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 compositions was released for the first time by Naxos in 2011 (Martinů: Songs, Vol. 1 – A Wreath of Carnations; Jana Wallingerová, Giorgio Koukl).