Petite symphonie concertante

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Petite symphonie concertante, Op. 54, is an orchestral composition by the Swiss composer Frank Martin, one of his best-known works.

Martin received the commission for the work in 1944, though progress was delayed by work on the oratorio In Terra Pax. The Petite symphonie concertante was completed the following year and received its premiere in

Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, and justifying the work's title of symphonie concertante
. The work gained Martin international recognition.

The Petite symphonie concertante is in two movements, separated by the briefest of pauses. Each movement may then be divided into two 'halves', though the relationship between each part differs considerably between the two: the first comprises a slow introduction of forty-six bars out of which the following Allegro derives all of its motivic material; the second begins with an Adagio which showcases the three solo instruments (harp, piano, then harpsichord) before breaking into a lively march.

The work is

12-tone technique, though in an entirely different way from the composers of the Second Viennese School. A 12-note row is apparent at the opening of the first movement, though Martin treats it as he does any other thematic or motivic material: it appears in various transpositions (all twelve, if fragmentary statements are included) but is never used in inversion, retrograde or retrograde-inversion forms, and is by no means present throughout the work. The row also demonstrates some other characteristic features of the composer's 12-tone technique, including the use of constant rhythmic values, no octave transpositions within the series, and the row's use frequently as an accompanimental ostinato. Later in the movement however, Martin does demonstrate his own take on the technique, common in the music of Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern
and others, of 'telescoping' his row forms, that is, the final note of one statement is also the first of the next at a different transposition, though unlike these composers, Martin only uses fragments of each row form.

The piece was intended for the so-called "revival harpsichord", the large early-20th-century instruments built in the piano tradition by makers such as

Pleyel. It is one of the few pieces in the sinfonia concertante
genre to be composed in the twentieth century. Fearing that the unusual instrumentation of the "Petite symphonie concertante" might limit performances, Martin later rescored the work for a conventional large orchestra (without solo instruments) as the "Symphonie concertante".

Selected recordings

Original version

Rescored version

References

  • David Ewen, Encyclopedia of Concert Music. New York; Hill and Wang, 1959.
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