Martinů’s melodic style is undoubtedly the most alluring and distinctive aspect of his mature musical personality. Many of his admirers are won over initially by the directly expressive qualities of the melody, by its flexibility and rhythmic verve. On many occasions, especially in the Symphonies, his melodic style goes well beyond the merely attractive: sympathetic commentators have used emotive words like ‘joyous’, even ‘life-enhancing’, to describe its appeal. His themes are memorable, often apparently simple, but at the same time have an immense capacity for self-generation and are capable of sustaining impressive symphonic arguments. Yet these very qualities may have acted as a deterrent to serious musical analysis of his style. There have been few attempts made to delve beneath the surface of this music to see what lies there. Perhaps it has been generally assumed that a melodic style which appears so guileless has few secrets to divulge. Martinů’s music is not the sort which makes an analyst rub his hands in glee in anticipation of the discoveries to be made within, and so it has been largely left alone. He himself only occasionally wrote analyses of his own works, and to the programme note for the premiere of the Fourth Symphony in 1945 he added the following cautionary note, stressing the limited usefulness he saw for analysis: