Bohuslav Martinu
Bohuslav Martinu (December 8, 1890 - August 28, 1959) was a Czech composer.Martinu studied briefly at the Prague Conservatory (before being dismissed for "incorrigible negligence") and later continued to study on his own. His music was influenced by Czech folk music, American jazz as well as some of the great composers of his time - Claude Debussy and Igor Stravinsky.
He left Czechoslovakia for Paris in 1923, although he retained many links with his birthplace. When the German army approached Paris early in the Second World War he fled, first to the south of France, and then to the United States in 1941.
Martinu was a very prolific composer, writing almost 400 pieces. He isn't as well-known as his countryman, Leos Janacek, but several of his works are still performed, among them his choral work, The Epic of Gilgamesh (1955); his symphonies, particularly the sixth; his concertos, including those for cello, oboe and five for the piano; and his chamber music.
In His Own Words
"The artist is always searching for the meaning of life, his own and that of mankind, searching for truth. A system of uncertainty has entered our daily life. The pressures of mechanisation and uniformity to which it is subject call for protest and the artist has only one means of expressing this, by music." - Bohuslav MartinuEncyclopedia, to the preachings of Rousseau, Mably, d'Holbach, Raynal,
thinks the last hour has come. "We feel the breath of a
current, and possibly this form of government, already in some minds,
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in 1762, notices a deluge of pamphlets, tracts and political
In 1765, Walpole states.html">states that the atheists, who then monopolize
formidable word.html">word, that of citizen, imported by Rousseau, has entered
as they would a cockade. "As a friend and a citoyenne could any news
little one?"[37] Another word, not less significant, that of energy,
occasion[38]. Along with language there is a change.html">change of sentiment,
the scoffer Bezenval, after the exile of the Parliament "social
Generals in which the women.html">women, transformed into legislators, established
Comtesse d'Egmont, a correspondent of the King of Sweden, sends him a
last defender of national liberty, against the encroachments of
six months has brought people to know the history of France who would
sire," she adds, "that you never will abuse the power.html">power an enraptured
your reign prove the epoch of the re-establishment of a free and
Numbers of women of the first rank, Mesdames de la Marck, de
write in the same style. "Absolute power," says one of these, "is a
the destruction of states. . . . The actions of sovereigns are
. . . France is undone if the present administration lasts."[40]
feeble measures of reform. their criticism shows the same firmness:
"incessant change; and always worse off than we were before.
.
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