Correspondence of Bohuslav Martinů

The correspondence between Bohuslav Martinů and Frank Rybka is another volume of correspondence between the composer and his colleagues and friends. It often surprises with its immediacy, openness and ease with which the composer asked for advice and help and described everyday events. Frank Rybka was a friend of the composer from his youth and from the 1940s onwards belonged to his closest circle. Frank Rybka helped the Martinůs with their new life in the United States after their arrival in March 1941. He arranged accommodation, transport, books and new contacts for them, helped negotiate fees and find performers, and also provided Bohuslav Martinů with an alibi during his holiday trips. This helpful role is also emphasised in a unique letter from Martinů’s friend Rosalie Barstow. This first volume of correspondence with Frank Rybka reflects the creation and performance of a number of Bohuslav Martinů’s compositions. It documents the complicated search for a soloist for Cello Concerto No. 2, the title of the composition Thunderbolt P-47, Martinů’s initial ideas and work on the opera Mirandolina, and his reflections on a theme based on Dostoevsky’s novel The Demons. Beneath the seemingly light surface lie many dramatic events that accompanied the composer and his wife Charlotte in the years 1941–1954.

The extensive collection of Bohuslav Martinů’s correspondence with his family in Polička is an exceptionally valuable historical source documenting not only the professional side of the composer’s life, but also his thoroughly personal life. This fourth part of the multi-volume edition presents a collection of 53 written documents. It includes all known letters and one postcard sent by the composer and his wife to his mother and siblings in Polička in 1936 and 1937. It allows the reader to follow an important period in the life of this exceptional composer in an authentic presentation, supplemented by extensive notes. The individual letters provide valuable information about dealings with publishers and politicians, correspondence and personal meetings with colleagues and friends, and, of course, about compositions and the difficulties or successes encountered in performing them on stages around the world and at home. More than anywhere else, however, Bohuslav Martinů appears here as a “man of flesh and blood”, with everyday worries and joys. His personal correspondence with his closest friends and family thus helps to complete the overall picture of the composer’s life and work and is an imaginary “umbilical cord” – an irreplaceable link between foreign countries and home.

This monograph is the third volume in a series devoted to Bohuslav Martinů’s correspondence with his family in Polička. This volume contains 56 correspondence documents from 1934 and 1935. The correspondence is one-sided, with only B. Martinů’s letters to his family having been preserved. Nevertheless, these documents contain unique authentic messages in which Martinů himself comments on his life and professional career, sharing his information, intentions and attitudes with his closest family members, but often also with a wider circle of friends in Polička and Czechoslovakia through them. The letters are presented in Czech in diplomatic transcription, including facsimiles, and are supplemented with notes. The monograph is written in Czech and English.

This monograph is the second volume in a series devoted to the correspondence between Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů and his family in Polička. It contains 56 items of correspondence (letters, postcards) from 1932 and 1933. This is one-sided correspondence; only Bohuslav Martinů’s letters to his mother and siblings have been preserved, in which Martinů himself comments on his life and professional career, primarily to communicate his information, intentions and attitudes to his closest family members, but often also to a wider circle of friends in Polička and Czechoslovakia through them. In the Czech version, Martinů’s handwritten letters are presented in the form of a diplomatic transcription, i.e. in a form as close as possible to the original, and the publication also contains facsimiles of the letters. The letters are supplemented with notes.

The monograph consists of a set of correspondence with Miloš Šafránek, a Czech diplomat, music journalist, Martinů’s biographer, and a promoter of his work. The volume contains the diplomatic transcriptions of 168 letters, six postcard, five postal cards, one telegram, and one lettercard from the period of 1928-1959. The vast majority of the correspondence is unilateral, addressed to Šafránek, only two of the items were sent by Šafránek. The method of diplomatic transcription, chosen by the authors of the edition, respects the peculiarities of Martinů’s linguistic expression. Comprehensive annotations provide historical context and illustrate the political circumstances of the most tumultuous years of the twentieth century, but they also comment on the genesis of compositions.

This monograph is the first volume of a planned series devoted to the correspondence between Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů and his family in Polička. This volume contains 61 of the oldest correspondence documents (letters, postcards, and telegrams) from the period between his student years at the Prague Conservatory in 1906–1910 and the end of 1931. The correspondence is one-sided; only Bohuslav Martinů’s letters to his family have been preserved, as the composer did not archive the letters he received due to the large volume of his correspondence. Nevertheless, these documents contain unique authentic messages in which Martinů himself comments on his life and professional career. The letters are presented in the form of a diplomatic transcript and supplemented with notes.

The collection of correspondence with Miloš Šafránek, Czech diplomat, music journalist, promoter of the work and biographer of B. Martinů, contains diplomatic transcripts of 168 letters, six postcards, five correspondence cards, one telegram and one cover letter from the period 1928–1959. Most of the correspondence is one-sided, addressed to M. Šafránek, with only two items sent by M. Šafránek. The authors of the edition respect the specifics of Martinů’s linguistic expression, which is why they chose the method of diplomatic transcription of the letters. The entire text is supplemented by extensive notes, which not only shed light on the historical context and political situation during the most turbulent years of the 20th century, but also comment on the genesis of the works and the circumstances surrounding the performance, recording, and publication of Martinů’s compositions.

The letters written by composer Bohuslav Martinů to poet Miloslav Bureš in the late 1950s are key to understanding the collaboration between the two authors. They document the creation of a loose cycle of four cantatas, The Opening of the Springs, Legend of the Smoke from Potato Tops, Romance of the Dandelions, and Mikeš from the Mountains, and reveal their further plans, which were never realized. The correspondence also illustrates the difficulty of communication across the Iron Curtain during the 1950s. The hidden meanings and allegories Martinů used to hint at his views so that his letters would escape censorship are explained in detailed commentary by the editors. The book captures Martinů's distinctive literary style in its authentic form without corrections or edits, provides facsimiles of the letters, and reveals parallels in letters to family, friends, and performers.

This annotated critical bilingual edition of Bohuslav Martinů's letters to Zdeněk Zouhar from 1945–1949 makes the collection of letters available for the first time, thereby expanding existing knowledge about the composer’s work and clarifying traditional but inaccurate information. It clarifies the development of B. Martinů’s compositions, his interpretative ideas, his attitudes at the time, and his views on Moravian musical folklore. Previously unpublished correspondence and pictorial documents are cited here for the first time.