ISBN: 978-80-244-5521-1 | ISBN online: 978-80-244-5533-4 | DOI: 10.5507/pdf.19.24455211

Milý Miloši: Dopisy Bohuslava Martinů Miloši Šafránkovi

Vít Zouhar, Gabriela Coufalová

The monograph is the next volume in the annotated critical edition of the correspondence of the Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů. It consists of a set of correspondence with Miloš Šafránek, a Czech diplomat, music journalist, Martinů’s biographer, and a promoter of his work. The volume contains the diplomatic transcriptions of 168 letters, six postcard, five postal cards, one telegram, and one lettercard from the period of 1928–1959. The vast majority of the correspondence is unilateral, addressed to Šafránek; only two of the items were sent by Šafránek. The method of diplomatic transcription, chosen by the authors of the edition, respects the peculiarities of Martinů’s linguistic expression. Comprehensive annotations provide historical context and illustrate the political circumstances of the most tumultuous years of the twentieth century, but they also comment on the genesis of compositions, performance issues, the recording and publishing of Martinů’s works; they inform of friends, musicians, patrons, and other people who influenced Martinů’s personal and professional life. Seeing that the correspondence between Martinů and Šafránek is one of the largest sets of Martinů’s correspondence, with undisputed value to researchers, the publication is now being issued in Czech, to be followed by an English version of the monograph in 2019, which will make this essential source available

1. edition, Published: 2019, online: 2019, publisher: Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci, Křížkovského 8, 771 47 Olomouc