Set work: Poulenc - Trio for Piano, Oboe and Bassoon

• Musical Words

  • Cadences
  • Ternary form
  • Transposition
  • Theme
  • Motif
  • Remote key
  • Related key
  • Legato
  • Chromatic
  • Melody & accompaniment
  • Extended Harmonies
  • Tonicisation
  • Neoclassicism
• Structure: Ternary form


  A (bars 1-22), B (bars 23-51), A¹ (bars 52-64)
• Composed 1926
• Dedicated to Manuel de Falla (Spanish composer)
• One of Poulenc's favourite pieces- very personal and inward-looking
• Ternary form/ Tripartite


  • The melody of Section B is closely related to that of Section A
  • Section A¹ varies the material of Section A more than one might expect
  • Bb(b.1) - Bm(b.23) - C(b.45) tonal transition
• Section A


  • In the dominant (rather than tonic) key
  • Much shorter than one would expect for a piece of this scale
• Tonality:

  1. Bb major (bars 1-4)

  2. Reference to F major (bars 5-8)

  3. Brief modulations, including some remote keys: Eb major (bar 11), Db major (bar 12), Ab major (bar 14), E minor (bars 17-18)
• Some use of the octatonic scale, e.g. piano right hand, bar 22
• Section B


  1. In B minor until bar 44

  2. Sudden C major episode, bars 45-49
• Section A1 is in the dominant
• Piano


  • Plays an accompanying role for most of the piece
• Texture


  1. Melody and accompaniment textures common-e.g. bars 1-8

  2. Some doubling-e.g. oboe and bassoon at the octave, bars 9-10

  3. Call and response between oboe and bassoon, e.g. bars 12-16

  4. Counterpoint between oboe and bassoon, e.g. bars 41-44
• Sonority


  • Oboe, bassoon and piano
• Melody


  • Much of the melody is derived from the rhythms, motifs and intervals of the opening four bars
  • Use of some conjunct intervals (especially at bars 1 and 4)
  • Use of some triadic intervals (especially bars 2-3)
  • Turn-like figure at bar 1^3-4
  • Varied rhythmic durations-e.g. the semiquavers (bar 1^3-4), dotted rhythms (bar 2^1-2 and bar 3^2-2), and the demisemiquavers (bar 4^2)
• Musical devices used to transform and develop the opening material

  1. Use of the rhythms from the opening phrase (e.g. bar 6^1-2 derived from bar 3^3-4)

  2. Use of the rhythms and intervals of the opening phrase (e.g. bar 5 derived from bar 2)

  3. Intervallic diminution (e.g. bar 23, related to bar 6)

  4. Use of motifs (e.g. turn at bars 36-37 references bar 1^3-4)

  5. Sequence (e.g. bars 38-43)
• Harmony


  • Some use of Classical, diatonic, functional harmony; for example Cadences (bars 3-4, 11, 12, etc.), Primary chord progressions (bars 7-8), Extended triads, e.g. major 7th (bar 29), diminished 7th (bar 26^3-4), half-diminished 7 (bar 61), Added note chords, e.g. added 6th (bar 47)
  • Modified parallel progressions (e.g. bar 30 - descending dom7 - octatonic cadence)
  • Chromaticism/ modal mixture (e.g. bar 3^1-2, Gb major, from the parallel key of Bb minor)
  • Chromatic elaborations of conventional progressions plagal cadence at bars 59-62)
• Tempo, metre and rhythm


  • Andante con moto=84 - moderately slow
  • Rubato is usually used extensively in performance
  • Mostly in 4/8 time
  • Two bars use different time signatures: bar 8 (3/8 time), bar 50 (2/8 time)
• Dynamics


  • Dynamic range similar to that which would be expected in a Classical / early Romantic piece: pp-fff with crescendos and diminuendos
  • Loud, stormy quasi-Romantic passage at bars 33-44