Six Pieces for Horn Violin and Piano by Hans Abrahamsen. Programme Note My ’6 Pieces for horn violin and piano’ was written in 1984 as a commission from the Danish Radio for a concert where Ligeti’s Horn Trio should receive its Danish premiere played by Danish musicians. My trio is based on my work ’Studies for Piano’. While I wrote these studies I tried to ’conjure up’ instrumental parts inside the piano movement. When I received the commission for a horn trio I turned to six of the studies and deepened them by ’screening them’ so that their partsand moods appeared in a clearer way. Furthermore I changed the order of the movements so a new unity appeared beginning with a steadyly hesitating ’Serenade’ in slow-motion followed by the ’Arabesque’ which hardly gets started before it stops. Then ’Blues’ a melancholy melody and ’Marcia Funebre’ like a fossilized picture with a dramatic threatening outburst ending with a quiet but majestic melody in violin and horn a melody that disappears in the chords of the piano. Before the last movement ’For the Children’ is a large ’Scherzo misterioso’. Hans Abrahamsen
