Death of noted Swiss composer

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33741, 14 January 1975, Page 4

Death of noted Swiss composer

Frank Martin, the distinguished Swiss composer, resident in the Netherlands since 1946, has died at Naarden at the age of 84. He wrote in a style that was convincingly individual, and wholly fastidious. His most notable works, the dramatic oratorio Le Vin herbe on the Tristan legend, and several concertos are imaginative enough to place him high in the ranks of twentieth-century composers. He was born on September 15, 1890, at Geneva, and studied there with Joseph Lauber. After a period of further study in Paris, Rome and Zurich, he returned to his home city to found and become the keyboard player with the Societe de Musique de Chambre. From 1928 i until 1938 he taught at the

Dalcroze Institute, and from , 1950 to 1955 at the Cologne i Conservatory. Martin began composing at an early age, mostly ; chamber works and songs, strongly influenced by Ravel : and Faure. Later, he began to take note of the Schpenbergian revolution, and, without fully subscribing to the full implications of the 12-note school’s aesthetics, ’ applied them to his own music in several works written during the 19305. His style became really marked and individual with Le Vin herbe (1942), which combines 12-note technique with conventional harmony and employs for the first time Martin’s method of sub-dividing his vocal forces to represent different characters and concepts.