This collection of fourteen pieces, together entitledPuppets, plays an exceptional role in thecatalogue of early works by Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959), namely in that itrepresents the firstworks by Martinu which transcended his initial attempts at composition andquickly founda publisher. Thanks to their lasting popularity particularly with youngpianists, they wereultimately published in numerous editions. (The way the pieces are numbered,which thecomposer verifiably accepted, however, does not correspond to their actualchronologicalorder - they were, in fact, written in reverse order, so that Puppets III camefirst, whilePuppets I is the latest in the series.) All three books of Puppets, whichemerged betweenthe years 1912 and 1925 and, despite their title, differ from one another intheir aestheticapproaches and progressive maturity, are published by Editio Barenreiter innew, revisedurtext editions edited by Ales Brezina. This urtext edition with its relativelycomprehensivepreface descri bing the circumstances surrounding the advent of the work, issupported bythe latest research and an assessment of all known and accessible sources,which theeditor presents and clarifies in detail in his critical commentary to thesecond and thirdbooks of Puppets. Thus Puppet Ball (No. 4) is also published in the third bookin twoseparate versions - in a newer version based on the first edition, on whichMartinu veryprobably collaborated and which introduces, apart from other changes, entirelynewmusic as well in the middle part, and in an earlier version based on theautograph.Thanks to its witty musical ideas and the composer's empathy for children andtheirintellectual world, Puppets has, since its first edition, always been highlypopularamong performers.