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Bedrich Smetana
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- "Smetana" redirects here. For the soured cream, see smetana (dairy product).
Bedrich Smetana (pronounced ; 2 March 1824 – 12 May 1884) was a Czech composer, one of the most significant that his country has ever produced. He is best known for his symphonic poem Vltava (also known as The Moldau from the German), the second in a cycle of six which he entitled Má vlast ("My Country"), and for his opera The Bartered Bride.
ana was the son of a brewer in Litomyšl in Bohemia, then part of the Austrian Empire.
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Encyclopedia
- "Smetana" redirects here. For the soured cream, see smetana (dairy product).
Bedrich Smetana (pronounced ; 2 March 1824 – 12 May 1884) was a Czech composer, one of the most significant that his country has ever produced. He is best known for his symphonic poem Vltava (also known as The Moldau from the German), the second in a cycle of six which he entitled Má vlast ("My Country"), and for his opera The Bartered Bride.
Biography
Smetana was the son of a brewer in Litomyšl in Bohemia, then part of the Austrian Empire. He studied piano and violin from an early age, and played in an amateur string quartet with other members of his family. Smetana attended a high school in Pilsen from 1840-1843. He studied music in Prague, despite initial resistance from his father. He secured a post as music master to a noble family, and in 1848 received funds from Franz Liszt to establish his own music school.
September 1855 marked the death of his second child, his beloved four-year-old daughter Bedriška. When his third child died nine months later, he committed himself to composition, producing the Piano Trio in G minor. This piece is full of sadness and despair, making use of phrases that are cut short, possibly in resemblance to his daughter's own life.
Smetana moved in 1856 to Gothenburg, Sweden, where he taught, conducted, and gave chamber music recitals. In 1863, back in Prague, he opened a new school of music dedicated to promoting specifically Czech music.
In 1874, Smetana gradually lost his hearing. While Beethoven became deaf gradually over a period of years, Smetana became deaf quite suddenly, over only a few weeks. He went to the opera on the evening of 19 October 1874 still able to hear to some extent, but woke the following morning completely deaf. However, he continued to compose; Má vlast had already been started, and Smetana finished what he had started.
He also suffered from tinnitus which caused him to hear a continuous, maddening high note which he described as the "shrill whistle of a first inversion chord of A-flat in the highest register of the piccolo."
From 1875 he lived mostly in the small village of Jabkenice.
His string quartet in E minor, Z mého života (From My Life, composed in 1876), the first of two pieces that he wrote for the medium, is an autobiographical work. Each movement deals with a different aspect of its creator's life. The first movement is expressive, demonstrative of Smetana's youthful love of art and his search for something undefinable. The second movement, carefree and somewhat raucous, takes the listener back to the days of Smetana's youth. The third movement is reminiscent of the happiness Smetana felt when in love with the girl who later became his wife. The final movement begins with Smetana's joy over the recognition which was given to the national music of Bohemia. However, as the movement progresses, the music is punctuated by a piercing high E in the first violin which, Smetana explained, represents the devastating effects of his tinnitus. He may also be hinting at this personal misfortune with the piccolo scoring in Má vlast.
Smetana was the first composer to write music that was specifically Czech in character. Many of his operas are based on Czech themes and myths, the best known being the comedy The Bartered Bride (1866). He used many Czech dance rhythms and his melodies sometimes resemble folk songs, though he was proud of not directly quoting folktunes for the most part. Smetana maintained that his country's music should be a patriotic expression of the Czech life and collective soul. In this assumption, he clashed with a former friend of his, František Pivoda, who believed that "art knows no boundaries." Pivoda wanted to see fair interchange of artistic ideas between countries.
In 1882 Smetana suffered further effects of his progressive neurological illness. After he suffered a stroke-like seizure, doctors forbade him to compose in the fear that the increased mental activity of composition would result in further seizures. However, Smetana rebelled against these orders and composed his final, incomplete, opera, Viola. In 1884 he was taken to the Prague Lunatic Asylum, where he died soon afterwards. He is interred in the Vyšehrad cemetery in Prague.
An autopsy conducted by Professor Jaroslav Hlava showed that Smetana experienced progressive paralysis, a symptom that could have been caused by syphilis. On the other hand, recently, Dr. Jirí Ramba has suggested that Bedrich Smetana's progressive paralysis may have been caused by a childhood injury and infection which caused osteomyelitis.
Smetana was a great influence on other Czech composers. Most notably Antonín Dvorák, who similarly used Czech themes in his works. It seems that Smetana turned Dvorák's attention to the potential of folksong. Smetana was the father of the Czech musical style, and his output continues to influence musicians today.
Selected works
For the complete list see List of compositions by Bedrich Smetana.
Operas
- Branibori v Cechách (The Brandenburgers in Bohemia) – Interim Theatre, Prague, 1866
- Prodaná nevesta (The Bartered Bride) – Interim Theatre, Prague, 1866 (original version in 2 act); Interim Theatre, Prague, 1870 (final revision in 3 act)
- Dalibor – Czech Theater, Prague, 1868
- Libuše – National Theatre, Prague, 1881
- Dve vdovy (The Two Widows) – Czech Theater, Prague, 1874
- Hubicka (The Kiss) – Czech Theater, Prague, 1876
- Tajemství (The Secret) – Premiere in 1878
- Certova stena (The Devil's Wall) – Premiere in 1882
- Viola – Not completed (1872–1884)
Orchestral music
- Má vlast (My Country) including "The Moldau"
- Triumphal or Festive Symphony in E major
- Richard III, symphonic poem
- Wallenstein's Camp, symphonic poem
- Hĺkon Jarl, symphonic poem
- Prague Carnival
- Festive Overture in D major
- March for Shakespeare Festival
Chamber music
Piano music
- Album Leaves
- Bagatelles and Impromptus
- Czech Dances
- Polkas
- Sonata in G Minor
Vocal works
External links
Sources
- Jirí Ramba: Slavné ceské lebky, antropologicko-lékarské nálezy jako pomocníci historie (Famous Czech Skulls, anthropological-medical findings as helpers of history), Galén, 2005, Prague, ISBN 80-7262-325-7
- Clapham, John. 1972. Smetana. London: J. M. Dent and Sons Ltd.; New York: Octagon Books.
- Large, Bryan. 1970. Smetana. New York/Washington: Praeger.
- John Clapham
- Derek Katz
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- Fairley, E. Lee. Quartet “From My Life”.
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