Piano Trio

Upon commissioning my Piano Trio (2003-2004) for the Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music’s 100th concert celebration, Wanda Fleck specifically requested that the work relate to their venue, their city and to the series itself.

The first movement connects to the city. www.brooklyn.net describes Brooklyn as a one-time "cradle of tough guys." This notion seems to be in our national consciousness – that the NY/NJ area is gritty, dirty, and tough. Although this is not entirely true, these elements are, interestingly, what I missed while traveling the west coast this summer. A certain degree of homesickness while out west led me to conceive the first movement of the work: East Coast Attitude. East Coast Attitude is a reflection on what I love about the east coast, specifically the NY/NJ area.

The second movement, On Clouds of Witness connects to the venue, the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, and its rich history. The title refers to the mural surrounding the chapel, Clouds of Witness, which I find very intriguing. The mural consists of people from the community engaged in everyday activities around the congregation.

Interestingly, Clouds of Witness is said to have been a source of controversy within the church community when it was installed in the late 1970’s. This parallels the controversy surrounding the introduction of contemporary music (and commissions) into the repertoire of the BFCM in recent years. On Clouds of Witness is based on the first piece of mine that Wanda Fleck heard, Duet for Solo, which lead to our meeting at Tanglewood that summer, and eventually to the commissioning and composition of this Piano Trio.

Connecting to the series, the third movement, On-the-Job Training, also has its roots in quite a few places, the most significant of which is the idea of starting something and committing to it without really having any idea of how to do it. For me, this is much the story of my relationship to composition, having decided that I was going to be a composer before I could really read music. I imagine that this might have been a similar experience for the founders of the Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music, starting a concert series in a neighborhood that at the time was quite undesirable, and it being a learn-as-you-go process.

Lasting approximately seventeen minutes, Piano Trio was commissioned by the Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music in celebration of their 100th concert. It was written for, and is dedicated to the Amelia Piano Trio, who premiered the work on March 28th, 2004 at the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, in Brooklyn N.Y.

—David T. Little - 2.10.04