Frank Martin

FRANK MARTIN is not only the most significant Swiss composer of the twentieth century, but also one of the renowned, interesting figures in the musical culture of his time. Born into a Huguenot family, he was the youngest of the ten children of a Calvinist pastor. Frank Martin started to improvise on the piano prior to his formal schooling, and while studying mathematics and physics at the University of Geneva, he also studied composition with Joseph Lauber. In the 1920s, Martin worked closely with Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, the famous creator of the logarithmic method, from whom he learned much about rhythm and musical theory and taught music theory and improvisation at his institute, as well as at the Geneva Conservatory. He later taught composition at the Cologne University of Music, and founded his own music school (Technicum Moderne de Musique). He established the Chamber Music Society of Geneva which, for the next ten years he conducted, as well as contributing on the clavichord and piano, and in the 1940s he headed the Swiss Musicians' Association. He has received wide international recognition - the highest art awards in Geneva, Paris, North Rhine-Westphalia, the Philadelphia Philharmonic, the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and many others. He is an honorary doctor of the Universities of Geneva, Lausanne, the Roman Academy of Santa Cecilia, an honorary member of the Academies of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna and Graz, a member of the Royal Belgian Academy of Sciences, Literature and Fine Arts. In his work, Frank Martin creates his own original style, using the principles of dodecaphony, but without rejecting the classical tonal system and fills his scores with ingenious rhythmic variety. He has composed in all genres - Requiem, Mass, oratorios ("Golgotha ”,“ In terra pax ” and others.), symphonic and chamber works for various solo instruments and ensembles, vocal works (“Sechs Monologe aus Jedermann”,“Et la vie l'emporta”), the opera Tempest after Shakespeare’s play , a lot of theatrical scores based on religious texts („Le Mystère de la Nativité” and others.). Among his sixteen concert opuses for all instruments, the Petite Symphonie Concertante (for harp, harpsichord, piano and two string orchestras) and the Concerto for seven wind instruments, timpani and other percussion instruments and string orchestra made Martin's international reputation.