Polkas, H 101, was composed in the midst of World War I (1916), between the first two completed books of his famous Loutky [H 92, H 116].
The first Polka is a delightful piece featuring delicious deceptive phrase lengths and intimations of waltzes packed into wonderfully transparent Schubertian textures. Were the composer unidentified, one might well guess Dvořák or Schubert whose piano styles one might be inclined to conflate, but we also get the chord progressions with an emphasis on plagal harmonic movement that are so typical of later Martinů, where his own personality peeks out. Martinů's common heritage with Dvořák is also demonstrated in the second Polka. The phrase-lengths are more standard, but with a stylistic trait of repeating the tune and taking it to a new pitch centre. The strange final cadence is a premonition of later Martinů, though we do not yet have the 'sewing machine' quality, as well as the ringing bells, that are so often associated with the idiosyncrasies of his later styles. The third Polka starts off as if it were an homage to a Chopin polonaise, revisiting the quirky haze of the first Polka's rhythmic effect, almost feeling like a waltz every once in a while. The delightful cross-rhythms certainly hint of the rhythmic fluidity Martinů would come to develop.
Influences of Dvořák and Smetana underlie the fourth Polka, with pleasant tunes repeated in different key centres, as in the second Polka. This is another delightful demonstration of how Martinů's music began to evolve from that of his Bohemian elders. Again, places where the composer slips in extra beats or measures leave one with the impression of rhythmic fluidity that became a hallmark of his later chamber music.
With the fifth Polka we have finally a foreshadowing of the kind of harmonic language more typical of the older Martinů, immersed within the context of Chopinesque piano figurations reminiscent of his mazurkas. Of the sixth and final Polka, one finds many of the same characteristics of the first five, with evasive, fluid metres, and parallel phrases having varied endings that take us to a new place.
The recording of the composition was released for the first time by Naxos in 2009 (Martinů: Complete Piano Music, Vol. 5 – Polkas 1916, Five Waltzes; Giorgio Koukl).
Mark Gresham and Cary Lewis, Martinů: Complete Piano Music, Vol. 5 – Polkas 1916, Five Waltzes, Naxos, 2009.