Charlotte Martine: The Making of an Accompanist – Treatise

A Treatise submitted to the College of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Music.

Charlotte Martin was at the piano as the legendary Lotte Lehmann coached Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, and Christa Ludwig at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California. Formerly a student of such renowned teachers as Alfred Cortot and Nadia Boulanger, Martin collaborated with some of the greatest singers of this century during her earliest work as a professional accompanist.

Martin grew to love accompanying and soon came to recognize its substantive nature –the art of accompanying. Later she would share her love and her expertise in accompanying with hundreds of people through her recordings for Educo Records (over fifty recordings, including Piano Accompaniments for Singers and The Art of Accompanying).

Martin was a successful concert artist who stumbled into the field of accompanying because she sight-read extremely well. She later pursued it despite warnings that it would hinder her solo career. Instead of finding accompanying a hindrance, Martin experientially recognized its many benefits. Though she was already a successful solo pianist, her playing reached even deeper levels of maturity as a direct result of her accompanying experiences.

Chapter II presents “The Early Years,” including the time Martin spent studying in the Mexican Conservatory, the Ecole Normale de Musique, and at the Longy School of Music. Chapter III, “The Solo and Collaborative Artist,” follows the rise of Martin’s career as a solo artist and her immersion into the art song and aria literature. Chapter IV, “Influences and Ideas,” presents Martin’s thoughts concerning how others have influenced her, and her ideas about the art of collaboration. The information for this treatise was collected through a series of personal interviews with Charlotte Martin.

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