Saturday, January 16, 2016

Show 101A: Trios

The musical genre of the Trio is very special.  As many of us know, traditional harmony is written in four parts, so when someone writes a trio, the harmony is usually not full in the usual sense.  However, melodically, a trio works harder to get our interest.  There are other tricks that composers use; Bach gets a lot of mileage with implied harmonies, musical lines that fill in more harmony than a single voice can be expected to.

The original show numbered 101, our very first show, had the following playlist:

Bach: our usual introductory piece, the Fugue in A minor, BWV 543.  This is not, of course, a trio.
The Beatles: "You're going to lose that girl", from the Help album, and the movie.
Bach: Trio Sonata in E Flat, BWV 525, i, performed by guitars.
Bach: Terzett from the Christmas Oratorio, "Wenn wird die Zeit erscheinen?"
Episodes: Train Wreck
Bach: Trio Sonata from the Musical Offering, Movt i.
Gordon Lightfoot: Early morning rain (Peter, Paul and Mary)
Haydn: Divertissement No. 2, i - Allegro
Wagner: The Overture to Die Meistersinger von Nuremberg (excerpts)
Bach: Tenor aria from Cantata 85, "Seht was die Liebe tut", adapted by William Walton.
Tom Lehrer: Alma
Signoff: Fantasia on Heykens's Starlight Serenade.

For tonight, we add some more trios by Bach, a triple concerto, a few movements from a trio from Beethoven, and one from Mozart, a trio from the so-called Coffee Cantata, and a transcription of a movement from Bach's famous Cantata No. 40, Wachet auf.


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