General information
Title CZKlavírní trio č. 1 (Cinq pièces brèves)
Subtitle CZpro housle, violoncello a klavír
Title ENPiano Trio No. 1 (Five short pieces)
Subtitle ENfor violin, violoncello and piano
Title DEKlaviertrio Nr. 1 (Fünf kurze Stücke)
Subtitle DEfür Violine, Violoncello und Klavier
Title FRTrio avec piano n° 1 (Cinq pièces brèves)
Subtitle FRpour violon, violoncelle et piano
CategoryChamber Music
SubcategoryTrios with Piano
Halbreich number193
Parts of the composition (movements)1. Allegro moderato 2. Adagio 3. Allegro 4. Allegro moderato 5. Allegro con brio
Durata11' 30''
InstrumentsVl Vc Pf
Origin
Place of compositionParis
Year of origin1930
Initiation of composition20.05.1930
Completion of composition30.05.1930
First performance
Date of the first performance14.11.1930
Location of the first performanceParis
Ensemble Trio Filomusi
Trio Filomusi
Autograph deposition
InstitutionBerlin State Library
DepositionBerlin
OwnerStaatsbibliothek zu Berlin
Note on the autograph depostitionFacsimile of the autograph score and parts located at the Bohuslav Martinů Centre in Polička.
Copyright
CopyrightSchott Music, Mainz
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Editions
Schott Music GmbH & Co., Mainz, 1931
Call number at the BM Institute: 1043
Specification of the edition: 1st edition [?]
Details of this edition
Schott Music GmbH & Co., Mainz, 1959
Call number at the BM Institute: 1040a
Specification of the edition: Reprint of the 1st [?] edition (1931)
Details of this edition
Sources
References Related writings
Documents in the Library
Note Title on the title page of the autograph: "Trio | 5 pièces brèves | pour | violon, violoncello [sic!] et piano."
About the composition

Martinů's Piano Trio No. 1, H. 193, from 1930, also called Cinq pièces brèves (Five Short Pieces), occupies an important place in his output especially among the chamber works he composed in France. It took him an unbelievably short time to compose it - only ten days. He confided to his friend Miloš Šafránek the ease and naturalness with which the work was born: "I don't know how it happened that I composed this Trio; suddenly, as though, by the hand of another, I wrote something completely new." The work's short but potent motives, deployed unerringly, forecast the formal principles highlighted in and so intrinsic to his symphonies, which he did not begin composing until after his emigration to America. From the formal standpoint, the trio's compositional innovation suggests more than anything the six Petites symphonies for the chamber orchestra of Darius Milhaud. The fact that Martinů himself was well aware of this work's significance is also shown by two references to the piece in the autobiography he wrote in 1944 in New York, where he mentions it in association with the new use of polyphony in chamber music together with greater emphasis on rhythm.

Programme of the Bohuslav Martinů Festival's concert, December 8, 2003

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