The Piano Trio, Op. 8, is a composition in

G minor G minor is a minor scale based on G, consisting of the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has two flats. Its relative major is B-flat major and its parallel major is G major. According to Paolo Pietropaolo, it is the con ...

for piano, violin and cello, by Frédéric Chopin, written in 1828 or 1829, and published in 1829, dedicated to

Antoni Radziwiłł Prince Antoni Henryk Radziwiłł (; 13 June 1775 – 7 April 1833) was a Polish and Prussian noble, aristocrat, musician, and politician. Initially an hereditary Duke of Nieśwież and Ołyka, as a scion of the Radziwiłł family he also h ...

Structure

It has four movements: #Allegro con fuoco (

) #Scherzo: Vivace (

G major G major (or the key of G) is a major scale based on G, with the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has one sharp. Its relative minor is E minor and its parallel minor is G minor. The G major scale is: Notable composi ...

) #Adagio sostenuto (

E-flat major E-flat major (or the key of E-flat) is a major scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has three flats. Its relative minor is C minor, and its parallel minor is E minor, (or enharmonically ...

) #Finale: Allegretto (G minor) A typical performance lasts approximately 25–27 minutes. It is the only work by Chopin that features the

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

(excluding orchestral parts) — an instrument to which he was somewhat indifferent, as reflected in the relative lack of sophistication of the violin parts. In a letter to his friend

Tytus Woyciechowski Tytus Sylwester Woyciechowski (31 December 1808 – 23 March 1879) was a Polish political activist, agriculturalist, and patron of art. He was an early friend of the Polish composer Frédéric Chopin. The spelling of Woyciechowski's surname is ...

dated 31 August 1830, Chopin speculates whether he should have written the violin line for

viola ; german: Bratsche , alt=Viola shown from the front and the side , image=Bratsche.jpg , caption= , background=string , hornbostel_sachs=321.322-71 , hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded by a bow , range= , related= *Violin family ...

, believing that the viola's timbre would "accord better with the cello".

Emanuel Ax Emanuel "Manny" Ax (born 8 June 1949) is a Grammy-winning American classical pianist. He is a teacher in the Juilliard School. Early life Ax was born to a Polish-Jewish family in Lviv, Ukraine, (in what was then the Soviet Union) to Joachim and ...

is of the opinion that it is perhaps fortunate that Chopin scored the work for a standard piano trio, since so few trios with viola exist.

References

Notes ;Sources * * *

External links

* * Compositions by Frédéric Chopin Chopin Compositions in G minor 1830 compositions {{chamber-composition-stub