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Bohuslav Martinů
Portrait of Bohuslav Martinů, U.S.A., New York 1945.
Born	(1890-12-08)8 December 1890 Polička
Died	28 August 1959(1959-08-28) (aged 68) Liestal
Nationality	Czech
Occupation	Composer
Notable work(s)	List of compositions
Style	Modern music

Bohuslav Martinů (Czech pronunciation: [ˈboɦuslaf ˈmarcɪnuː] ( listen); December 8, 1890 – August 28, 1959) was a prolific Czech composer of modern classical music. Martinů wrote six symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores and a large body of orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental works. Martinů became a violinist in the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, and taught music in his home town. In 1923 Martinů left Czechoslovakia for Paris, and deliberately withdrew from the Romantic style in which he had been trained. In the 1930s he experimented with expressionism and constructivism, and became an admirer of current European technical developments, exemplified by his orchestral works Half-time and La Bagarre. He also adopted jazz idioms, for instance in his Kuchyňské revue ("Kitchen Revue").

In the early 1930s he found his main font for composition style, the neo-classical as developed by Stravinsky. With this, he greatly expanded to become an amazingly prolific composer, composing volleys of well-crafted chamber, orchestral, choral and instrumental works, and was able to do this with amazing dispatch. His use of the piano obbligato became his signature. His Concerto Grosso and the Double Concerto for Two String Orchestras, Piano and Tympani are among his most powerful from this period. Among his operas, Juliette and The Greek Passion are considered the finest. He is compared with Prokofiev and Bartók in his innovative incorporation of Central European ethnomusicology into his music. He continued to use Bohemian and Moravian folk melodies throughout his oeuvre, usually nursery rhymes—for instance in Otvírání studánek ("The Opening of the Wells").

His great symphonic career began when he emigrated to the United States in 1941, fleeing the German invasion of France, to compose his six symphonies, which were performed by all the major US orchestras. Eventually Bohuslav Martinů returned to live in Europe in 1956, dying in Switzerland in August 1959.

Life[link]

1890–1923: Polička and Prague[link]

Martinů as a child playing the violin. (c. 1896).

Martinů was born in Polička, a small town in Bohemia near the Moravian border. His father Ferdinand, a shoemaker, served as fire watchman, and the family lived in the tower of the St. Jacob Church. As a young violinist, he developed a strong reputation, giving his first public concert in his hometown in 1905. The townspeople raised enough money to fund his schooling, and in 1906, he left the countryside to began studies at the Prague Conservatory. While there, he fared poorly as a student, showing little interest in the rigid pedagogy and hours of practice required, and being far more interested in exploring and learning on his own, exploring Prague, attending concerts, and reading books on every subject. Dropped from the violin program, he was moved to the organ department, which taught composition, but was finally dismissed in 1910 for "incorrigible negligence".^[1]

Martinů spent the next several years living back home in Polička attempting to gain some standing in the musical world. He had written several compositions by this time, including the Elegie for violin and piano, and the symphonic poems Anděl smrti and La Mort de Tintagiles, and submitted samples of his work to Josef Suk, a leading Czech composer. Suk encouraged him to pursue formal composition training, but this would not be possible until years later. In the meantime, he passed the state teaching examination and maintained a studio in Polička throughout World War I, while continuing to compose and study on his own. It was during this time that he studied the music of the Bohemian Brethren, which would influence his style and musical voice.

As World War I drew to a close, and Czechoslovakia declared an independent republic, Martinů composed a celebratory cantata Česká rapsodie ("Czech Rapsody"), which was premiered in 1919 to great acclaim. As a violinist, he toured Europe with the National Theatre Orchestra, and became a full member of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in 1920. He also began formal composition study under Suk. Martinů's modern style (including elements of impressionism and jazz) did not match the conservative styles in Prague, and he became determined to move to Paris. During these last years in Prague he completed his first string quartet, and two ballets: Who is the Most Powerful in the World? and Istar.

1923–1940: Paris[link]

Martinů finally departed for Paris in 1923, having received a small scholarship from the Ministry of Education. He sought out Albert Roussel, whose individualistic style he respected, and began a series of informal lessons with him. Roussel would teach Martinů until his death in 1937, helping him focus and order his composition, rather than instructing him in a specific style. During the first years in Paris, Martinů assimilated many of the trends at the time, including jazz, neoclassicism, and surrealism. Ballets were his favorite medium for experimentation, including The Revolt (1925), The Butterfly That Stamped (1926), Le Raid Merveilleux (1927), La Revue de Cuisine (1927), and Les Larmes du Couteau (1928).

In Paris, Martinů was welcomed into the Czech artistic community living there at the time. He would retain close ties to his homeland, returning to Prague and Polička during the summer months and for premieres of his works. Along with new styles, Martinů would continue to look to his Bohemian and Moravian roots for musical ideas. The most well known during this time is the ballet Špalíček (1932–33), which incorporates Czech folk tunes and nursery rhymes.

In 1926, Martinů met Charlotte Quennehen, a French seamstress, and they married in 1931. Charlotte would become an important force in his life, handling many day-to-day affairs and mundane details that Martinů had trouble with; though culturally, the two were quite different, a fact that would cause numerous problems over the years.^[2] In 1937, Martinů became acquainted with Vítězslava Kaprálová, a young Czech composer-conductor who arrived in Paris in the fall of 1937 to study with Charles Munch at the Ecole normale de musique, and also sought to study with him. Their relationship soon developed beyond that of student-teacher, and at one point they planned to move to America together, but their love relationship began deteriorating in the fall of 1939.^[3]

When the German army approached Paris early in the Second World War, Martinů fled, having been blacklisted for his connections to the Czech resistance. He and Charlotte journeyed first to the south of France, and then through Spain and Portugal, eventually reaching the United States in 1941 with the help of his friend and diplomat Miloš Šafránek.

1941–1953: America[link]

Life in America was difficult for him, as it was for many of the other outstanding artists who arrived in similar circumstances. Lack of knowledge of English, lack of funds, and lack of opportunities to use their talents were problems common to all such émigré artists at first. However, Martinů did acclimatise himself. He composed a great deal and taught at the Mannes College of Music for most of the period from 1948 to 1956. He also taught at Yale University and the Berkshire Music Center (Tanglewood). His six symphonies were written in the eleven-year period 1942–1953, the first five being produced between 1942 and 1946.

His notable students include Alan Hovhaness, H. Owen Reed, Jan Novák, Vítězslava Kaprálová, Howard Shanet, Peter Pindar Stearns, and Burt Bacharach.

1953–1959: Europe[link]

In 1953, Martinů left the United States for France and settled in Nice, returning in 1955. In 1956, he took up an appointment as composer-in-residence at the American Academy in Rome. He died at a clinic in Liestal, Switzerland, on August 28, 1959.

Music[link]

Martinů was a prolific composer, who wrote almost 400 pieces. Many of his works are regularly performed or recorded, among them his choral work The Epic of Gilgamesh (1955); his six symphonies; his concertos, including those for cello, violin, oboe and five for the piano; his anti-war opera Comedy on the Bridge; and his chamber music, including seven string quartets, a piano quartet, a flute sonata, and a clarinet sonatina.

Bohuslav Martinů in New York, around 1942, at the piano working on his second symphony.

A characteristic feature of his orchestral writing is the near-omnipresent piano; many of his orchestral works include a prominent part for piano, including his small concerto for harpsichord and chamber orchestra. The bulk of his writing from the 1930s into the 1950s was in a neoclassical vein, but with his last works he opened up his style to include more rhapsodic gestures and a looser, more spontaneous sense of form. This is easiest to hear by comparing his sixth symphony, titled Fantaisies symphoniques, with its five predecessors, all from the 1940s.

One of Martinů's lesser known works is a piece featuring the theremin commissioned by Lucie Bigelow Rosen. Martinů started working on this commission in the summer of 1944 and finished his Fantasia for theremin, oboe, string quartet and piano on October 1, dedicating it to Rosen, who premiered the piece as theremin soloist in New York on November 3, 1945, along with the Koutzen Quartet and Robert Bloom.

His opera The Greek Passion is based on the novel of the same name by Nikos Kazantzakis, and his orchestral work Memorial to Lidice was written in remembrance of the village of Lidice that was destroyed by the Nazis in reprisal for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in the late spring of 1942. It was composed in 1943 whilst he was in New York.

In his own words[link]

^[4]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Beckerman, Michael Brim, and Michael Henderson (eds.). Martinů's Mysterious Accident: Essays in Honor of Michael Henderson. Hillsdale, N.Y.: Pendragon Press, 2007. ISBN 978-1-57647-111-1 (cloth); ISBN 978-1-57647-003-9 (pbk).
• Červinková, Blanka (ed.). Bohuslav Martinů, 8.12.1890–28.8.1959: bibliografický katalog. Prague: Panton, 1990. ISBN 80-7039-068-9.
• Halbreich, Harry. Bohuslav Martinů: Werkverzeichnis, Dokumentation und Biographie. Zürich, Freiburg i. Br.: Atlantis-Verlag, 1968.
• Halbreich, Harry. Bohuslav Martinů: Werkverzeichnis und Biographie. Zweite, revidierte Ausgabe. Mainz: Schott Music, 2007. ISBN 978-3-7957-0565-7
• Large, Brian. Martinů. London: Duckworth, 1975. ISBN 0-7156-0770-7.
• Martinů, Charlotta. Můj život s Bohuslavem Martinů. Prague: Editio Baerenreiter, 2003.
• Mihule, Jaroslav. Bohuslav Martinů: Osud skladatele. Prague: Nakladatelství Karolinum Univerzity Karlovy, 2002. ISBN 80-246-0246-4.
• Rybka, F. James. Bohuslav Martinů: The Compulsion to Compose. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2011. ISBN 978-0-8108-7761-0.
• Svatos, Thomas D. "Reasserting the Centrality of Musical Craft: Martinů and His American Diaries." The Musical Times 150, no. 1907 (Summer 2009): 55–70.
• Šafránek, Miloš. Bohuslav Martinů: His Life and Works. Translated by Roberta Finlayson-Samsourová. London: A. Wingate, 1962.

On Martinů's relationship with Kaprálová:

• Hartl, Karla, and Erik Entwistle (eds.). The Kaprálová Companion. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2011. ISBN 978-0-7391-6723-6 (cloth); ISBN 978-0-7391-6724-3 (electronic).

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bohuslav Martinů

• Bohuslav Martinů Foundation in Prague
• Catalogue of Works
• Bohuslav Martinu Centre in Policka
• The OREL Foundation- Bohuslav Martinů's biography and links to bibliography, discography and media.
• Bohuslav Martinů at Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music
• The Kapralova Society Journal.
• Two-year international project "revisits” great Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů - Radio Prague
• Free scores by Bohuslav Martinů at the International Music Score Library Project

Bohuslav Богуслав
—  City  —
Seal
Bohuslav Location of Bohuslav in Ukraine
Bohuslav Location of Bohuslav in Kiev Oblast
Coordinates: 49°32′48″N 30°52′22″E / 49.54667°N 30.87278°E / 49.54667; 30.87278Coordinates: 49°32′48″N 30°52′22″E / 49.54667°N 30.87278°E / 49.54667; 30.87278
Country	Ukraine
Oblast	Kiev
Raion	Bohuslavskyi
Established	1032
Area
• Total	71 km2 (27 sq mi)
Population
• Total	16,911
• Density	240/km2 (620/sq mi)
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)
• Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
Postal code	09700 — 09702
Area code(s)	+380 4561
Website	boguslav.info

Bohuslav (Ukrainian: Богуслав) is a city on the Ros' River in Kiev Oblast (province) of Ukraine. It is the administrative centre of Bohuslavskyi Raion. The population is 17,135 (2001).

v t e Administrative divisions of Kiev Oblast Administrative center: Kiev Districts Baryshivka Bila Tserkva Bohuslav Boryspil Borodianka Brovary Fastiv Ivankiv Kaharlyk Kiev-Sviatoshyn Makariv Myronivka Obukhiv Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi Poliske Rokytne Skvyra Stavysche Tarascha Tetiiv Vasylkiv Volodarka Vyshhorod Yahotyn Zghurivka Cities Major cities Berezan Bila Tserkva Boryspil Brovary Bucha Fastiv Irpin Obukhiv Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi Prypiat Rzhyschiv Slavutych Vasylkiv Other cities Bohuslav Boyarka Chernobyl Kaharlyk Myronivka Skvyra Tarascha Tetiiv Ukrainka Uzyn Vyshhorod Vyshneve Yahotyn List of: urban-type settlements — villages

This article about a location in Kiev Oblast is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Jan Panenka (8 July 1922 – 12 July 1999^[1]) was a Czech pianist. He recorded many of Beethoven's works, and he played for many years with the Suk Trio.

Life[link]

Jan Panenka began his concert career in 1944, as a pupil of František Maxián at the Prague Conservatory. In 1951 he was awarded the 2nd prize at the Prague Spring International Music Competition. He attracted attention in 1959, on a concert tour to Australia and Japan with the Czech Philharmonic.^[2] Panenka interrupted his career in 1979, due to hand problems. He worked as a conductor, but later returned to the piano and made recordings with the Smetana Quartet. He worked also as a teacher at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.

As a soloist with the Czech Philharmonic he made also a number of gramophone recordings, including the complete piano concertos of Ludwig van Beethoven (1964–71). He was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque for the recording of violin sonatas by Leoš Janáček and Claude Debussy, with Josef Suk.

Discography[link]

His recordings include works by:

• Ludwig van Beethoven
• Johannes Brahms
• Antonín Dvořák
• Leoš Janáček
• Bohuslav Martinů
• Franz Schubert
• Robert Schumann
• Josef Suk

He performed with the following musicians:

• Josef Suk
• Panocha Quartet
• Suk Trio
• Josef Chuchro
• Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.

References[link]

• Allmusic.com: Jan Panenka
• Supraphon - 60th anniversary
• ClassicsToday.com Review Digest for Performances by Jan Panenka

Footnotes[link]

This article on a Czech musician is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

This article about a pianist is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Thomas D.
Thomas D. at Radio Pilatus in Lucerne in May 2009
Background information
Birth name	Thomas Dürr
Born	(1968-12-30) 30 December 1968 (age 43)
Origin	Ditzingen, Germany
Genres	German hip hop
Associated acts	Die Fantastischen Vier Son Goku
Website	www.thomasd.net

Thomas D. (born Thomas Dürr, December 30, 1968 in Ditzingen close to Stuttgart, Germany) is a rapper in the German hip hop group Die Fantastischen Vier. He frequently works on solo projects.

Life[link]

After finishing Realschule he took on an apprenticeship as a barber. Because he frequently worked as a caretaker (German: Hausmeister), he gave himself the stage name "Hausmeister Thomas D."

He has been vegan for several years and supports the animal welfare organization PETA. In 2003, he was criticised for his approval of their exhibition Holocaust on Your Plate, which compared keeping animals in mass stocks to the crimes of the Holocaust.

He sees himself as a member of the Lohas ("Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability") movement and is fond of green ecologial initiatives. On stage he often wears T-Shirts from Fairtrade Label armedangels, all of his Merchandise items are fair traded as well.

Thomas D. is married, has one daughter and one son.

Work[link]

Thomas D. is a member of Die Fantastischen Vier, but was also successful with his solo albums Solo (1997), Lektionen in Demut (2001), and Kennzeichen D (2008). Singles released from these albums include Rückenwind, Frisör, Liebesbrief, and Solo (featuring Nina Hagen). Outside Germany, he is probably best known for Wish (Komm zu mir) which he performed with Franka Potente on the soundtrack of the movie Run Lola Run.

He was also the singer and songwriter of the band Son Goku, who entered the German charts with Alle für Jeden (album: Crashkurs) in 2002.

In 2010 he made the song "Million Voices (7 Seconds)" The biggest online choir from Thomas D and Telekom (T-Mobile).

In 2012, he will be the jury president of Unser Star für Baku, the German selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku.

External links[link]

• (German) Official website
• Discography at Discogs
• (German) Thomas D. at Four Music