Frédérick Martin

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Music has always surrounded me: right from the beginning of my life when I got back from one clinic in Paris where, on the 5th of March in 1958, I was born to this world. Music by Sibelius, Mozart, Shostakovich and Verdi in particular.

As soon as I could speak, I kept on asking my mother to show me the music symbols until one day she agreed to do so. Straightaway, I reproduced these symbols in my exercise books, drawing staves in green ink into them.

Meanwhile we had moved to Africa and I lived there from 1960 to 1972. I went to an english school in Nigeria where the teachers were very strict about dexterity even though I was born a left-hander. Since there weren’t many music schools at the time, I educated myself with what I found in dictionaries and in gleaned scores extracts. Also the incongruous mixture of what I listenend to at home had a deep impact on me: essentially classical and modern repertoire, jazz and the first legendary rock bands. The latter motivated me to become an electric guitar player. But also the music performed by Ivorian or Gabonese musicians, often playing a whole weekend long, during ceremonies of all kinds, just a few blocks away from our pavilion.

Back in France, I decided to compose in a serious way. I had started to compose at the age of 8, smearing in notebooks, eagerly trying to fix sounds. In Paris, I discovered shops that were unknown to me so far, selling treatises of harmony, of counterpoint and scores by thousands of composers of whom I had no knowledge yet, enraging me to broaden my horizon. Thus, I not only bought scores by composers like Mihalovici, Tansman, Martinet, Lemeland, but also introduced myself to and showed them my own attempts. They guided me as you can guide a markerless young fanatic.

I became a copyist for several publishers, even went to work for Ricordi in Freiburg im Breisgau, where I stumbled across Brian Ferneyhough again, whom I had already met in Darmstadt the previous year and whose ideas were then precious to me. In Darmstadt, I also met Wolfgang Rihm, his music philosophy and mine have been very close to this day.

In eleven years, I have inked more than 10,000 pages of orchestral parts, always keeping on learning alone and also taking part as an auditor in the composition class of Nigg and Philippot in the Paris Conservatory from 1979 to 1981. I learnt a lot there, especially as I immersed myself in the Second Viennese School and its satellites. In a certain way, I mastered the twelve-tone composition before tonal harmonizing.

My first string quartet was premiered in Rome in 1984: I only learnt about this a few weeks later. The recording of this concert allowed me to meet Alain Féron, then in charge of musical creation at Radio France, who slated me at once. Things went faster, I received my first commissions, got the Villa Medici visa and then the jury of Ircam pedagogical course accepted my file after the premiere of my Third Cantata at the Royaumont Abbey. I could tackle computers at a higher stage than the one I was used to for the sessions of the rock band I had founded during the 80s.

At Royaumont, I worked with Klaus Huber, Franco Donatoni and Brian Ferneyhough again.

A plane took me to San Diego in 1993, thanks to the Villa Medicis hors les Mur scholarship credited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After arrival, I phoned the person I was supposed to stay with the first days: she had never heard of me! I ended up alone in California at midnight, without a place to stop-off. After a few adventures a la Jack Vance, I once more met Brian Ferneyhough during a short stay at UCSD, before saddling up to San Francisco, a town which won my heart right away.

Back home my life became tougher. My daughter Valentine was born in 1995, affected by a rare genetic syndrome. The shock stopped my career development in an instant. Suddenly I had to earn my life by other means than composing. Having no diploma, since I had left school at the age of 16, I took what heavens sent me. It was not so dreadful: after some interims, I was entrusted with the general services of a press group. I did my best at it. Of course, I kept on composing, often at night, sometimes overcome by the office hours.

In 2003 I published a book upon Black Metal, the first one in France on the topic, called Eunolie, which turned to be instant cult, like the enhanced 2008 edition. By 2006, the cultural department of the French Embassy in Moscow provided me with an Égide mission for a tour in Russia. Rashid Kalimullin, president of the Composers Union of Tatarstan, confided me I was Gengis Khan’s doppelganger.

Luck smiled at me again. The recording of incidental scores to children tales got me three rewards by the Charles Cros Academy. Marne-la-Vallée university offered me a post to teach music writing and arrangement for four years, commissions too were coming back.

2008 saw me becoming a freelance composer again. My music is played by an ever growing inner circle of instrumentalists. I remain outside the usual circuits, but I earn my life with my work. In 2012, I composed more than four hours of music for many instrumental combinations.
Tri par année. Les pièces les plus recentes apparaissent d'abord

Quatuor à Cordes


Sixième Quatuor à Cordes for string quartet (2016)
Septième Quatuor à Cordes for string quartet (2013)
Huitième Quatuor à Cordes for string quartet (2013)
Quatrième Quatuor à Cordes in memoriam Mieczyslaw Weinberg (2010)
Cinquième Quatuor à Cordes pour Régis Campo (2010)
Deuxième Quatuor à Cordes for string quartet (2002)
Stargazer for string quartet (1997)
Premier Quatuor à Cordes for string quartet (1994)

Instruments et électronique


Quintette pour Piano et Cordes for ensemble (2015)
PETRUS PARTITA for ensemble (2011)
2.4 for ensemble (2011)
Holy Mother of the Simple One pour mandoline solo et sept instruments (2011)
VANCE for ensemble (2010)
Celestial Sanctuary for ensemble (2004)
Quintette pour Cuivres for ensemble (1996)

Groupe de Chambre (2 - 4 instruments)


Sixième Quatuor à Cordes for string quartet (2016)
Dialogo tra un matematico e il suo amico invisible pour deux clavecins (2016)
Subliminal Creeds pour deux pianos (2014)
Etude pour les Mystères for ensemble (2014)
Septième Quatuor à Cordes for string quartet (2013)
Huitième Quatuor à Cordes for string quartet (2013)
Serious Voodoo for ensemble (2013)
Sonate pour Alto et Piano for viola and piano (2012)
Feuersbrunst im Nordenhimmel for string trio (2012)
Complément à Marion pour basson et piano (2011)
Complément à Marion (Op.62a) pour saxophone baryton et piano (2011)
Quatrième Quatuor à Cordes in memoriam Mieczyslaw Weinberg (2010)
Sonate pour Violoncelle et Piano for cello and piano (2010)
Ustvolst pour le Trio Polycordes (2010)
Cinquième Quatuor à Cordes pour Régis Campo (2010)
Introduction, Improvisation et Chasse pour Cor, Trompette et Trombone (2010)
Codex Metal pour mandoloncelle et alto (2009)
Lanimino pour tuba (ou euphonium) et accordéon (2007)
Thunder Garden pour trio à cordes et piano (2006)
Quatuor pour cor, violon, violoncelle et piano for ensemble (2005)
Genghis Quartet pour hautbois, trompette, violoncelle et piano (2005)
Scritta di Fausto for mandolin and guitar (2004)
Deuxième Quatuor à Cordes for string quartet (2002)
La Perle pour flûte et piano (2001)
Sonate pour Violon et Piano for violin and piano (1999)
Sonate pour Violon et Violoncelle for violin and cello (1999)
Forlorn Alloy pour piccolo et piano (1997)
Un homme qui ne pleure pas est un homme plein de larmes pour hautbois, basson, alto et clavecin (1997)
Stargazer for string quartet (1997)
Rory pour Quatuor de Saxophones (1995)
Premier Quatuor à Cordes for string quartet (1994)

Instrument Solo


Huitième Sonate pour Piano for piano (2016)
D'une galaxie l'autre pour alto seul (2016)
Hovvagan pour flûte (2016)
To Storm for piccolo clarinet (2015)
Histoire Drôle for piano (2015)
Sonate pour Guitare for guitar (2015)
Seize Petits Préludes for piano (2013)
24 Préludes pour Piano for piano (2013)
Toccata for piano (2012)
Septième Sonate pour Piano for piano (2012)
Cinquième Sonate for piano (2011)
Cinquième Sonate pour Piano pour Lise Baudouin (2011)
De Magia Veteri for guitar (2011)
Sixième Sonate pour Piano pour Nicolas Horvath (2011)
Actes de Paul pour orgue (2010)
3° Sonate pour Piano for piano (2010)
Quatrième Sonate pour Piano Chronique des Analogies (2010)
Heaven Shall Burn In Memoriam Olivier Fiard (2010)
Twisted Lullaby for guitar (2010)
Sonatine pour Piano for piano (2009)
Oceania for accordion (2008)
Les Préludes Enlacés for piano (2007)
Paganista pour alto solo (2006)
La Lune des Chats pour flûte seule (2006)
Deuxième Sonate pour Piano La Chronique de l'Unité (2005)
Le Cinéma Muet for piano (2005)
Première Sonate pour Piano La Chronique de l'Incarnation (2003)
Sonate pour Violon for violin (1998)
Néréides pour flûte (1997)
La Fole blanche pour orgue (1997)
Traité de la Battue Pourpre pour trompette (1997)
Le Sud d'America pour marimba (1996)
To Elder Ruins pour alto solo (1994)

Voix et instruments


Massive Alien Cell for ensemble (2014)
Passio Domini nostri Iesu Christi secundum Ioannem for ensemble (2011)
Salve Regina pour quatre voix féminines et orgue (2009)
Cinq Motets sur des Poèmes de Paul Celan pour soprano, contre-ténor et 10 instruments (1979)

Concerto


Concerto pour Alto et 14 instruments for ensemble (2009)
Concerto pour Piano et Orchestre pour Flore Dupuy (2003)

Opéra


L'Etrange Cas du Dr Jekyll et de Mr Hyde Opéra de chambre (2008)

Voix soliste et accompagnement


Pity the Angels six mélodies pour soprano et piano (2015)
Waging War Like a Lambkin (Delia Faith Ross) (2012)
Feuilles tombées sur des poèmes de Vassili Rozanov (2010)
Tale of the Lyf of Seinte Cecile pour sopraniste et clavecin (2008)
Die linien des lebens for voice and piano (2003)
Like Jehu pour soprano et contrebasse (même instrumentiste) (1996)
...aux nuits blêmes de demain sept poèmes de François Rannou pour huit voix mixtes (2015)
14 juillet automatique pour orchestre d'harmonie et percussions (2014)
2.4 for ensemble (2011)
24 Préludes pour Piano for piano (2013)
3° Sonate pour Piano for piano (2010)
Actes de Paul pour orgue (2010)
Always Make Noise When Someone Sleeps for woodwind quintet (2012)
Always Make Noise When Someone Sleeps (2011)
Ballade d'Amour et de Dame pour clavecin soliste et 9 instruments (2013)
Black Sab pour guitare électrique (2011)
Celestial Sanctuary for ensemble (2004)
Cinq Motets sur des Poèmes de Paul Celan pour soprano, contre-ténor et 10 instruments (1979)
Cinquième Quatuor à Cordes pour Régis Campo (2010)
Cinquième Sonate for piano (2011)
Cinquième Sonate pour Piano pour Lise Baudouin (2011)
Clatterbones pour vibraphone solo et dix instruments (2014)
Codex Metal pour mandoloncelle et alto (2009)
Complément à Marion pour basson et piano (2011)
Complément à Marion (Op.62a) pour saxophone baryton et piano (2011)
Concerto pour Alto et 14 instruments for ensemble (2009)
Concerto pour Piano et Orchestre pour Flore Dupuy (2003)
D'une galaxie l'autre pour alto seul (2016)
De Magia Veteri for guitar (2011)
Deuxième Quatuor à Cordes for string quartet (2002)
Deuxième Sonate pour Piano La Chronique de l'Unité (2005)
Dialogo tra un matematico e il suo amico invisible pour deux clavecins (2016)
Die linien des lebens for voice and piano (2003)
Dulces Brazos del Amado for mixed choir (2012)
Ebony Tales for clarinet ensemble (2010)
Etude pour les Mystères for ensemble (2014)
Feuersbrunst im Nordenhimmel for string trio (2012)
Feuilles tombées sur des poèmes de Vassili Rozanov (2010)
Final Rhapsody pour piano solo, timbales et orchestre à cordes (2012)
Forlorn Alloy pour piccolo et piano (1997)
Genghis Quartet pour hautbois, trompette, violoncelle et piano (2005)
Heaven Shall Burn In Memoriam Olivier Fiard (2010)
Histoire Drôle for piano (2015)
Holy Mother of the Simple One pour mandoline solo et sept instruments (2011)
Hovvagan pour flûte (2016)
Huitième Quatuor à Cordes for string quartet (2013)
Huitième Sonate pour Piano for piano (2016)
ILONA pour tuba soliste et 10 instruments (2003)
Introduction, Improvisation et Chasse pour Cor, Trompette et Trombone (2010)
L'Etrange Cas du Dr Jekyll et de Mr Hyde Opéra de chambre (2008)
La Fole blanche pour orgue (1997)
La Lune des Chats pour flûte seule (2006)
La Perle pour flûte et piano (2001)
Lanimino pour tuba (ou euphonium) et accordéon (2007)
Le Cinéma Muet for piano (2005)
Le Sud d'America pour marimba (1996)
Les Préludes Enlacés for piano (2007)
Like Jehu pour soprano et contrebasse (même instrumentiste) (1996)
Lux Partita pour 12 instruments à vent (2004)
Mapiki pour hautbois solo et neuf instruments (2003)
Massive Alien Cell for ensemble (2014)
Néréides pour flûte (1997)
Oceania for accordion (2008)
Paganista pour alto solo (2006)
Passio Domini nostri Iesu Christi secundum Ioannem for ensemble (2011)
PETRUS PARTITA for ensemble (2011)
Pity the Angels six mélodies pour soprano et piano (2015)
Premier Quatuor à Cordes for string quartet (1994)
Première Sonate pour Piano La Chronique de l'Incarnation (2003)
Quatrième Quatuor à Cordes in memoriam Mieczyslaw Weinberg (2010)
Quatrième Sonate pour Piano Chronique des Analogies (2010)
Quatrième Symphonie pour orchestre de chambre (2012)
Quatuor pour cor, violon, violoncelle et piano for ensemble (2005)
Quintette pour Cuivres for ensemble (1996)
Quintette pour Piano et Cordes for ensemble (2015)
Rory pour Quatuor de Saxophones (1995)
Salve Regina pour quatre voix féminines et orgue (2009)
Scritta di Fausto for mandolin and guitar (2004)
Seize Petits Préludes for piano (2013)
Septième Quatuor à Cordes for string quartet (2013)
Septième Sonate pour Piano for piano (2012)
Serious Voodoo for ensemble (2013)
Sixième Quatuor à Cordes for string quartet (2016)
Sixième Sonate pour Piano pour Nicolas Horvath (2011)
Sonate pour Alto et Piano for viola and piano (2012)
Sonate pour Guitare for guitar (2015)
Sonate pour Violon for violin (1998)
Sonate pour Violon et Piano for violin and piano (1999)
Sonate pour Violon et Violoncelle for violin and cello (1999)
Sonate pour Violoncelle et Piano for cello and piano (2010)
Sonatine pour Piano for piano (2009)
Space Opera Cinquième Symphonie (2013)
Stargazer for string quartet (1997)
Subliminal Creeds pour deux pianos (2014)
Tale of the Lyf of Seinte Cecile pour sopraniste et clavecin (2008)
Thunder Garden pour trio à cordes et piano (2006)
To Elder Ruins pour alto solo (1994)
To Storm for piccolo clarinet (2015)
Toccata for piano (2012)
Traité de la Battue Pourpre pour trompette (1997)
Twisted Lullaby for guitar (2010)
Un homme qui ne pleure pas est un homme plein de larmes pour hautbois, basson, alto et clavecin (1997)
Ustvolst pour le Trio Polycordes (2010)
VANCE for ensemble (2010)
Waging War Like a Lambkin (Delia Faith Ross) (2012)