Etudes pour orchestre à cordes | Etudes pour deux pianos

Etudes pour orchestre à cordes | Etudes pour deux pianos
Etudes for string orchestra | Etudes for two pianos

Year of composition

1955-1956/1957

Duration

20'

Scored for

Original version for string orchestra (1955-1956);
version for 2 pianos: ‘Etudes pour deux pianos’ (1957)

Publication information

Universal Edition: version for string orchestra (UE11191); version for 2 pianos (UE13012)

Commentary

from A propos de… - commentaires de Frank Martin sur ses œuvres (1984):

After so many years spent under the influence of the fairy world of Prospero, like him I felt the need to abandon the charms of magic, if only for a short time; I wanted to try a more sober style of writing, without the prestige of orchestral sonorities. It was an opportunity to keep a promise made long ago to Paul Sacher to write a piece for him for string orchestra, without soloists and without dividing the parts other than doubling them on occasion. It is said that “the road to Hell is paved with good intentions’; and this old promise, which was already hardly more than a ‘good intention’, was about to become another paving stone on the famous road. I had to dig deep, and not without difficulty, because: what can one write for a string orchestra that presents some enigma to the mind? But that is the way I am: to compose I need a basis of something unknown to me; and if it is not a text imposed on me, then I must find some technical problem on which to base the first steps of a new work.
 So I was thinking here of some technical difficulties that I could propose, in a sort of pure state, to a string orchestra, and in particular the BKO (Basler Kammerorchester). This is how I came up with the idea of these Studies. But I must confess that, if they may be a subject of study for stringed ensembles, they were much more so for the composer. For a long time, and especially when I wrote The Tempest, I gladly used the resources available in a large symphony orchestra and in vocal ensembles, both for the variety of timbres and for the infinite possibilities of musical voices. The five voices of the string orchestra, which I only doubled out of necessity, obliged me to use a very strict polyphonic style, and even at times a fugal one; an excellent detoxification for those hooked on magic potions.
 So here are these studies: the first is for the sequence of lines, exposed at first then passing from the cellos to the violas, to the second violins, to the first violins, and then back down the same way; writing essentially for a single voice, or two voices, with much modulation and particularly difficult to execute smoothly and cleanly. The second is for pizzicato, for all kinds of pizzicato, pinched roundly, struck dryly, sliding the thumb like the guitar, the expressive pizzicato, with vibrato and glissando, the light and fast pizzicato. The third is an expressive and sustained moment of rest, for two viola and two cello parts. The fourth finally, is in fugal style, both rhythmic and expressive, in which each player must find his or her rightful place, prominent or modest, and know how to impose as well as to step back without losing the expressive or rhythmic character of each part. In this piece, which has the character, if not the logic, of a fugue with two subjects, I was keen to harmonise the entry of the first and second subjects, in order to conceal what might seem scholastic in these expositions. In its central part, an imitative chorale is based on part of the second subject, inverted or not. A Prelude at the beginning, or an «Intrada», if you wish, to hear the sound of the full orchestra.

Frank Martin

In: Mitteilungen Basler Kamerorchester No 69, 17 November 1956, Alte und neue Musik II, Atlantis Verlag Zürich 1977, pp. 258-259.
English translation by Rachel Ann Morgan

Premiere

World première original version: Basle, 23 November 1956. Paul Sacher, conductor
First performance ‘Etudes pour deux pianos’: Cologne, 9 July 1957 (broadcast); Cologne, 28 October 1957 (public performance): Staatliche Hochschule für Musik. Frank Martin and Alexander Meyer von Bremen, piano

Recordings (selective list)

  • Version for string orchestra
    Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
    Ernest Ansermet, conductor
    DECCA PY 925 ℗ 1961 © 1996 (FMS074)

  • Version for string orchestra
    Chamber Orchestra of Europe
    Thierry Fischer, conductor
    DG 435 383-2 ℗ 1992 (FMS142)

  • Version for string orchestra
    London Philharmonic Orchestra
    Matthias Bamert, conductor
    CHANDOS CHAN 9283 ℗ + © 1994 (FMS116)

  • Version for string orchestra
    Münch Chamber Orchestra
    Hans Stadlmair, conductor
    KOCH CLASSICS 3-6732-2 ℗ + © 1999 (FMS178)

  • Version for string orchestra
    Arion Ensemble
    Alexandru Lascae, conductor
    Ottavo OTR C109459 © 1997 (FMS051)
    Musikszene Schweiz - MGB CTS-M 69 ℗ + © 2000 (FMS110)

  • Version for 2 pianos
    ’Frank Martin Piano Music’
    Julie Adam and Christine Logan, pianos
    ABC Classics 4762601 ℗ + © 2005 (FMS103)

  • Version for 2 pianos
    Duo Beersheva: Sarah Fuxon & Bart Berman, pianos
    GALLO CD-633 ℗ + © 1991 (FMS182)

  • Version for string orchestra
    Camerata Bern
    Ana Schumachenko, conductor
    SUISA CTS-M 69 ℗ + © 2000 (FMS036+FMS177)

  • Version for string orchestra
    I Musici
    Philips 426 669-2 ℗1967 + © 1990 (FMS038)

  • Version for string orchestra
    New Century Chamber Orchestra
    Stuart Canin, conductor
    New Albion Records NA086CD ℗ + © 1996 (FMS128)

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