Michael Hagleitner:
Lecture to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Frank Martin (1890-1974), with audio/visual examples.

The reception of Frank Martin’s music has altered since his death: during his lifetime, it was especially the works composed from 1938 onwards that attracted interest, after his exploration of dodecaphony, whereas in recent decades Martin’s most-performed pieces have been compositions from the first half of his life. This lecture will explore the development of his unmistakable personal style, which combines aspects of impressionism, twelve-tone music and neoclassicism, and can therefore be understood as a synthesis of the principal movements of early modernism.

While building a bridge between Frank Martin’s (modally influenced) earlier works – as his most widely-performed compositions today – and the music of his mature style, the lecture will also illuminate the role of the twelve-tone technique in this development. The speaker will also present insights gained from his work at the Alban Berg Foundation, for example from Alban Berg’s correspondence with Ernest Ansermet, who initiated the growth of Martin’s home city of Geneva into “a veritable Berg city” (Erwin Stein, UE, 1934), which inspired Martin’s exploration of dodecaphony.

21 November 2024, 6 p.m., Österreichische Gesellschaft für Musik [Austrian Music Society], Hanuschgasse 3, 1010 Vienna