minor
Opus| 8
Dedication| Antoni Radziwiłł
Published| 1829 (1829)
Movements| four

The Piano Trio, Op. 8, is a composition in G minor for piano, violin and cello, by Frédéric Chopin, written in 1828 or 1829, and published in 1829, dedicated to Antoni Radziwiłł. It is a piece of musical juvenilia, written by Chopin when he was still young, in his early years in Poland.

## Structure

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It has four movements:

1. Allegro con fuoco (G minor)
2. Scherzo: Vivace (G major)
3. Adagio sostenuto (E-flat major)
4. Finale: Allegretto (G minor)

Of interest is the fact that the second theme of the first movement stays in the tonic (there is no modulation to the relative major), and that the third movement sounds uncharacteristically Beethovenian for Chopin (most probably this is because this is a work by a young Chopin still trying to find his original musical ideas).

A typical performance lasts approximately 25–27 minutes, if the exposition repeat in the first movement is not taken -- otherwise, such a performance can often be 2 to 3 minutes longer.

It is the only work by Chopin that features the violin (excluding orchestral parts) — an instrument to which he was somewhat indifferent, as reflected in the relative lack of sophistication of the violin parts.[1][2] In a letter to his friend Tytus Woyciechowski dated 31 August 1830,[a] Chopin speculates whether he should have written the violin line for viola, believing that the viola's timbre would "accord better with the cello".[3] Emanuel Ax is of the opinion that it is perhaps fortunate that Chopin scored the work for a standard piano trio, since so few trios with viola exist.[4][1][2]

## References

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Notes

1. ^ Letter no. 63 in the new edition of Fryderyk Chopin’s Correspondence, edited by Zofia Helman, Zbigniew Skowron, and Hanna Wroblewska-Strauss, University of Warsaw, 2010

1. ^ a b Nicholas 2010.
2. ^ a b Rezaei 2010.
3. ^ Johnson 1908, p. 80
4. ^ Johnson 1908.

Sources

* Johnson, G. C. Ashton (1908). A Handbook to Chopin's Works. London: William Reeves.
* Nicholas, Jeremy (2010). Chopin: Chamber Music (PDF) (CD). Hyperion Records. CDH55384.
* Rezaei, Ramin (2010). Frederic Chopin's Chamber Music and Polish Songs (PDF) (B.Mus). Lahti University of Applied Sciences. Retrieved 2016-07-11.

## External links

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* Piano Trio: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
* "Chopin: Piano Trio in G-minor, Op. 8 (Live performance)". Quarto Quartet (YouTube). 2013-07-04. Archived from the original on 2021-12-15.

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Chamber music and songs by Frédéric Chopin

* Introduction and Polonaise brillante, Op. 3
* Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 8
* Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 65
* Grand Duo concertant

* 19 Polish Songs

* {{Ballades}}
* {{Concertante}}
* {{Études}}
* {{Mazurkas}}
* {{Nocturnes}}
* {{Polonaises}}
* {{Preludes}}
* {{Scherzos}}
* {{Waltzes}}

* {{Frédéric Chopin}}
* List of compositions by genre
* List of compositions by opus number

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* MusicBrainz work

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