Untitled discussion
mgoetze: Could someone provide references for the supposed influence of jazz and Czech folk music? Clearly he was more influenced by baroque music, and looked up to other famous Czech composers such as Dvorak.
- La Revue de Cuisine is probably his most notable jazzy piece (one of the movements is a Charleston) - there are quite a few others. Folk music I'm not sure about off the top of my head, but I'd be surprised if some of his early works didn't use folksy elements. The baroque influence came later, I think, from about the 1930s. I'll fiddle with the article a bit. --Camembert
- Looking around a bit, it seems the folk music influence may have come out in the 30s, about the same time as the concerto grosso influence kicked off. I have a feeling the second piano concerto gets quite folksy in places - I'm going to dig out a recording of it and listen later tonight. I'm wondering about this reference to Debussy now, but presumably the person who put it in there knew what they were talking about. --Camembert
- mgoetze: I have no objection to the Debussy reference, can't point to a specific piece but ISTR seeing him mentioned prominently in some bios. Are you sure the double concerto is specifically for two string orchestras? One of the earliest "neobaroque" pieces seems to be the Concerto for Sring Quartet and Orchestra of 1931.
- Yes, I'm pretty sure the Double Concerto is for two groups of strings: that's the "double" part of it. Ken Thompson's Dictionary of 20th Century Composers (which is really a catalogue of various composers' works) says it is "for two string orchestras, piano and timpani". On folk music and Debussy, Britannica Concise's article [1] says "His early pieces combined the influences of Czech folk music and French composer Claude Debussy's music". Judging from his catalogue, interest in folk music continued into later years: there's the Variations on a Slovak Folk Song (1959) for cello and piano, and the Three Czech Dances (1949) for two pianos, for example. (I couldn't find my recording of the second pf concerto, by the way) --Camembert
Geffers: Does anyone remember the details about the Ken Russell film about Martinu. I seem to recall a woman at a sewing machine, and a lighthouse.
Martinu's Debussy and Czech folk influences
I wrote my Master's thesis a couple years ago on Martinu. I can vouch for the Debussy and Czech influences. The ballet Istar, for example, exhibits some Debussyian influence with regard to timbral choices. He also included folk tunes in his earlier stuff--before as early as the 1910s--though I can't remember any specific pieces he put them in off the top of my head. There are two very good resources that will back me up on both points. The best one is Safranek's biography "Bohuslav Martinu," which has been translated into English, and the other is Brian Large's biography "Martinu." Happy reading!
Mediafiles
Could someone please doublecheck the media files?
I have the scores of the Sonata No2 for Cello and Piano and checked against:
http://www.martinu.cz/katalog/showitem.php?idcatalogue=201&language=en
but the ogg (1,2,3 movement for sonata No2) file contains something different?
The Opening of the Wells
The Opening of the Wells (Otvírání studánek, 1955) - cantata cyclus. --Snek01 14:22, 16 November 2006 (UTC)
Separate page for works
I have created List of works by Bohuslav Martinů as a separate page for Bohuslav Martinů's works. If there are no objections, I will remove the works from this page and place them on that one. Asmeurer (talk • contribs) 23:08, 29 January 2007 (UTC) See also this discussion. Asmeurer (talk • contribs) 23:18, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
Media
Can anyone explain me, how works of Martinu, who died less 70 (even less then 50!) years ago, can be free to be included here? Thanks, Okino 14:44, 11 April 2007 (UTC)
- Unless I am mistaken, the recordings come from Pandora Records. Asmeurer (talk ♬ contribs) 21:07, 14 April 2007 (UTC)