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1. Tedium – Moderato tedioso
2. Nonchalance – Allegretto indifferente e insolente
3. Lethargy & Denial – Adagio letargico / Veloce (scoppi di diniego)
4. Futile Frustration – Presto con frustrazione inutile
4. Aimlessness – Allegro girovagando
5. Frivolity – Allegro frivolo
This trio was written as a musical burlesque. Its composition began in 1973 with a representation of tedium and nonchalence, but it gradually developed into a five-sided character study of apathy. The first movement is based on two ideas remarkable for their complete lack of musical interest. In fact, the composer felt the opening motive was so astonishingly dull that he refrained from subjecting it to any variation for fear of provoking interest. In the ‘devil may care’ second movement, the clarinet gropes after keys in slipshod fashion while the horn blows shameless raspberries. The third movement evokes melancholic torpor punctuated by outbursts of denial. The mercifully brief fourth movement is given over to pointless frustration, and the movement that follows is an exercise in going nowhere quickly. The sixth movement exhibits its frivolity by the mocking use of ‘serious’ compositional techniques such as the twelve-note row and canon. The end of the trio comes as a surprise, the music having captured in just ten minutes a suggestion of eternity.