Bohuslav Martinů

The Bohuslav Martinu Complete Edition is a scholarly-critical edition that will present the complete oeuvre of this major twentieth century composer for the first time. This immense musicological project will encompass Martinů’s works in all their versions and arrangements, and will also include newly discovered and previously unpublished compositions. The edition will use the catalogue numbers devised by Harry Halbreich in his Bohuslav Martinů: Werkverzeichnis und Biografie (Catalogue of Works and Biography), 2nd ed. (Mainz, 2007).
The present situation regarding the publications of Martinů is complex. A large number of different publishers in the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, France, England and the United States currently hold the copyright to Martinu’s works. Many publications are only available in deficient first editions that are fifty or more years old, some containing unauthorised editorial changes. Furthermore, many early editions have been out of print for several decades, and thus have been inaccessible to the general public. Some works have also never been typeset; instead publishers distribute them only in the form of reproductions of manuscript copies or the composer’s barely legible autographs.

“It is most gratifying that Martinů’s entire œuvre has been made available in excellent new editions and that some of his works … have been made accessible, thus paving the way to international recognition.”
(Christoph Schlüren, Neue Musikzeitung, May 2020)