Trialogue

Instrumentation

Violin, clarinet and piano

Score, download - 0.04MB

Other Information

This trio for violin, clarinet and piano was written in 1988 and first performed in an internal concert at Sheffield University and shortly afterwards at Leicester Art Gallery with Adam Summerhayes (violin), Simon Labbett (clarinet) and Jeremy Weaver (piano). An extract from this performance is linked to this page. There was a later performance at Birmingham Conservatoire in December 1994. Released on a CCA CD in 2001 performed by David Hadwen [violin], Paul Harris [clarinet] and Julian Hellaby [piano].

The entire work stems from the opening theme and is organised in ternary form with an introduction and coda. The introductory theme on the clarinet is heard in inversion on the violin and then in an inverted canon. Section A begins with an ostinato that takes the 7ths and semitones of the theme as the basis of the movement with the introduction of a percussive rhythm. The music passes through tonal centres based on E flat, E natural, F and F sharp, which corresponds to the four-note semitone figure of the opening theme. In the middle section a new ostinato is heard in the piano against the percussive figure first on the clarinet and then the violin. The end of this section is marked by a shortened version of the introduction with the piano playing the inverted canon interrupted by the percussive figure on violin and clarinet. Section A is much extended on its return by decorations in which the introductory theme is entangled with the percussive figure. A short coda is entirely based on the percussive figure and ends with a flourish on the piano whilst the clarinet and violin play a final mirror inversion.

Neil Crutchley [Leicester Mercury -1st June l987]:

Trialogue for violin, clarinet and piano is a clear and well written piece. Strongly rhythmic and with a memorable theme: it should prove popular with listeners and performers alike.

Enid Luff [Composer News, Spring 1995]:

Trialogue for clarinet, violin and piano is subtitled "Theme and Ostinato". The music is sinewy and rhythmically self-aware; the stately and persuasive theme on which it is built has a strong plastic line, equally telling in inversion, which carries the linear aspects of the work in opposition to Jazzy ostinato figures. The three sections develop this dilectic: the first vigorous, the second slower and more Iyrical, the third returning to the manner of the opening. All three instruments are involved in developing the music throughout, and the whole work is carried by a strong forward impulse very satisfying to the listener.

Neil Crutchley [Leicester Mercury – 7th December 2001]:

LOCAL TALENT TO THE FORE ON NEW CD

Leicestershire is not short of good local composers and some of these composers belong to the Central Composers’ Alliance, which was founded in 1995 to promote the music of composers in the Midlands… David Fisher’s Trialogue for violin, clarinet and piano and The Four Seasons for piano solo show his now universally acknowledged gift for melody.

The images are of the first page of the score and the CD details of the CCA album which contains Trialogue and The Four Seasons.