Bedrich Smetana 1824-1884
Smetana developed a musical style that became closely idenitified with his country’s aspirations to independent statehood from the Austrian Empire. His first examples of this nationalistic music was written in 1848, in part as a result of Smetana’s experience as a member of the Svornost (Citizen’s Army) where he helped man the barricades on the Charles Bridge against the troops of Emperor Ferdinand.
Ma Vlast (My Country or My Fatherland) is a series of six symphonic poems that Smetana wrote between 1874 and 1879, and is the first of his large scale works that are independent of words. Although often performed as a single work in six movements, each of the movements were written as a separate entity and had separate premieres. The complete set was first performed on November 5, 1882. At this performance “Everyone rose to their feet and the same storm of undending applause was repeated after each of the six parts. At the end of Blanik (The final part) the audience was beside itself and the people could not bring themselves to take leave of the composer.” What is remarkable is that Smetana had become completely deaf by the end of 1874, before much of Ma Vlast had been written.
In the winter of 1882-83 Smetana began to suffer from depression, insomnia, hallucinations, and a temporary loss of speech. In February 1884 Smetana ceased to be coherent and was committed to an asylum in April of that year, where he passed away the following month.
Bohemia’s Forests and Meadows
First performed on December 10, 1875, this piece describes the beauty of the Czech countryside, in the form of a tone poem that tells no real story, but includes a section evoking the grandeur of the forest, and the depiction of a village festival.
Blanik
First performed on January 4, 1880, this piece is named for the mountain Blanik, inside which legend says that an army of knights led by St. Wenceslas sleep. The story goes that the knights will awake and help the country in its time of greatest need. Smetana uses the theme from a Hussite hymn that makes reference to the eventual victorious rise of the Czech nation.
The Moldau
First perormed on April 4 1875, Smetana utilized tone painting in one of his best known and internationally famous tunes, an adaptation of La Mantovana, to evoke the sounds of the great rivers of Bohemia.
