5 Songs of Ariel for mixed a-cappella choir was composed in 1950. In it, Frank Martin used lyrics from Shakespeare's The Tempest to set them to music.

The characteristic idiom of his music isthe product of an emphatic endeavor constructively to extend the scope of conventional tonality by his judicious exploration of elements of twelve-tone technique. One feature of Martin's oeuvre, then, is his passionate dedicationto the reconciliation of opposing extremes.<