Composer: Francois Martin (1727-1757)

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I couldn't find very much about Martin other than he was a cellist and he died young.  Wikipedia actually referenced the Op.3 set of trios this piece is a part of.  The only recording I can find of anything by Martin is on a compilation of symphonies called "La Prise de la Bastille: The Music of the French Revolution."  (La Prise de la Bastille = The Storming of the Bastille)  Which is weird because Martin died 30 years before the French Revolution.  So...shrug? 

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This piece is dedicated to the Doc du Gramont and has a message to him in rather archaic French.  My friend Sara gave me an approximate translation, and I think it is kind of funny:

 

"The book that I dare present under your auspices today is less of a tribute worthy of you than an homage that I believe will appeal to your taste for [artists], and the protection you honor them with.  I wouldn't want to excel in mine if only to bestow a most brilliant decoration of my sincere gratitude and the very deep respect I regard you with."

 

Heh.  Suck-up.

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Date: Earsense has this listed as 1746

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Original Instrumentation:  2 violins, cello

 

Movements:    

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1. Adagio

2. Allegro

3. Sarabanda

4. Allegro assai

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Why this one:

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I realized I hadn't done any Baroque music for this project.  I really like the Baroque style and I hadn't done a trio with 2 violins and cello yet.

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Description:  

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Movement 1 - Adagio

Key:  Bm

Time: 3/8  BPM=Eighth =120 

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This slow movement kicks off in B minor with the melody in violin 1 (left) and the violin 2 and cello accompanying, the latter two playing the same rhythmic figures.  It's in a triple meter, 3/8, but almost doesn't feel like it, on account of both the slow tempo and the rhythms which often emphasize beat 2 and keep it from feeling lilting.

 

After the opening theme statement in violin 1, violin 2 joins in and harmonizes with it before the piece modulates to D, the relative major of B minor.  A variation on the opening section now starts in D major with maybe a quick jog into A major before shifting back to B minor for a sort of moody coda to end the movement. 

 

Performance:

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I did the cello part first; it was pretty easy.

 

Violin 1 and violin 2 were recorded in the same session.  It required some concentration but the only really hard part was the very fast descending thing at in both violins (at 1:37 and 1:40).  I fumbled the first take but punched it in pretty easily.

 

Errata:

 

I don't know if this is a general French Baroque convention or a quirk of this particular copyist but throughout this piece flats, rather than naturals, were used to cancel the C# or F# from the key signature.  I'd never seen this notation before.

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Movement 2 - Allegro

Key:  Bm

Time: 2/4  BPM=115  

 

This fast movement starts off in B minor with what seems to me an ten bar theme broken into two parts of 4 and 6 measures each.  The first half, what I'll call 1a, over a G-Bm-Em-Bm (VI-i-iv-i) progression is more rhythmic than melodic with a repeated bah bah duh-duh-bah pattern that will return a lot throughout the movement.  The second half of the theme, 1b, is over a Em-Bm-F#-Bm (iv-i-V-i) progression and is primarily off beat stabs.  Then there's a two bar transition on Em and F# before the theme is restated, with the second part now down an octave in the violins.

 

Part 2 modulates to D major and begins to combine ideas, using both the duh-duh-bah pattern and off beat stabs together, climbing up with the short short long rhythm and then descending on the off beats, cycling through Bm, Em, A, and D.  It then walks back up stepwise from G  to D.   This section closes with a sort of dainty melody followed by a fast run in D in violin 1.  This repeats with the run occurring in violin 2 the second time.

 

After a pause, the opening 1a rhythmic idea comes back again twice, first in D major and then B minor.  The movement introduces a new idea here in F#m with a the violins doing a descending pattern over C# and F#m, the v and i of the new key.  After some more off beat stabs, the descending pattern happens again and then there is a very dramatic walk-up at 1:25 sounds that like The Final Countdown, the 1986 song by Europe.

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The opening theme 1 returns for the finale.  It happens twice followed by what I called the dainty melody and run of Part 2, this time in Bm.

 

The movement ends with a quick tag in Bm.

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Performance:

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No issues with the pretty easy cello part.  

 

If I was going to have trouble with the violins on this piece, it was going to be on this movement.  Both violin parts have tricky timing and position work and one extremely difficult part in 2nd position at the end (at 2:04 in the violin 1), though happily its the same part in both violins.  After fumbling the run pretty badly the first time through, I was going to comp this as it's too fast to punch easily.  Comping is where you run it 4 or 5 times and then assemble it from the different takes, a common technique for vocals.  But then on the 4th pass, I just played it correctly so we just used that entire take.  I should have just done that the first time.  

 

That end run has the same melodic intervals as the one at 0:38, but it's way harder to play in B minor than it is in D.

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Movement 3 - Sarabanda

Key:  Bm

Time: 3/8  BPM= Eighth=120

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A Sarabande is a Baroque triple meter dance.  French sarabandes were "slow and stately" and in the Baroque era sarabande were often the third movement, like it is here.

 

This one's structure is AABB.  The A section is mostly based around a short-short-long rhythmic pattern that starts in violin 1, followed by violin 2, and the cello.  This staggered entrances make the beginning feel almost like a canon.

 

The A section is mostly in B harmonic minor (i.e. B minor scale with a raised 7th, or A#).  The difference between natural minor (regular 7th) and harmonic is subtle but you can really feel how it injects tension it on the long A# in measure 3 (0:04), among other places.  The end of the A section seems like maybe it modulates to F# in the last 4 bars, with the intrusion of a G# in the C# major chord.

 

The B section is harmonically interesting, cycling in fourths through Bm-Em-A-D, before a wakeup with D-E-F#-Bm.  To my ear the key center is a little elusive but the section ends pretty firmly in Bm.

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Performance:

 

A played this one slowly since, as I said above, French sarabandes were slow and Francois Martin was French.  This was by far the easiest of the four movements and I breezed through ti on all there instruments.

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Movement 4 - Allegro assai

Key:  Bm

Time: 2/4  BPM=135

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Allegro Assai translates to "very quick."  This movement is built around a simple rhythmic pattern that shows up in the first measure and repeats multiple times throughout in different keys, starting in the home key of Bm and modulating to D almost immediately.  

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The two violins largely harmonize with each other, mostly in thirds, with some counter motion.  The cello has more support quarter notes than the violins, but there's still quite a bit of motion in it.

 

Performance:

 

As it's marked Allegro Assai, I played this considerable faster than I would play a straight Allegro.  It was fast but not all that difficult.  Nothing really noteworthy happened during the session and I breezed through this pretty easily.

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Errata

 

The score lists this as Allegro Assay but that spelling looks weird to me, so I went with the more standard "assai."

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Album Art:

 

Didn't have much to go on for Francois Martin, so I used this photo of me looking like I'm communing with a T. Rex.  This  was taken at Orlando Science Center.  I think Tony took this.