String Trio (1933)

If Jean Françaix had developed in accordance with the immense promise he showed with his String Trio in his early twenties he would have been one of the greatest of twentieth-century composers. It is brilliantly scored, rhythmically and harmonically imaginative, structurally resourceful and melodically attractive. If it lacks depth that is a quality he might have been expected to acquire with maturity. In fact, he didn’t. Françaix did turn his attention to big and serious projects from time to time but rarely with much success. While his style remained rooted in the 1930s and more recent developments passed him by, he produced hundreds of mainly shortish pieces designed primarily, as he put it, “to please.” That - as a highly accomplished pupil of Nadia Boulanger, an admirer of Chabrier, and a younger cousin of the irreverent group of Parisian composers known as “Les Six” - he did superlatively well.

The textural inspiration for the first movement of the String Trio - which was written for the Trio Pasquier in 1933 - was evidently Ravel’s String Quartet in F. The entry of the viola with an expressive legato melody under the bustling staccato on the violin is unmistakably reminiscent of that work. Even so, the personality of this perfectly formed miniature construction, which seems to be generated directly by the impetus of its unceasing semi-quaver figuration, is just as unmistakably Françaix’s own. So, in spite of an initial echo of Mendelssohn in scherzo mode, is that of the next movement, not least in its clever manupilations of waltz rhythms and its tendency to go off at cheeky harmonic tangents.

By way of contrast, the muted Andante is a tenderly scored song, the melodic line carried by violin over sustained harmonies on cello and viola until, towards the end, they get to play it too. Mutes come off for the closing Rondo, which restores the staccato articulation that had coloured the first two movements but at the same time admits a wider variety of material - like the expressive melody poised on violin over rudely vamped rhytms on cello and viola, the slower central section with a hint of the blues in it, and strident march tune proclaimed in robust multi-stopped chords just before the fragmented ending.