WELCOME
This site is dedicated to the music and life of the composer Frank Martin.
(Geneva CH 1890 – 1974 Naarden NL)
Welcome
News
We invite you to visit an extensive database of his Works.
Read more about Frank Martin’s life in the Biographical timeline and the biographies (ENG/FR/NL) or take a look in Photos for a pictorial history of his life. The web page Videos contains interviews with musicians and other experts.
Select Calendar for a selective list of future performances of his music; a simple list of past and future concerts can be found on the page | 2025 | .
In Articles you can find the guides Celebrating his Music / Célébrer sa musique, articles and additional information as published in the bulletins of the Frank Martin Foundation.
If you are looking for specific information, we hope you find it on this site. If you would like to obtain additional information or communicate with us, please get in touch by using the Contact page.
Thierry Fischer © Marco Borggreve
Read the new article
Frank Martin & Johann Sebastian Bach – Two kindred composers
(September 2025)
In April/May 2025 the brand-new Suite Die blaue Blume received its world première. The Dutch composer Bart Visman created a suite concertante for chamber orchestra, based on Martin’s manuscript.
The concert in Amsterdam was live broadcast by the Dutch Radio (NTR). This recording can still be listened to via npoklassiek.nl.
The world première of the complete ballet Die blaue Blume (1936) was given in Geneva in October 2024, also conducted by Thierry Fischer.
Read the article Die blaue Blume – a ballet in a desk drawer (ENG/NL) about the rejection of this ballet.
Frank Martin
« Chercher à créer de la beauté est un acte d’amour. »
« Seeking to create beauty is an act of love. »
Introduction
Frank Martin was born in Geneva, the city of Calvin, in 1890, as son of an influential pastor and the youngest of ten children. He is without doubt, with Arthur Honegger, the most important Swiss composer of the 20th century. On hearing Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion at the age of twelve, his vocation was determined. His only teacher was the composer Joseph Lauber, who introduced him to the postromantic repertoire. Initially he was a supporter of neo-classicism following Ravel’s idiom. But in the 1930s, under the influence of the twelve-note technique, Martin developed a very personal and more daring style which is very chromatic, but whose main lines are always linked to the idea of an enlarged tonality.
Characteristic of Martin’s style of composition is an extreme lyricism, where melodic lines, often very pronounced and intense, are supported by constantly changing harmonies. Neither tonal nor atonal in the strict sense, his music demonstrates a most original response to the question which concerned all of the most important composers of the 20th century.
His sense of humour, his open-minded attitude to jazz music and, at the end of his life, to pop music, reveal Martin as a composer who eluded all the great ‘schools’ of 20th-century music. He was able to avoid the avant-garde’s obligations and thus to follow his own path.
Alain Corbellari
Introduction
Né en 1890 à Genève, Frank Martin est le fils d’un pasteur influent de la cité de Calvin et le dernier d’une fratrie de dix enfants. Il est sans doute, avec Arthur Honegger, le compositeur suisse le plus marquant du XXe siècle. À l’âge de douze ans, l’audition de la Passion selon saint Matthieu de Bach décide de sa vocation. Son seul maître sera le compositeur Joseph Lauber, qui lui fait découvrir la musique post-romantique. Tout d’abord adepte d’un néo-classicisme d’obédience ravélienne, Martin évolue, dans les années 1930, sous l’influence du dodécaphonisme, vers un style très personnel et plus torturé, fortement chromatique, mais dont les lignes de force restent toujours liées à l’idée d’une tonalité élargie.
Son écriture est caractérisée par un lyrisme intense, dont les lignes mélodiques, très apparentes et volontiers véhémentes, sont soutenues par des accords constamment changeants de la basse : ni atonale ni tonale au sens strict, sa musique représente une solution très originale au problème que se sont posé tous les compositeurs importants du XXe siècle.
Son goût de l’ironie, ainsi que son ouverture au jazz et même, à la fin de sa vie, à la musique pop font de Martin un compositeur échappant à toutes les grandes écoles de la musique du xxe siècle et qui a toujours su éviter les diktats de l’avant-garde pour se frayer sa propre voie.
Alain Corbellari
Frank Martin
Celebrating his Music!
The introduction above is taken from Frank Martin – Celebrating his Music. This guide re-examines his oeuvre through the eyes and ears of today. Please visit the page articles to browse or download this guide (edition 2025).
Frank Martin
Célébrer sa musique!
L’introduction ci-dessus est tirée de Frank Martin – Célébrer sa musique. Ce guide réexamine son œuvre à travers les yeux et oreilles d’aujourd’hui. Veuillez consulter la page « articles » pour parcourir ou télécharger ce guide (édition 2025).
l’Univers de Frank Martin
On 21 November 2024 it was 50 years ago that the composer Frank Martin died.
Almost every day his music is heard at the major concert venues across the world.
But his name is known only to a relatively small audience.
We cordially invite you to view the documentary about the life and work of Frank Martin.
A personal portrait of a captivating and inspired man.
avec sous-titres en français
met Nederlandse ondertiteling
ook beschikbaar via NPO Start
with subtitles in English
Subscribe to the monthly newsletter ‘Frank Martin up-to-date’.
INTERVIEW
Thierry Fischer
The internationally renowned Genevan conductor Thierry Fischer is passionate about Frank Martin’s music. For many years he has actively promoted the composer in Switzerland and abroad. He is artistic director of The Frank Martin Odyssey, a voyage of discovery into Martin’s entire oeuvre, 50 years after the composer’s death.
In this interview Thierry Fischer describes how he became acquainted with Frank Martin’s music, and where he believes the outstanding quality of his music lies.
Visit our web page Videos for more videos and short films in the series ‘60 seconds’
with Maria Martin, Elly Ameling, Nicolas Bolens, Hans van Manen, Thomas Beijer, Javier Somoza,
Vera Beths, Volker Hempfling, Ria Bollen, Michel Khalifa, Maria Milstein, Daniel Reuss and Leo Samama.
Maria Martin
Daniel Reuss
Maria Milstein
Nicolas Bolens
Volker Hempfling
Javier Somoza
Elly Ameling
Michel Khalifa
Vera Beths
Thomas Beijer
Ria Bollen
Leo Samama
Alain Corbellari
Hans van Manen
Thierry Fischer
“When I play the ‘Polyptyque’ by Frank Martin I feel the same responsibility,
the same exaltation as when I play Bach’s Chaconne.”