General information
Title CZFoxtrot [auth.]
Title ENFoxtrot
Title DEFoxtrot
CategoryWorks for Keyboards
SubcategoryPiano
Halbreich number126bis
Parts of the composition (movements)Tempo di foxtrot
Durata2' 15''
InstrumentsPf
Dedicatee Jílek, Jan
Diplomatic transcription of the dedicationMilému příteli | Jeníkovi Jílkovi | věnuje | Bohouš Martinů
Note on the dedicationTo dearest friend Jeník Jílek dedicated by Bohouš Martinů
Origin
Place of compositionPolička
Year of origin1920
Initiation of composition1920
Completion of composition1920
First performance
Autograph deposition
Note on the autograph depostitionAutograph missing (formerly by František Popelka); fascimile located at the Bohuslav Martinů Centre in Polička.
Copyright
Note on copyrightBärenreiter Praha
Purchase linkbuy
First edition
Place of issuePraha
PublisherSupraphon
Year of publication1973
Editions available at the BM Institute
Supraphon, Prague, 1973
Call number at the BM Institute: 1026
Specification of the edition: 1st edition
Details of this edition
Panton, Prague, 1995
Call number at the BM Institute: 1080
Specification of the edition: 3rd edition; album "Minor Piano Pieces"
Details of this edition
References Related writings
Documents in the Library
Note • Title on the title page: "Fox-trott".
• Holidays 1920.
• Published in: Skladby pro Poličku (Praha: Editio Supraphon, 1973) and in: Drobné klavírní skladby (Praha, Panton, 1974, 1979, 1995).
About the composition

Foxtrot, H 126bis, from 1920 goes beyond its occasional meaning: we would hardly find a parallel for it in our dance music of that time. Although its two-part form (A, B) and the division of the two parts (a, b, a; c, c') preserve the usual progression, including regular periodicity. The first part (A) is, however, notable for typically Martinu-like 'disguising manoeuvres' in the tonal plan, when the fairly conventional fifth circle of note relationships within the A part is skilfully masked by a double passage modulation. No less interesting here is the attempt to transcend the expressive stereotyping of period production (capriccioso in the A part, scherzando in the Trio), as well as the counterposition of a kind of 'legato style' in the melodic voice with the overall rhythmic environment of the piece, shaped primarily by the machine-like pulse of the left hand in the manner of ragtime. The key of the second movement (Trio, B) is in a then unusual second relative to the fundamental of the A movement, obscured, however, by the modulation to the "untrue" key of A major just before the Trio. Surprisingly, the last bars of the Trio modulate to C major, the starting key of the whole piece. Despite these finesse of the composer "from the other shore", Foxtrot remains dance music, limited also by the technical possibilities of the player to whom it was dedicated [to his dear friend Jeník Jílek].

Iša Popelka, Bohuslav Martinů: skladby pro Poličku. Praha: Supraphon, 1973, s. 33.

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