Trois Chants de Noël

Trois Chants de Noël
pour soprano, flûte et piano (ou orgue) | Three Christmas songs for flute, voice and piano (or organ)

Year of composition

1947

Duration

6'

Scored for

flute, voice and piano (or organ)

Publication information

Universal Edition: version with piano (UE13486); version with organ (UE30457)

Text(s)

Albert Rudhardt (1894-1944)

Commentary

Trois Chants de Noël
The Trois Chants de Noël (Three Christmas Carols) were composed in 1947 on texts by Albert Rudhardt (a Geneva poet with whom Frank Martin wrote La Nique à Satan, a popular show, in 1930-1932), as a Christmas present for our daughter Françoise, then 15 years old and endowed with a pretty soprano voice and myself, flutist. These songs remained for a long time reserved for family use. However, Ellen Bosenius, singer in Cologne, performed them several times with the composer and me in various German cities. They were published and at the same time translated into German and English in 1962.

Text by Maria Martin (Disc cover Iramac 6520) and published in A propos de… commentaires de Frank Martin sur ses œuvres (Neuchâtel, 1984) | English translation by Rachel Ann Morgan

Premiere

First performance: Amsterdam, Christmas 1947. Françoise Martin, soprano; Maria Martin, flute; Frank Martin, piano

Recordings (selective list)

  • ‘La bonne Chanson’
    Anne Sofie von Otter, soprano
    Andreas Alin, flute
    Bengt Forsberg, piano
    DG 447 752-2 ℗ 1996 (FMS034)

  • ‘Frank Martin interprète Frank Martin’
    Elly Ameling, soprano
    Pieter Odé, flute
    Frank Martin, piano
    Jecklin-Disco JD 563-2 ℗ + © 1989 (FMS032)

  • Simone Stock, soprano
    Klaus Durrer, flute
    Alois Koch, organ
    Musiques Suisse MGB CD 6259 ℗ + © 2007 (FMS077)

  • Kathrin Graf, soprano
    Peter-Lukas Graf, flute
    Michio Kobayashi, piano
    Claves CLF 0604-9 © 1989 + ℗ 1995 (FMS102)

  • Jacqueline Delman, soprano
    Gunilla von Bahr, flute
    Lucia Negro, piano
    BIS -CD-71 © 1975 + ℗ 1996 (FMS104)

  • ‘If the owl calls again’
    Christianne Stotijn, mezzo soprano
    Toon Fret, flute
    Joseph Breinl, piano
    WARNER Classics 5054196393755 ℗ + © 2014 (FMS157)

  • Erika Makino, soprano
    Patrick Gallois, flute
    Jörg Demus, piano
    DEMUSICA 15 ℗ 1996 (FMS054)

  • Susanne Thomas-Martin, soprano
    Irmgard Toepper, flute
    Miroslav Kroupa, piano
    CANTATE C 58013 ℗ + © 2000 (FMS180)

< Previous page