General information
Title CZDvě písně
Title ENTwo Songs
Title DEZwei Lieder
CategoryVocal Music
SubcategoryWorks for Solo Voice and Piano
Halbreich number31
Author of lyrics/libretto Sládek, Josef Václav
Parts of the composition (movements)1. A Girl's Song 2. When the Day Ends
InstrumentsV Pf
Dedicatee Borová, Olga
Diplomatic transcription of the dedicationSlečně | Olze Valouškové
Note on the dedicationDedicated to Miss Olga Valoušková.
Origin
Place of compositionPolička
Year of origin1911
Initiation of composition1911
Completion of composition10.11.1911
First performance
Autograph deposition
Owner of the sourceNadace Bohuslava Martinů
DepositionCentrum Bohuslava Martinů v Poličce
Autograph deposition 2
Owner of the sourceNadace Bohuslava Martinů
DepositionCentrum Bohuslava Martinů v Poličce
Note on the autograph depostitionSecond autograph score of the song No. 1 “A Girl's Song”.
Copyright
Note on copyrightCopyright free
First edition
Sources
References Related writings
Documents in the Library
About the composition

The first musical compositions overwhelmingly fulfilled only the function of composition preparation, which is usually discreetly hidden and limited to the composition classroom of a music school. These pieces usually do not reach the desired technical standard. Until the beginning of the 1920s, Bohuslav Martinů was characterized by a large-scale work that did not meet this necessary condition. That's why he himself did not grant it true artistic validity.

“My mother [Olga Valoušková], a singer at the National Theater at the time, recalled more than once how in the evening after a performance, a timid student would wait at the artist's entrance to hand her rolls of sheet music tied with a red ribbon. They were Bohuslav Martinů's first and naive song attempts,” revealed her son Vladimír Bor (Hudební rozhledy 33, no. 9, 8 August 1980, p. 386).

Among the early compositions dedicated to the singer Olga Valoušková were Two Little Songs in the Folk Tone, H 14, from 25 April 1910 to texts by J. Manin (Superstition and In the Garden of Ours). The gifts continued in the following years: At Night, H 30, Two Songs, H 31 (A Girl's Song and When the Day Ends from 10 February 1911, based on J. V. Sládek's poems), Three Songs, H 34 (My Mother to the text by J. V. Sládek from 11 May 1911, The Right Tally – A. E. Mužík – from 15 May 1911, and Little Song: In the Morning We Went Wrong – Xaver – dated on the title page of the entire cycle "In Prague 26 May 1911" [date in the sketch: 18 October 1910]) and probably the last of the series for Olga Valoušková, Dead Love, H 44 (A. E. Mužík, dated 20 January 1912).

Jaroslav Mihule, Martinů: osud skladatele, Praha: Karolinum, 2002, pp. 39–40 [factual mistakes were corrected according to autographs by Jana Burdová, 2024]. The recording of the composition was released for the first time by Naxos in 2011 (Martinů: Songs, Vol. 1 – A Wreath of Carnations; Jana Wallingerová, Giorgio Koukl).

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