The autograph of this unknown work by Martinu was found by the editor  Ales Brezina in southern France in 1996 with the help of the painter Rudolf Kundera, a long-time friend of the composer. Martinu wrote it in 1940 on the run from the Nazi terror, on his way through southern France, Spain and Portugal to the U.S.A. In their masterful composition and overall conception, the Four Songs relate to the other of Bohuslav Martinu’s known songs from the early 1940s (The New Chap-Book 1942, Songs on One Page 1943, Songs on Two Pages 1944). The connection is so close that if it were not for the last short song, it would be quite possible to name the cycle “Songs on Three Pages”. The songs are titled: Horses on a Fallow Field, My Little Lost Shoe, A Song Religious and An Invitation.