In the first movement of his Third Symphony, Martinů made a substantial cut in the development section. Thirty bars have been expunged, following the brief piano solo immediately before figure 13. They contain new variations on the motif referred to as x in chapter IX, and are shown in Ex. 198. The role of these bars in the rhythmic structure of the movement is intriguing. It may be remembered that, after a terse and closely argued exposition, the development follows in a more languid style. The rhythm is noticeably more torpid, despite the increase in tempo inherited from the end of the exposition. In the familiar version, the solo piano bar ‘jump-starts’ the development, and a new ostinato emerges – the third and final one of the development – which is more invigorating than the previous two. When the cut is restored, this re-animation happens more gradually. At figure 12a, the new ostinato is introduced surreptitiously in the oscillating figure of the lower strings. It now takes up 50 bars instead of the 20 allotted to it in the revised version. The extra breadth means that the division of labour between the three ostinati is more evenly balanced: 46 and 50 bars for the two outer ones, with a shorter period of 31 bars between. The third and most powerful ostinato is thereby given time to build patiently from a mere whisper to a fist-shaking statement of anger, divided between opposing sections of the orchestra in the tumultuous bars after figure 13, and culminating in the trombone statement of Ex. 112.

The restoration of the missing bars brings a second advantage: it highlights the tendency of the development section to become more obsessively motivic as it progresses. The opening solos for bassoon and cor anglais make little reference to the motivic substance of the preceding argument. Later, beneath the second ostinato in the woodwind, the strings build lazy arched phrases from the secondary motif y, although the mood is still somewhat indolent. In the revised version, the solo piano ‘jump-starts’ the motivic activity too – whirling chromatic chains derived from x spring up at once in the woodwind. The excised bars show Martinů restoring motivic coherence more gradually: the brief woodwind phrases at figure 12a use a dotted rhythm which first surfaced in the transition between the first and second subjects.