Bohuslav Martinů

Bohuslav Jan Martinů was a Czech composer of modern classical music. He wrote 6 symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores and a large body of orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental works. He became a violinist in the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, and briefly studied under Czech composer and violinist Josef Suk. After leaving Czechoslovakia in 1923 for Paris, Martinů deliberately withdrew from the Romantic style in which he had been trained. During the 1920s he experimented with modern French stylistic developments, exemplified by his orchestral works Half-time and La Bagarre. He also adopted jazz idioms, for instance in his Kitchen Revue.

8 December 1890

Born on the same birth day (8 December): Christian Emil Krag-Juel-Vind-Frijs • Ernst Moro • Floyd Tillman • Greg Halford • Horatio Walpole, 1st Baron Walpole • Ian Somerhalder • James Blundell (singer) • James Thurber • Jan Eggum • Kotono Mitsuishi • Milenko Zablaćanski • Nasir Kazmi • Red Berenson • Robert Sternberg • Óscar Ramírez (footballer, born 1964)

Born in the same month (December 1890): Carlos Gardel • David Bomberg • Dion Fortune • Edwin Howard Armstrong • Fritz Lang • Harry Babcock (pole vaulter) • Hermann Joseph Muller • Jaroslav Heyrovský • Konstantinos Georgakopoulos • László Bárdossy • Mark Tobey • Noel Odell • Percy Hodge • Prince Joachim of Prussia • Rudolf Schlichter • Yoshio Nishina • Yvonne Arnaud