This is a very attractive, predominantly humorous ballet. It is a full-evening ballet, though it is made of a series of short stories rather than depicting a single adventure.

Rather, it is a series of scenes drawn from old collections of Bohemian folk fairy tales. Martinu (1990 - 1959) had left his Czech homeland in 1923, seeking a wider audience than Prague. He settled in Paris and through several years of struggle achieved a position as one of the most interesting of the young composers working there who made Paris in the '20s one of the legendary eras of art and music.

He dabbled in American jazz influences, and took as his own a version of the newly fashionable neo-Classical sound, which used a reduced orchestra in which the winds were more prominent than in the large string-based orchestras of the earlier era. But Martinu was not doctrinaire, and as the 1930s began he felt the call of his own roots, and turned to writing this ballet on Czech folklore.

Commentators in Britain usually translate the title of the ballet as "Chapbook." They were a type of small, cheap book, usually containing poems, folk tales, and other things the printer didn't have to pay royalties for, and sold very cheaply by traveling peddlers.

The original version of Spalicek was for three solo voices, children's or women's choir, and small orchestra. But during the 1930s Martinu became more and more interested in using traditional symphony orchestra. (It has to be said that his growing fame both in Paris and in Czechoslovakia opened up established symphonies to him.) So when a second production of Spalicek appeared possible, he made revisions to it, including making a brilliant and colorful new orchestration.

Martinu brought with him from his neo-Classical, small orchestra style several aspects that define his mature orchestral style: Winds are still exceptionally prominent and quite often the strings tend to be used to add additional color to them rather than the other way round. And above all there is the presence of the piano, an almost defining sound in Martinu's orchestral music, adding a special rhythmic crispness to the orchestration.

The ballet is two acts and runs well over an hour. While Martinu was making the new orchestration, fellow Czech composer Milos Riha, under the composer's supervision, drew two orchestral suites from it, H. 214a and H. 214b. These are the standard versions for concert, though other arrangements are possible, and there was at least one recording with the two Riha suites combined, with their individual numbers put back in the revised ballet order.

The stories involve such stalwart plots as some heroes having to get into a Magician's Palace to bring back some McGuffin; there are some animal dances including an appearance by Puss-in-Boots, there is a fight with a Giant (in which a Butterfly triumphs), a brave shoemaker, and a sad princess, in addition to Cinderella, whose Palace Ball makes up one scene. At the end there is a happy Wedding Polka.

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