Sonatine for trumpet and piano (1956)
Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959)

Born in Polička on the Bohemian-Moravian border, Martinů’s early career was as a violinist, presenting recitals with the local string quartet before entering the Prague Conservatory in 1906. Although failing to make his mark in the capital, Martinů pursued a career as a composer in addition to his membership of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. Following further studies in Paris with Suk and Rousell, his international breakthrough came with premières of La Bagarre (1927) and the Concerto for String Quartet (1932), both championed by Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

During the Second World War, Martinů served as the cultural attaché in Paris for the Czechoslovak opposition, enabling Czech artists to seek refuge in France. This led to his music being ‘black-listed’ by the Nazi regime, and he eventually fled to America, taking up a post at the Tanglewood Music Centre. Although he was later offered a professorship in Prague, Martinů mostly resided in New York, teaching at Princeton University and the Mannes School of Music, as well as composing a plethora of chamber music and numerous large-scale works, including several pioneering operas for film, radio and television. Indeed, his facility in writing for almost every instrument and vocal genre marks him out as one the 20th Century’s most prolific composers.

The Sonatine for Trumpet was written in 1956 during a particularly productive time in Martinů’s life in America, which yielded many notable compositions, including the viola sonata, clarinet sonatina and the Fourth Piano Concerto. Although he was interested in the folk music and culture of his homeland, this particular piece draws predominantly on the neo-classical influence of Stravinsky, energized by a powerful, mechanical pulse and strong motivic intensity. Unlike many works in this genre, the piece is written in a single movement, a diminutive sonata-like fragment characterised by a brief development of short musical ideas. Indeed it is the composer’s treatment of the short, opening pattern, rotating around two central pitches, which is indicative of his personal musical voice, slowly expanding the initial statement into thematic material, enhanced by his use of terraced dynamics and intensely rhythmic accompaniment.

The impact of jazz in Martinů’s music is also clear with quirky, syncopated rhythms and grace note embellishments. The straight mute, designed to provide timbral differentiation, also highlights the incisive, sparkling semi-quavers of the second subject, adding colour to the trills and flutter tonguing passages.

Although quite straightforward in its approach to structure, the homophonic, hymn-like ending of the Sonatine is in total contrast to the preceding material. Using conventional cadence progressions and harmonisation, comparisons are inevitably drawn between this finale and that of Hindemith’s Trumpet Sonata (1939). It has been suggested that this ‘choral’ owes much to the influence of Monteverdi, whose music Martinů greatly admired during the 1950s, allowing the single melody line to float over an inherently tonal background in a quasi-religious setting.

© Huw Morgan