Joy is not typically associated with serial composition, but Charles Wuorinen has managed to stay true to the twelve-tone technique without suppressing his natural compositional exuberance. The Horn Trio of 1981, based on motives so fruitful that Wuorinen actually composed a horn trio continued four years later, embraces luminous textures, buoyant rhythms, and even the occasional musical joke. It begins at full throttle, with braying horn whoops, agitated scratching on the violin, and percussive chords low in the piano. Here in among the hubbub we hear the seeds of the later developments in the work. The music is full of incident, changing tempo and direction with thrilling speed to present what is nevertheless a clear argument. Wuorinen is not blind to the timbral possibilities of the horn trio, either; while the horn provides accents or quiet support to ruminative music in the violin and piano, at one point inserts itself into the dialogue to provide blissful counterpoint. More fast music leads into what seems to be an ending; however, music recalling the beginning of the work leaps out of a well-timed silence, followed by a passage in which the instruments seem to be lunging for their melodies, to humorous effect. The ultimate ending has a sweet luminosity that the false one did not provide, a fade into infinity allowing the listener to relax after this work's bubbling invention has finally ceased.

© Andrew Lindemann Malone, All Music Guide