#ClassicsaDay #ClassicalBubble Week 4

This month's Classics a Day theme follows a trend. In May 2020 we were sheltering in place. The theme was #ClassicalDistancing -- music for unusual solo instruments best played at home. In June, social bubbles were allowed, and so the theme #ClassicalBubble called for duos. Again, for unusual instruments best played at home.

This month we ease the restrictions even further with a theme of trios. Trios for unusual instruments etc., etc. Here are my selections for the fourth week of the expanded #ClassicalBubble.

09/21/20 Sergei Rachmaninoff - Two pieces for Piano Six Hands

Rachmaninoff was just 17 when he wrote these works for three sisters: Natalya, Lyudmila, and Vera Skalon. The piece was written for intermediate players, making getting everyone seated on the same stool perhaps the biggest challenge.

09/22/20 Vaclav Nelhybel - Tuba Trio Ludus

Nelybel wrote this work in 1975. It is indeed for three tubas, each alternating roles as soloist and accompanists.

09/23/20 Paul Hindemith: Trio for pianoforte, viola, and heckelphone, Op. 47

Hindemith discovered the heckelphone while visiting the inventor's shop to buy a bassoon. The instrument, sort of a bass oboe, never really caught on, and tenor sax is often substituted for it.

09/24/20 Alexander Scriabin: Etude Op. 2 No. 1 for theremin, cello, and piano

Leo Theremin invented his eponymous instrument in 1928. Two antennas translate hand motions into sound. One antenna determines pitch, and the second controls volume.

09/25/20 Anon. Sir John Packington's Pavan for viol trio

Renaissance stringed instruments performed in many different combinations. Many upper-class families had a chest of viols, containing six -- a pair of treble, tenor, and bass instruments.