TRIO III (Yes, but would you want your sister to play one?)

Composer: Robert Ashley

This piece is from a group of three trios called "White On White" It was written in 1962. It has the form of a lecture-demonstration. The soloist describes his instrument in detail and then plays a series of very short excerpts from pieces written for that instrument over the last 500 years, introducing each excerpt with a repeated phrase.

In other words, alternating speech with playing. He does this to the "accompaniment" of a tape that has two other instruments playing a continuous "accompaniment" in the style characteristic of the two other instruments, but not at all related to any of the excerpts in style.