The Prophecy of Isaiah, H 383, the last large-scale work of Bohuslav Martinů, is marked by his impending death. After an exhausting stomach operation in November 1958 and a brief period of respite, Martinů pushed on in a relentless creative fervor. In spring 1959 he spent almost two months in Nice, where he worked on the new cantata for male choir enriched with soprano, alto, and baritone solos and a somewhat unusual combination of instruments. The trumpet, viola, timpani, and piano produce a peculiar weave of timbre, which provokes the atmosphere of a prophecy of doom.
The composition is a setting of texts from chapters 21 and 24 of the Old Testament book of Isaiah, which describes 'how the Lord God was angered by men' (from Martinů's letter to his sister Marie from 20 May 1959) and decided to punish the people of Judea. The impulse for the cantata's creation came from Peter Grandewitz, the publishing house Israeli Music Publications in Tel Aviv, who suggested to Martinů that he might write a piece with a Biblical motive, which would be premiered in Israel. Miloš Šafránek was witness to Gradenwitz's conversation with Martinů: 'They spoke together about the Bible, and Martinů told him how strongly he was affected by the poetic and dramatic aspects of the Bible.' The Christian book of faith also one of the few volumes, together with several collections of folk songs, that the composer always took with him on his frequent journeys. He composed the cantata to the English text, but it is often performed in Hebrew as well.
The last attack of the deadly disease in May 1959 forced Martinů to interrupt his work, and as it turned out, he eventually made it impossible to complete it, so that the composer only managed to capture the final third part, The Burden of Moab, H 383 A (Text Isaiah XVI), in a scatch. Already the client of the work, dr. Peter Gradenwitz noticed that the preserved torso made a very closed impression. He added a Hebrew and a German translation to the English text of the original and published the work. The premiere took place in Tel Aviv two years after the death of Bohuslav Martinů. Even today, the unfinished work gives the impression of an artistic memento mori imbued with the premonition of death.
Aleš Březina