Polička brought Bohuslav Martinů his first theatrical experience, a theatrical experience for the time being, which soon after his twentieth birthday grew into an effort to compose for the theatre (meaning musical theatre). The "old, small theatre with old scenery" (as the composer wrote about it in his Memories in 1934), now the exhibition hall of the Municipal Museum [and Gallery Polička], served its purpose for the Polička theatregoers in August 1929, when the new Tyl House was inaugurated. Martinů stayed in Polička that summer (as he did every year) – half Parisian, gradually acquiring a European name, half still a countryman (as he himself emphasised), linked by regular holiday returns to his birthplace. Thus the polite dedication on the title page of the piano Prélude, H 178, with the now somewhat old-world abbreviation Sl. – Slavný or Slovutný [to the Society of Amateur Theatre Players in Polička in commemoration of the opening of Tyl's house...] – was probably both a thoughtful gesture and a manifestation of his continuing participation in the life of Polička.
The Prélude is true to its purpose: hence its festive character, based on the superiority of a full, if clear, chordal scale over an ascetically spare melody. The musical action here is mainly concentrated in a chain of modulations, constant changes in the tonal affiliation of the musical stream - a favourite compositional practice of Martinů from before his departure for Paris.
Iša Popelka, Bohuslav Martinů: skladby pro Poličku. Praha: Supraphon, 1973, s. 37.