The trio

The piano trio ensemble includes a piano, a violin and a cello. The contrast between the percussive sound of the piano and the sweet sustained sound of the strings, is one of the trademarks of this kind of popular chamber ensemble. Haydn created this kind of trio in order to strengthen the somewhat silent piano of his time. The violin's singing tone had a sustaining part of the piano's right hand while the cello supported the left-hand bass. Brahms and other Romantic composers created wonderful piano trios.

Although the piano trio for piano, violin, and cello is the most common ensemble, the string trio, which includes a violin, a viola and a cello or 2 violins and a cello, is also important. Composers including Mozart, with his great Divertimento K563, and Haydn and Beethoven are the most important among them.

The most common trio in the Baroque period was the trio sonata, which included two solo instruments (usually for two violins) and a continuo - a keyboard instrument which accompanied the solo instruments with figured bass. The trio sonata reached its peak with the great works of Corelli. Handel, Vivaldi and Telemann wrote wonderful trios.

Sometimes, rather unusual combinations of 3 instruments became interesting trios, such as Dvorak's Terzetto for two violins and viola.

In the 18th century, the word "trio" was often used for pieces in three parts even if performed by only one player.

The Piano Trio

The String Trio