Frank Martin Ballade for trombone and piano

Frank Martin was a prolific Swiss composer born in 1890 and died in 1974. His composition “Ballade” for trombone and orchestra was written in 1940. The Ballade or Ballata, appeared in the Middle Ages and it was a poem consisting of one or more tripled of stanzas with a repeated refrain. In the romantic period, ballade was a piece of music with dramatic elements typically for solo piano. In the last century this composition becomes a song in jazz, pop and folk music.
Frank Martin's ballade for trombone and orchestra or for trombone and piano, offers several signs of different dances and styles. You feel a little jazz and you also feel tango time. The ballade starts with a “ Largamente” widely, where the trombone plays solo for six measures starting with mezzo forte and growing to forte. The piano overreaches on this forte. At this beginning, I like to think that something very strong is waking up from a long sleep.
A tranquillo arrives quickly. A quiet moment with dolce melodies moves slowly but this has a lot of discomfort, painful mode going on. It continues with a meno dolce and espressivo where legato and short notes as alternate hiccups continue to express a sense of discomfort. He concludes this long opening with a fortissimo exactly as the very beginning but as I said, loud and one octave higher. Low and long notes close everything to sleep again. The Allegro is immediately freaked out, signals of alarm, an almost hell dance begins that collects many styles. After a long time of many contrasts, he concludes the piece with a “ molto largamente” that returns to express pain and discomfort but the end, written with a single Forte, concludes with a beautiful A Major as if the peace finally is reached. I first worked on this piece at the age of 32. I never felt ready before.
Good control of the all trombone range, great use of legato, staccato and dynamics and of course great musical feelings are essential for to express everything that Frank Martin wrote on this trombone masterpiece.
I hope you will enjoy this performance.
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