The Piano Trio is dedicated to Pauline Howgill of the St. Cecilia Trio, which group gave the work its first performance at an International Music Association concert in London in 1956. The piece's inspiration is Baroque, with the first two movements embodying robust canons (and a reversed canon in one instance) and the energetic finale adopting the form of a chaconne. This latter form adopts a distinctly modernist rising chromatic motif which eventually returns the work to the D major origin and an aurally satisfying conclusion. This may not be groundbreaking music in the way that much of Arnold's work is—but it is exceedingly well-wrought.



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