On 13 April 1937, Martinů sent a manuscript entitled "Two Songs, May tunes" from Paris to the Melantrich publishing house with a note that it was possible to use the subtitles "1) Koleda milostná 2) Popěvek". The Love Carol (Koleda milostná, H 259), for medium voice and piano was published the same year as a musical supplement to the women's magazine Eva.
The song sets a folk text from the surroundings of Telč, which František Sušil included in his collection of folk songs. Martinů dedicated it to Maria Raabová. The composition is often associated with his pupil Vítězslava Kaprálová, who set Sušil's text a year later, in February 1938, and included it in her cycle Seconds (Vteřiny). The song was written as part of a friendly compositional dialogue between Martinů and Kaprálová. In the vocal part of her setting, Kaprálová took several bars from her teacher's Love Carol, symbolically expressing their musical and personal closeness. Her version is more melodically arch, more formally sophisticated and ranks among her best vocal miniatures.
Jana Burdová, 2025