Poorhouse International: Catalogue results

	TITLE: L'univers de Frank Martin
	Director: Jaap van Eyck Genre: Music Documentary Format: HD Composer: Frank Martin Contributors: Company: Frank Martin Society Runtime: 52' minutes. ID: 492.

SYNOPSIS

The Swiss composer Frank Martin (1890-1974) was the 10th child of a well to do pastor in Geneva. He showed great musical talent, and we hear his first known composition at the age of nine, celebrating his mother´s birthday. The first encounter with Bach´s ST. MATTHEW PASSION at the age of twelve made him decide to become a composer. After studies in Geneva, he lived in Zurich, Rome and Paris before he returned to Geneva as an accomplished pianist, harpsichord player and teacher. Jaap van Eyck´s documentary cleverly intertwines interviews with his children and grand-children from three marriages with music and archive footage. We hear about a composer who said of himself: “while I came under Schoenberg´s influence, I opposed him with all my musical sensibility”. In Martin´s music the elements of sound, and ‘beauty’ of sound take pride of place as we find out when hearing choral works and chamber music of his. Other contributors include Thierry Fischer, Peter Dijkstra and Thomas Beijer.