Scherzo for striing trio (1920)

Mässig bewegt

Hanns Eisler’s first professional training – up to this point he had been largely self-taught – was at the Vienna City Conservatory, where he enrolled on being demobilised in 1918. He found, however, that his course with Karl Weigl was not strict enough and, in 1919, got himself accepted as one of Schoenberg’s private pupils. Although their principles were to diverge in a big way when Eisler abandoned what he called “splendid isolation” for agitprop, at this stage in his development Schoenberg’s teaching, which was nothing if not strict, was just what he needed. And when Schoenberg wasn’t available Webern stood in for him.

Clear evidence of Eisler’s stylistic allegiance at this time to the Schoenberg circle is supplied by the miniature String Trio he wrote in 1920 – three years before his first published work, the Piano Sonata Op.1. The close motivic working, based on the scherzo-like material introduced in the opening bars, and the sophisticated scoring are unmistakably diagnostic. On the other hand the sheer charm of the piece and its structural simplicity, with a scarcely altered recapitulation after a short middle section, are characteristics not readily associated with the Second Viennese school.