The Role of The Instruments
The piano trios of Haydn are dominated by the piano part. The violin only plays the melody a certain amount of the time, and is often doubled by the piano when it does. The cello part is very much subordinated, usually just doubling the bass line in the piano. Charles Rosen discusses and defends this asymmetry, relating it to the sonority of the instruments of Haydn's day: the piano was fairly weak and "tinkling" in tone, and benefited from the tonal strengthening of other instruments.
Read more about this topic: List Of Piano Trios By Joseph Haydn
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