Songs on Two Pages, H 302, are gems of the 20th-century Czech song-writing. They were composed by Martinů in a totally untypical way without any direct commission in American exile in 1944, but it can be rightfully assumed that he created them for the needs of cultural, political and charity events of associations of American Czechs, where they were consequently performed, among others also by the Metropolitan Opera soloist Jarmila Novotná who was often accompanied on piano by Jan Masaryk.
Like Antonín Dvořák in his Moravian Duets, Martinů takes only the lyrics and some of characteristic procedures from the folk model (all come from Erben’s collection “Czech Folk Songs and Rhymes” – “Prostonárodní české písně a říkadla”), his musical concept is absolutely original and autonomous. In phrasing, he follows the rhythm of the lyrics, bar lines are there for the musician merely for a better orientation.
Martinů once said about his songs on the folk lyrics that he “wrote them when not composing”. However, it is not very likely that he would thus describe them as second-rate; his statement seems to refer rather to their experimental nature. In their expressive compactness and liberation from external effects the Songs on Two Pages are the key to all of Bohuslav Martinů’s late work.
Eva Benešová and Aleš Březina, concert programme Bohuslav Martinů Festival, 8 December 1997.