| Content | Bohuslav Šmíd Jr. writes a letter to Zdeněk Zouhar following their meeting on 9.4.1992 in Brno. In connection with Zouhar's intention to publish the composition BOŽÁNKOVI A SONIČCE in print, BŠ recounts some memories of the circumstances of the creation of the work, which Bohuslav Martinů composed for him and his sister [Soňa Šmídová] at the time of the composer's close friendship with his parents [Bohuslav and Jarmila Šmíd], when he was eight years old and his sister five.
The friendship between BM and BŠ began as early as the end of 1920 in Polička and from 1923, when BŠ married and moved to the immediate vicinity of the Martinů house, it grew to include entire families and was not interrupted even by a series of moves. The friendship of the two families lasted until the death of the composer's brother František (1958) and sister Marie (1959).
However, personal contact with BM ceased in the summer of 1938, when he visited the Šmíds for the last time (with Vítězslava Kaprálová), and due to political circumstances mutual written contact was limited (e.g. through the poet Miloslav Bures). In order to illustrate these friendly relations, BŠ encloses some letters and postcards, and the letter dated 16 May 1932 [ŠmíB 1932-05-16] also shows the intention to write the piano pieces in question. In the aforementioned letter, piano inherited after BM is mentioned, which accompanied BŠ and his sister during their first steps in playing and is now in the museum in Polička, to which his father lent it in 1970. BŠ and his sister then donated it to the museum in 1989.
BŠ describes his childhood memories of time spent in the Martinů family home, especially of BM's mother, the patient and kind "grandmother", as BŠ and his sister called her, and the regular Christmases spent together, always enlivened most by BM's presence and his stories. They did not abandon the tradition of these Christmas visits to the family even later, when BM could no longer be present.
In particular, BŠ recalls the holidays in 1932, spent in Potštejn, where BM and his wife Charlotte also came for some time, primarily because of his meeting with Ferdinand Pujman there, concerning the preparations for the premiere of ŠPALÍČEK at the National Theatre in Prague. The composer's sister, Marie Martinů, in addition to BŠ, his sister and parents and BM and his wife, also attended the trip to Masaryk's Cottage on 27 August 1932, from which BŠ also attached photographs. These are therefore authentic pictorial evidence from the time of the piano pieces composed in memory of this holiday.
BŠ clarifies that the " Father's Song", which is part of the piano pieces, is the national song "Yet I will see...", the continuation of which in this case was "...to the Gardens of Žabonosy".
BŠ's father was born in Žabonosy and this was his much loved and often sung song, as evidenced by the enclosed xerox copies of two occasional sheet music entries of it - one by BM on the reverse of a postal envelope and the other by BŠ's father's friend, Emil Mikelka, on a restaurant receipt.
BŠ also sends a colour xerox copy of the envelope in which the piece is inserted and which was painted by BM's brother, František Martinů. He is also lending a recent xerox copy of the musical material. The original manuscript and envelopes are at BŠ's current home in Prague and if ZZ needs to look at them, arrangements can be made by phone. When ZZ has the edition of the piece ready and no longer needs the materials, he is kindly asked to return them to BŠ's brother, Ivan, or sister, Soňa, and encloses contact details. |