On tourne! (Roll the Cameras!) is a half-hour animated puppet and cartoon ballet. According to the composer's own instructions, the stage is supposed to be divided into an upper section for the puppet show with maritime scenery, a boat with two sailors, and a diver; and a lower "subaquatic" section reserved for the cartoon display, featuring various species of fish and fantastic flora. All the ballet's individual sections are based on identical motivic material. The introductory subject consists of a simple broken major five-three chord, whose density is ingeniously increased by dissonances typically involving minor second intervals. This is followed by successive concertante displays for violin, oboe, piano, bassoon, and other instruments. The work's structure is simple enough: Martinu concentrates on the regular alternation of the motor rhythms of the neo-Baroque introductory motive with rhapsodic passages. He finished the ballet in Polička on 19 August 1927 and immediately began to write another ballet entitled Le Raid merveilleux, a score he completed in mid-September of 1927.
Aleš Březina, Martinů: Le Raid merveilleux, La Revue de cuisine, On tourne!, © 2004 Supraphon Music a.s