The Epic of Gilgamesh (Martinů)

The Epic of Gilgamesh H 351 is a three-part oratorio or a cantata originally in English for soloists (S / T / Bar / B / CEO), mixed choir and orchestra by Bohuslav Martinů. The work was composed between late 1954 and February 1955. Serving as the excitation English translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh by the archaeologist and philologist R. Campbell Thompson from 1928 to 1949 Martinů had already worried. A transfer of the libretto into Czech took Ferdinand Pujman in free paraphrase of an original Lubor Matous ago. A German version of which dates from A. H. Eichmann.

The work is dedicated Maja Sacher, the wife of Martinů's patron Paul Sacher, who had mitangeregt the composition.

The premiere took place in Basel on 24 January 1958.

The work first appeared in 1958 in the publishing house Universal Edition in Vienna.

The performance lasts about 50 minutes.