Scored for violin, viola or clarinet and piano, this trio, marked Opus 4 in Bax's own hand, was written in 1906 under sponsorship from the Society of British Composers, formed the previous year. It is notable chiefly for a slightly irregular waltz-like rhythm that presages Shostakovich and which Bax will later use in the much more noteworthy Violin Concerto. This is a pleasant enough piece but has no great musical value. Indeed, Bax later dismissed it in his autobiographical Farewell My Youth as "...a derivative and formless farrago." It should not be confused with the very much more structured Trio in B flat of 1946.

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