Martinů wrote two youthful sets with titles evoking the notion of fairy-tales, Pohádka o Zlatovlásce (A Fairy-Tale of Goldilocks, H 28), composed in 1910, and Z pohádek Andersenových (From Andersen's Fairy Tales, H 42), subtitled Six piano pieces, from 1912.
The first of these is neither related to the familiar 'Three Bears' tale of British origin, nor to the French fairy-tale by Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy. Instead, this ‘Zlatovláska’ story seems to be a very personal one, about a girl with whom Martinů was in love, with each part descriptively accompanying his love story. The subtitle of the first movement “Pohádka o tom, jak se sešla zlatovlasá princezna s bledým hochem” ('As Princess Goldilocks met a Pale Boy'), is one clue to this autobiographical reference, as Martinů frequently styled himself 'the pale boy'. The handwritten admonition at the end of the autograph's first movement, 'It is forbidden to anybody to play this music', gives us an idea that the love story was not a happy one (quite usual for Martinů in that period of his life). To add to the intrigue, this first movement begins with nearly four-bars quoted from the opera Elektra by Richard Strauss, which itself had only had its premiere the year before. Martinů continues in the whole-tone scale, playing upon the Straussian harmonies for a total of seventeen bars, but then settles into a more tonal and Martinů-like writing with planing chords. Elektra references reappear emphatically in the final, tumultuous pages, which conclude with dramatic E flat major chords.
The second movement, a happy Pastorale seems to be an impression of rural people and the countryside itself, perhaps an outdoor contradance with drones and an insistent rhythm building into a more emphatic drumming as an accompaniment to parallel tunes with cadences to different pitch centres. The Dumka is a simple, unsophisticated almost improvisatory and very effective plaintive song, and the Barkarola is likewise effective as a conclusion. Although Martinů had considered adding a fifth movement, a Waltz, he never made more than sketches.
The recording of the composition was released for the first time by Naxos in 2009 (Martinů: Complete Piano Music, Vol. 7 – A Fairy-Tale of Goldilocks, From Andersen's Fairy-Tales; Giorgio Koukl).
Mark Gresham and Cary Lewis, Martinů: Complete Piano Music, Vol. 7 – A Fairy-Tale of Goldilocks, From Andersen's Fairy-Tales; Giorgio Koukl).