20th century
Baroque
Classical
Romantic
20th century
21st century
Solo repertoire
Piccolo
Alto flute
Bass flute
Martin Frank
Aitken, Robert
Amirov, Fikret
Amlin, Martin
Amram, David
Andriessen, Jurriaan
Arnold, Malcolm
Arrieu, Claude
Auric, Georges
Babbit, Milton
Bacchus, Peter
Bacri, Nicolas
Baker, Michael Conway
Baksa, Robert
Barber, Samuel
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Bartók, Béla Viktor János
Baton, René-Emmanuel
Beaser, Robert
Bennet, Richard Rodney
Berg, Gunnar
Berio, Luciano
Bernofsky, Lauren
Bernstein, Leonard
Bloch, Ernest
Bolling, Claude
Bon, Maarten
Bonis, Mel
Boughton, Rutland
Boulanger, Marie-Juliette
Boulez, Pierre
Bourdin, Roger
Bournonville, Armand
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Bozza, Eugène Joseph
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Yun, Isang
Zgraja, Krystof
Ballade for Flute and Piano
Ballade for Flute and Piano
Frank Martin: Ballade for Flute and Piano was written in 1939 as a mandatory audition piece for a Geneva competition. André Jaunet, who became one of the most influential flutists of the century, won the first prize at this event. While Jaunet premiered the Ballade in the context of the competition, Martin's wind writing was also heavily influenced by the "French sound" championed by Marcel Moyse.
Ernest Ansermet arranged a version for flute and full orchestra in 1939, while Martin himself arranged it for flute, string orchestra, and piano in 1941, which was premiered in Basel the same year.
Overall, Frank Martin has written six Ballades for various solo instruments and piano, where the soloist has the role of a storyteller.
In 1939, Martin worked on this and other Ballades during the summer of 1939 on the island of Oléron, a time marked by the lead-up to World War II and personal grief following the death of his first wife, Irène Gardian. This was the year when he realized his mature, individual style and his ability to reconcile twelve-tone serialism with a tonal hierarchy.
In 2008, his widow, Maria Martin, discovered a previously unknown manuscript in a cupboard. This turned out to be the Deuxième Ballade, an arrangement for flute that Martin had made from his 1938 saxophone ballade. It is speculated that he may have originally considered this longer, 13-minute version for the 1939 Geneva competition before settling on the more compact version we know today.
Eliko Akahori (piano), 2013, live performance at The Chapel at the Riverside Church
Ballade
Francesco Piemontesi (piano), Strings of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, 2012, Musiques Suisses / MIGROS / iMusician Digital AG
Ballade
Martin Frank
Frank Martin (1890-1974) was a Swiss composer who achieved international stature by synthesizing the harmonic innovations of Arnold Schoenberg with the rhythmic vitality and tonal sensibilities of the French tradition. He is regarded as a master of refined, aristocratic expression and structural logic.
Born in Geneva, Martin was the youngest of ten children in a family of French Huguenot descent. His father, Charles Martin, was a prominent Calvinist minister, a background that deeply influenced Frank's philosophical and ethical approach to composition.
His formal musical education began relatively late, yet he was composing by age eight. A transformative moment occurred at age twelve when he heard a performance of J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, which became the lifelong foundation of his musical faith and contrapuntal rigor.
To satisfy his family's wishes, he spent two years studying Mathematics and Physics at the University of Geneva. However, he simultaneously studied piano and composition privately with Joseph Lauber, a student of Massenet, who introduced him to the French Impressionist school.
In the 1920s, Martin worked closely with Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, becoming a teacher of Eurhythmics. This experience profoundly sharpened his complex rhythmic language and sense of musical timing.
By the late 1930s, he developed a unique method of incorporating twelve-tone rows while maintaining a firm tonal grounding.
From 1946 until his death, he lived in the Netherlands, where he taught at the Cologne Academy of Music. His pupils included the noted composer Karlheinz Stockhausen.
Frank Martin is mostly known for his orchestral works. His Petite Symphonie Concertante (1944) helped to gain international recognition.