In the autumn of the year 1919, Bohuslav Martinů moved from Polička to Prague, where he joined the Czech Philharmonic as the violinist of the second violin. Here he played alongside his best friend - now a concertmaster - Stanislav Novák, whom he had already known from conservatory studies, during which they were completely inseparable. Novák and Martinů befriended Ela Švabinská, the first wife of the Czech painter Max Švabinský. In the village Kozlov, which is located near Polička, she lived in a quiet and picturesque cottage in a remote area. Martinů was probably inspired by Švabinský's art even before the First World War as a reader of the magazine Volné směry, an art monthly published by the "Mánes" association, in which Švabinský's drawings and graphics appeared. Ela Švabinská was a lover of literature, music, and art, sometimes even accompanying Novák on the piano. Josef Suk, Zdeněk Nejedlý, and other leading artists and intellectuals were also frequent guests of Ela Švabinská at that time. Zuzana Švabinská-Vejrychová describes the atmosphere of Kozlov's meetings in the manuscript Memories from the Youth of Ela Švabinská: “In the months of the holidays, music was heard from open windows, (...), many musical works had their secret premiere here. Václav Štěpán, the French pianist Blanche Selva or Bohuslav Martinů, who was accompanied on the violin by his inseparable friend Stanislav Novák, sat at the piano." One day in the winter of 1920, Ela showed Novák Max's collection of exotic butterflies, exhibited in the drawing-room. The collection enchanted Novák and he was sure that Martinů must see it as well. Martinů was immediately captivated by the play of shiny feathers of various colors. He found the greatest beauty in the paradise of Paradisea Rodolphia, which had a chest covered with feathers of a special structure. It was also the rarest piece in the collection. A few days later, Martinů brought Ela a gift, the piano cycle Butterflies and Birds of Paradise, H 127. How surprised and pleased Ela was with this attention!
Although the year 1920 was fruitful for Bohuslav Martinů, especially in the field of piano music, the cycle Butterflies and Birds of Paradise, H 127, among other works, still stands out. At that time, Martinů was fascinated by impressionism and reflected his feelings from the exhibition of colorful exotics in compositions characterized by unusual rhythmic, melodic and harmonic fullness. The composition is articulated thanks to a number of tempo designations and spills from one mood to another. The basic key is in E major, but thanks to frequent changes in key signatures and impressionist harmony with its typical unsteady tonality, we feel the absence of a tonal center. The most important and longest part of the cycle is the last composition, ending in the dynamics of the "piano pianissimo" with a gradual extension of the musical values.
Kateřina Zikmundová, Martinů Revue, 3/2020