The origins of the immensely prolific Czechoslovakian composer Bohuslav Martinů are readily audible in his music, although the influences of jazz and his French training are also apparent. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, written in France in 1955, Martinů took his inspiration from a Babylonian epic, whose subject is the nature of love and death. The work is one of his most successful, portraying the varied emotions of the scenario succinctly and dramatically. It stands as powerful testimony to Martinů’s genius as one of the twentieth century’s finest composers.