Martinů began working on one of his cantatas, The Legend of the Smoke from Potato Tops, H 360 at the beginning of October 1956 in Rome, where he lived at the time. He completed the cantata in mid-November - at a time when the uprising in Hungary had already been defeated by Soviet tanks and fighters. Although a premiere was already planned in Prague, Martinů decided not to send the score to the Czech Republic and thus expressed disagreement with what had happened in Hungary and how Czechoslovakia had helped. The composer's opposition to the communist regime in Czechoslovakia is known today, and therefore his reaction is not surprising. However, this was the first time that he had made his position clear. He wrote to his siblings in Polička on November 29, 1956: "I had to decide not to send the romance now also for reasons you only have to guess, and I would like you to tell B. when he arrives in Polička." Fears of censorship led him to simply indicate a problem and to shorten the poet's name to the initial. Martinů continued his passive resistance until Christmas. It was when he received a collection of Moravian folk texts called Brigands from conductor Miloslav Venhoda from Prague.
Venhoda has been asking composers for a new composition for a male choir since October. But only this time, and certainly not by chance, he enclosed a collection of folk songs about brigands. And it was thanks to her that Martinů felt the opportunity to express his protest even better. He replaced the current passive resistance with direct stimuli for active resistance in Czechoslovakia. From today's point of view, this way may seem naive, but at the time it was a completely legitimate effort, based on the experience of World War II. Martinů, therefore, set to music folk verses about brigands in a very short time, creating a cycle of male choirs called Brigand Songs, H 361.
As we know today, neither the premiere of Brigand Songs, H 361, nor the release of The Legend of the Smoke from Potato Tops, H 360 contributed to the fighting spirit in Czechoslovakia. Undoubtedly, however, they resonated in the minds of many a few years later, when in August 1968 they found themselves in a similar situation as the Hungarians in the mid-1950s. However, another revolutionary story was written, which Bohuslav Martinů did not live to see.
Vít Zouhar, Lidové noviny, 24/2017