Margarita Zelenaia

Trio for soprano, oboe and piano

Year: 1998

Duration (in minutes): 10'39;

Difficulty: High (professional)

Category: small chamber ensembles - 2 to 4 players, solo voice(s) with chamber ensemble, solo voice(s) with solo instruments

Instruments: any voice, any woodwind, oboe, piano

Publisher: Self-Produced

Description: Trio for soprano, oboe & piano has two movements: 'Lyric Meditation' and 'Conversation With Bells'. It was premiered at the Tutti Tutti New Music Festival in Ohio. Both trio movements are mostly monothematic. In the first movement (“Lyric Meditation”), the soprano and oboe parts thematically prolong and add to one another, thus forming a “duo of harmony”. At the same time, the piano part serves as a colorful embellishment – the follow of impressionism appears through use of soft, colorful harmonic spots that envelop the melodic intertwinement of the two instruments.
In the second movement (“Conversation with Bells”), the word “Bo-Bom” in the soprano part represents a bell sound, its tinges drastically differing in character, varying from mystically-secretive to tender and quivering, lamenting to joyously victorious, a heavy, measured toll to uplifting holiday chimes. In the climax, the first movement’s oboe theme is played in whole, surrounded by the escalating bell dialogue of the soprano and piano. The coda brings the feeling of peace and quiet – a clear, calm and pure bell sound dissolving somewhere in the distance.