The Sylvan Trio–a chamber ensemble of Michelle Chang, soprano, Tom Reicher, horn, and David Neuman, piano—is dedicated to the exploration and performance of songs, principally “art songs,” that were composed or arranged for this unique combination. A simple definition of an “art song” is that it is a poem set to music, and it may be distinguished from songs in general because typically the words of the poem are at least the equal of the music of the composer. It has been said that the composer’s task in an art song is to give the poem a “heightened existence” through not only the song’s melody but also through the accompaniment of the piano and, in the case of the Trio, the horn.
The Sylvan Trio takes its name from the forest associations of the horn. Called “Waldhorn” (“forest horn”) in German, the horn traditionally has been the voice of the hunt, of the forest, of the mountains, and, more broadly, of rural life. A number of the songs in the Trio’s repertoire exploit these associations.
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