Shield's Trios, written for a continental audience, are seminal works in the composer's output and mark a new level of compositional attainment in the English chamber music repertory.

Technically, they contain a wide variety of ideas which are developed with great ingenuity through a wide range of keys, dynamic contrasts and timbral effects. Aesthetically, they blend 'popular' and 'learned' taste along with 'orchestral' splendour and 18th century notions of beauty.