Piano Trio (1999)
(for Piano, Violin and Violoncello)

I. Allegretto

II. Poco adagio e mesto, quasi recitativo

III. Allegro assai

My Piano Trio, dedicated to my wife, Helen, was commissioned by the 1999 Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition as a test piece for the competitors. The David Thomas Foundation provided financial assistance.

There are three movements. The first, lucid and calm, is related to my Guitar Concerto (1995) through its texture, modality and general ethos: I had in mind sunlight sparkling on the Arafura Sea, north of Australia. In the second, an adagio, an intimate dialogue between violin and cello is supported by the piano and tyhe movement concludes with a brief quotation from my Second Symphony, Earth Spirit Songs, completed the year before. The finale is an effeverscent 'maninya' (Australian dance/chant), whose characteristic shapes and patterns have their origin In the natural world.

Ross Edwards