Bedřich Smetana was born in Leitomischl, Bohemia, on March 2, 1824.
Though he was interested in music from childhood on, he received little
training until his nineteenth year when he came to Prague and studied
with Josef Proksch. For several years after the completion of his music
study he worked as teacher of music for Count Leopold Thun. He soon
became active in the musical life of his country; in 1848 he was a
significant force in the creation of Prague’s first music school. In
1849, Smetana was appointed pianist to Ferdinand I, the former Emperor
of Austria residing in Prague. From 1856 to 1861 Smetana lived in
Gothenburg, Sweden, where he was active as conductor, teacher, and
pianist. After returning to his native land in 1861 he became one of its
dominant musical figures. He served as director of the music school,
conducted a chorus, wrote music criticisms, founded and directed a drama
school, and organized the Society of Artists. He also wrote a succession
of major works in which the cause of Bohemian nationalism was espoused
so vigorously and imaginatively that Smetana has since become recognized
as the father of Bohemian national music. His most significant works are
the folk opera, _The Bartered Bride_, and a cycle of orchestral tone
poems collectively entitled _My Country_ (_Má Vlast_). Smetana was
stricken by deafness in 1874, despite which he continued creating
important works, among them being operas and an autobiographical string
quartet called _From My Life_ (_Aus meinem Leben_). Total deafness was
supplemented by insanity in 1883 which necessitated confinement in an
asylum in Prague where he died on May 12, 1884.
The rich folk melodies and pulsating folk rhythms of native dance music
overflow in Smetana’s music, providing it with much of its vitality and
popular interest. Smetana’s gift at writing music in the style, idiom,
and techniques of Bohemian folk dances is evident in many of his
compositions, but nowhere more successfully than in his delightful folk
comic opera, _The Bartered Bride_ (_Prodaná nevešta_). This little
opera, first performed in Prague on May 30, 1866, is the foundation on
which Bohemian national music rests securely. It is a gay, lively
picture of life in a small Bohemian village. The principal action
involves the efforts of the village matchmaker to get Marie married to
Wenzel, a dim-witted, stuttering son of the town’s wealthy landowner.
But Marie is in love with Hans who, as it turns out, is also the son of
the same landowner, though by a previous marriage. Through trickery,
Hans manages to win Marie, though for a while matters become complicated
when Marie is led to believe that Hans has deserted her.
In its first version, _The Bartered Bride_ was presented as a play (by
Karel Sabina) with incidental music by Smetana. Realizing that this work
had operatic possibilities, Smetana amplified and revised his score, and
wrote recitatives for the spoken dialogue. In this new extended form the
opera was heard in Vienna in 1892 and was a sensation; from then on, and
to the present time, it has remained one of the most lovable comic
operas ever written.
There are three colorful and dynamic folk dances in this opera which
contribute powerfully to the overall national identity, but whose impact
on audiences is by no means lost when heard apart from the stage action.
“The Dance of the Comedians” appears in the third act, when a circus
troupe appears in the village square and entertains villagers with a
spirited dance. The “Furiant”—a fiery type of Bohemian dance with marked
cross rhythms—comes in the second act when villagers enter the local inn
and perform a Corybantic dance. The “Polka,” a favorite Bohemian dance,
comes as an exciting finish to the first act as local residents give
vent to their holiday spirits during a festival in the village square.
The effervescent overture which precedes the first act is as popular as
the dances. The merry first theme is given by strings and woodwind in
unison against strong chords in brasses and timpani. This subject is
simplified, at times in a fugal style, and is brought to a climax before
a second short subject is stated by the oboe. Still a third charming
folk tune appears, in violins and cellos, before the first main subject
is recalled and developed. The coda, based on this first theme, carries
the overture to a lively conclusion. Gustav Mahler, the eminent music
director of the Vienna Royal Opera which gave this opera its first major
success outside Bohemia, felt this overture was so much in the spirit of
the entire work, and so basic to its overall mood and structure, that he
preferred using it before the second act so that latecomers into the
opera house might not miss it.
Smetana’s most famous work for orchestra comes from his cycle of six
national tone poems entitled _My Country_ (_Má Vlast_), which he wrote
between 1874 and 1879 in a tonal tribute to his native land. Each of the
tone poems is a picture of a different facet of Bohemian life,
geography, and background. The most famous composition of this set is
_The Moldau_ (_Vltava_), a portrait of the famous Bohemian river. This
is a literal tonal representation of the following descriptive program
interpolated by the composer in his published score:
“Two springs gush forth in the shade of the Bohemian forest, the one
warm and spouting, the other cold and tranquil. Their waves, gayly
rushing onward over their rocky beds, unite and glisten in the rays of
the morning sun. The forest brook, fast hurrying on, becomes the river
Vltava, which, flowing ever on through Bohemia’s valleys, grows to be a
mighty stream; it flows through thick woods in which the joyous noise of
the hunt and the notes of the hunter’s horn are heard ever nearer and
nearer; it flows through grass-grown pastures and lowlands where a
wedding feast is celebrated with song and dancing. At night the wood and
water nymphs revel in its shining waves, in which many fortresses and
castles are reflected as witnesses of the past glory of knighthood and
the vanished warlike fame of bygone ages. At St. John Rapids the stream
rushes on, winding in and out through the cataracts, and hews out a path
for itself with its foaming waves through the rocky chasm into the broad
river bed in which it flows on in majestic repose toward Prague,
welcomed by time-honored Vysehrad, whereupon it vanishes in the far
distance from the poet’s gaze.”
The rippling flow of the river Moldau is portrayed by fast figures in
the strings, the background for a broad and sensual folk song
representing the river itself heard in violins and woodwind. Hunting
calls are sounded by the horns, after which a lusty peasant dance erupts
from the full orchestra. Nymphs and naiads disport to the strains of a
brief figure in the woodwind. A transition by the wind brings back the
beautiful Moldau song. A climax is built up, after which the setting
becomes once again serene. The Moldau continues its serene course
towards Prague.