ISBN: 978-80-244-6362-9 | ISBN online: 978-80-244-6363-6 | DOI: 10.5507/pdf.23.24463629

Drazí IV / Dear all IV

Dopisy Bohuslava Martinů rodině v Poličce z let 1936 a 1937 / Bohuslav Martinů's letters to his family in Polička in 1936 and 1937

Jaromír Synek, Gabriela Všetičková

Bohuslav Martinů's extensive correspondence to his family in Polička is an extraordinarily valuable set of historic documents that testifi both to the composer's professional career and to his entirely private life. This fourth volume of the series compries 53 items of his family correspondence. This includes all the extant letters and one postal card that the composer and his wife sent home to Martinů's mother and siblings in Polička in the years 1936 and 1937. It allows the reader to follow a significant period in the lif of this exceptional artistic personality through his authentic personal testimony, supplemented with detailed annotations. The individual letters contain valuable information of his dealings with publishers and politicians, of his correspondence and conversations with colleagues and friends, and of course, of his compositions and the peaks and pitfalls of his efforts to have them performer on stages both at home and abroad. However, more than anywhere else, Bohuslav Martinů appears here as a man "of flesh and blood", with ordinary troubles and joys. His personal correspondence with those closest to him thus helps complete the overall picture of the life and work of the composer and is a metaphorical "umblicial cord" - a unique bridge connecting life abroad with that at home.

1. edition, Published: 2023, online: 2023, publisher: Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci, Křížkovského 8, 771 47 Olomouc