The manuscript of the Lullabies, H 114, is missing. However, there is a set of sketches of several compositions that were written in the same place during a continuous period of time. Harry Halbreich has grouped these compositions under a catalogue number and given them a German title, with the warning that they are not identical to the Three Lullabies, H 146bis, dated as late as 1925.
That it is a separate composition is evidenced by the fact that the composition is known from several sources: in the manuscript inventory of the composer's works from 1919 (MarBo 1919-00-00) there is an entry for one of the movements – Vlček's Lullaby. Martinů himself mentions the work in his letter to the Czech Academy of Sciences and Arts from 1920 (AVCR 1920-02-15), where he informs about a future performance of the cycle in the Osvětový svaz. In a letter dated July 1921 (RieL 1921-07-07), Louisa Riedlová thanks Bohuslav Martinů for lending her the composition and looks forward to performing the lullabies in concert. In the card catalogue of Bohuslav Martinů's compositions compiled by Karel Šebánek in 1938 (Šeb 1938-00-00a), Martinů's handwritten notes “completed” and “manuscript” are credited. The publisher was supposed to be M. Urbánek. Correspondence with this publisher was then carried out (February 1931), in which the work under discussion is a kind of cycle of children's songs on the texts of Des Knaben Wunderhorn (8 lighter children's songs), the final title of which is to be specified.
Jana Burdová, 2025