Assignment 3: Reflections

Trio in D

I decided to write for three woodwind instruments, with flute, oboe and bassoon creating a good mix of tones and ranges. I opted for an opening triad, two middle triads and the ending triad. As this created three sections, I wanted each to have a distinct sound to it. Overall I think the piece works well, particularly the mix of instruments, the range of the music as a whole and the contrast between the sections.

The piece starts out in D Major with all instruments on a unison D. This then opens out into a chord of A Major in the next bar. I felt this gave sets up the tonality of the piece well, although it is completely homophonic.

The 1^st section begins with a legato motif for oboe which is picked up by the flute a bar later and the bassoon a bar after that. It creates the impression of being a round, but after a few bars each part develops the theme into their own melodic lines; the flute introduces some chromatic notes to bring about the resolution on the 2^nd triad, A Major. 

The 2^nd section begins like the 1^st section trying to create the impression of a round. This time the flute begins followed by the oboe and the bassoon. To contrast the 1^st section, this section is much more light and detached to begin with. The oboe motif develops into a legato melody reminiscent of the first section, whilst the bassoon and flute imitate each other with rising and descending scales. The flute and bassoon continue to imitate each other with a failing sequence whilst the oboe melody becomes scalic and more detached, leading into the next triad of A Major.

The 3^rd section again begins like a round with the bassoon starting, followed by flute and the oboe, but this time each instrument has a subtly different motif; the flute’s uses triplets whilst the oboe’s is detached with dotted rhythms. The instruments exchange this 2 bar motif, each one entering a note higher than the previous one until the melody breaks down into a series of broken chord-based motifs which brings about the perfect cadence and the final triad of D Major.