Martinu

13 Posts
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On This Day
8 December: Bohuslav Martinů Was Born
In the years preceding World War II, Bohuslav Martinů was a much-respected composer experimenting with jazz, folk, and avant-garde creations in Paris. Forced to flee to the United States in 1940, he soon became the living composer whose works were
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Martinů’s Experiments with Jazz
Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959) started his music career as a violinist, giving his first public performances at age 15. Townspeople supported his career and at age 16, he was given funding to attend the Prague Conservatory. He didn’t take
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On This Day
28 August: Bohuslav Martinů Died
Escaping Nazi oppression, Bohuslav Martinů found refuge in the United States. Struggling financially and eternally homesick, Martinů started to set folk song texts that became a symbolic connection to his beloved homeland. Dejected dreamlike vision of peace and the longing
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Away from Home: Martinů’s La Jolla Sinfonietta
As WWII disrupted the world, many composers fleeing Europe ended up in the United States and were never able to return. One of those composers was Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959). He moved to France from Czechoslovakia in 1923 and then ended
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Bohuslav Martinů’s Moon Prosody
Escaping Nazi oppression, Bohuslav Martinů and his wife Charlotte arrived in Lisbon on 11 January 1942. Roughly two months later they boarded S.S. Exeter with destination Hoboken, New Jersey. As with other artists who arrived in similar circumstances, life in
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Martinů: Julietta
Premiered Today in 1938
Haunted by the memory of Julietta, a girl he once spied singing from her window in a seaside holiday town, the Parisian bookseller Michel searches for her in his dreams. He meets a number of characters in increasingly bizarre encounters
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Unsung Concertos
Bohuslav Martinů: Oboe Concerto H.353
Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959) always paid close attention to avant-garde cosmopolitan musical developments. Yet simultaneously he was acutely aware of his position as a composer of Czech national music. Ceaselessly working to “express the never-ending search for truth and the meaning
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Bohuslav Martinů: In search of his musical voice
Bohuslav Martinů composed a large quantity of music in various styles and forms, but according to the composer “in pure chamber music I am always more myself.” His first Piano Trio, nicknamed “Cinq pièces brèves” spontaneously emerged in Paris in
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