[...] One of the occasional pieces that Martinů wrote for Kytara [means Guitar], an informal free society (not a "regular" society) of young people, mostly students and young teachers, people so young that they had not yet had enough time to be engulfed by the gears of the First World War. Kytara, whose activities extended into the early 1920s, organised not only entertainment parties but also theatre and musical productions, and Martinů helped it abundantly in its musical activities. [...]
Martinů applied his gentle humour in The Ceremonial March of "Kytara" [H 125bis] – as he had rarely done before and often afterwards. In the vicinity of, or rather in conjunction with, marching clichés, Martinů composed music in the manner of post-war modern dances derived from ragtime, and it is this stylistic "impurity" that still acts as a musical joke, a light parody of the conventional march. After all, this is exactly how the author intended the piece. This is evidenced by the adjective "festive" in the title of the march, which is not very festive, the dedication, which subtly parodies the customs of dignified socializing, the self-portrait of Martinů under the title, the peculiar expressive instruction at the beginning of the piece, and the choral call, which was supposed to be heard at several points in the march and which situates the performance of the piece probably in a circle of friends in the best of times. However, the memoirists did not recall whether The Ceremonial March was actually performed at the Kytara.
Iša Popelka, Bohuslav Martinů: skladby pro Poličku. Praha: Supraphon, 1973, s. 22.