Benedict Todd

Organist · Composer · Conductor



Trio for Trumpet, Bassoon & Piano

Trio for Trumpet, Bassoon & Piano

  • Composed: January - February 2013
  • Duration: 5 ½ min
  • Instrumentation: Trumpet, Bassoon & Piano
  • Commissioned by: Bristol University Contemporary Music Venture (CMV)
  • First performance: Members of the University of Bristol New Music Ensemble (NME) at the Victoria Rooms, Bristol. 1st May 2013


  • Programme note: The starting point for this Trio originally arrived in the form of a textural idea: this is the material heard at the outset of the piece. It deliberately plays towards certain strengths of each instrument in the ensemble: the agility and brightness of the ‘motum perpetuum’ figure high in the piano’s range, the complimentary colours of the high bassoon and muted trumpet. However, as this material starts to be worked and developed (following the initial calm) the true, rather disparate, nature of the ensemble becomes increasingly apparent. Tension rises as music originally conceived for one instrument finds its way into the parts of the others. When, eventually, the inevitable collapse arrives and a return to earlier material might (structurally) be expected it quickly becomes apparent that something has been broken by this process: the original idea is changed, broken, almost lost...

  • Recording:
  • This recording was made during the CMV concert on 1 May 2013 in the Victoria Rooms, Bristol. The performers were Manos Charalabopoulos (piano), Daisy Woods (bassoon) and Chloe Watson (trumpet).

  • Scores of this piece are available to purchase. Please click here to purchase scores and/or performance materials.



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