Classical Music / Composer's Datebook (1824-1884)
Bedřich Smetana (1824-1884), was born at a time when the Czech language was regarded as the language of peasants. No educated person would be seen dead speaking Czech or Slovak, although many musicians in Vienna were of Czech and Slovak origin. The music of these peasants was regarded as barbaric and no compositions were written in that genre. In 1824 Beethoven and Schubert reigned in Vienna and their music was performed in all centres of the Austrian Empire. In Prague, only Germanic music could be heard with a sprinkling of Italian operas. Bedrich Smetana himself learned to read and write Czech only at a mature age and was never proficient in the Czech language. Yet, he was the first composer to bring forth the music of the Czechs with great grandeur and is today honoured as the “Father of Czech Music”.
Although the disdain for Czech music and language reigned supreme during the above mentioned period, the Czechs benefited from the reforms of Emperor Joseph II (1780-1790). These reforms introduced the era of Enlightenment into the backward provinces of the Austrian Empire. Native Czechs gained easier access to higher education and started their Czech National Revival at the beginning of the 19th century.
While the early impulse of the Czech National Revival was Rationalist, it soon gained a Romanticist orientation. They enthused over what they saw as a glorious Czech past, were vocal in their desire to resurrect the dormant Czech civilisation and proclaimed a brotherhood with all suppressed Slavonic peoples. This earned them nothing but stricter police oppression and the leaders of the nationalistic trend were imprisoned or exiled.
In the 1840s, in spite of the strong police oppression, Czech journalists started with gentle overtones to press for Nationalism, teaching people to read between the lines and to construe hidden meanings. During the time of the 1848 revolution, strict Government controls collapsed. Freedom of the press came into being and with it a call for National identity. This freedom lasted for one year only (1848-1849) and was followed by ten years of oppression. This oppression only heightened the Czechs’ determination to found their own nation.
© Agnes Selby, Guest Writer-Friend
Although the disdain for Czech music and language reigned supreme during the above mentioned period, the Czechs benefited from the reforms of Emperor Joseph II (1780-1790). These reforms introduced the era of Enlightenment into the backward provinces of the Austrian Empire. Native Czechs gained easier access to higher education and started their Czech National Revival at the beginning of the 19th century.
While the early impulse of the Czech National Revival was Rationalist, it soon gained a Romanticist orientation. They enthused over what they saw as a glorious Czech past, were vocal in their desire to resurrect the dormant Czech civilisation and proclaimed a brotherhood with all suppressed Slavonic peoples. This earned them nothing but stricter police oppression and the leaders of the nationalistic trend were imprisoned or exiled.
In the 1840s, in spite of the strong police oppression, Czech journalists started with gentle overtones to press for Nationalism, teaching people to read between the lines and to construe hidden meanings. During the time of the 1848 revolution, strict Government controls collapsed. Freedom of the press came into being and with it a call for National identity. This freedom lasted for one year only (1848-1849) and was followed by ten years of oppression. This oppression only heightened the Czechs’ determination to found their own nation.
This is the historical and cultural background to the work to the work of Bedrich Smetana. Born in Litomysl, he took violin lessons from his father and from several local teachers. He was sent to the Gymnasium at Plzen as his grades at the academic Gymnasium in Prague did not meet with his father’s approval. After graduation he had difficulty in making a living but his situation improved when he was appointed Resident Teacher to Count Leopold Thun’s family. (The Thun family name appears predominantly in the lives of Mozart and Beethoven).
Smetana founded a music school in Prague. He also taught privately and played regularly in the home of the deposed Emperor Ferdinand. Finding himself in a more secure financial position, Smetana married his love of many years, Katerina Kolarova in 1849.
In the first six years of their marriage, the Smetanas had four daughters, three of whom died. It was the death of his eldest daughter, Bedriska (Fritzi), on September 6, 1855 then only five years old, that caused the composer to give vent to his grief in the intimacy of chamber music. The G minor Piano Trio was composed in memory of his daughter, Fritzi. Smetana's financial situation improved little in the years that followed, and the political uncertainty and domestic tragedy only added to his unrest. When he was offered a position in Goteborg, Sweden he jumped at the opportunity. In Sweden he was in demand as pianist, teacher and conductor. Inspired by Franz Liszt’s example, he composed his first symphonic poems. His wife’s health forced him to return to Bohemia with her in 1859. His wife died in Dresden on their way home.After two more years in Goteborg, Smetana returned to Prague. He had married for the second time a twenty year old girl, Bettina Ferdinandova. The new Nationalistic awakening that followed the Austrian defeat by Napoleon III and his home sickness brought Smetana back to his homeland only to find himself no more successful than he was before his departure to Sweden. All this changed with his first opera, “The Brandenburgers in Bohemia”, enthusiastically received in January 1866. This was soon followed by his opera, “The Bartered Bride”. The opera ignited pride in the nation’s peasant origins. Smetana was appointed principal conductor of the Provisional Theatre (1866 –1874).
In 1874 there appeared the first signs of syphilis that was to result in Smetana’s deafness. The String quartet “From My Life” (1876) suggests in its last movement the piercing whistling that haunted him, making work almost impossible. He somehow managed to complete two more operas, a second string quartet and several other works, but in April 1884 he was taken to the Prague lunatic asylum, where he died the following month.
Smetana was the first major nationalist composer of Bohemia. He gave his people a new musical identity and self-confidence. He was a great inspiration to Antonin Dvorak and other Czech composers. His music sustained his countrymen during World War II and the Russian occupation and he is today known to every schoolchild in his beloved country as the Father of Czech Music.
Smetana founded a music school in Prague. He also taught privately and played regularly in the home of the deposed Emperor Ferdinand. Finding himself in a more secure financial position, Smetana married his love of many years, Katerina Kolarova in 1849.
In the first six years of their marriage, the Smetanas had four daughters, three of whom died. It was the death of his eldest daughter, Bedriska (Fritzi), on September 6, 1855 then only five years old, that caused the composer to give vent to his grief in the intimacy of chamber music. The G minor Piano Trio was composed in memory of his daughter, Fritzi. Smetana's financial situation improved little in the years that followed, and the political uncertainty and domestic tragedy only added to his unrest. When he was offered a position in Goteborg, Sweden he jumped at the opportunity. In Sweden he was in demand as pianist, teacher and conductor. Inspired by Franz Liszt’s example, he composed his first symphonic poems. His wife’s health forced him to return to Bohemia with her in 1859. His wife died in Dresden on their way home.After two more years in Goteborg, Smetana returned to Prague. He had married for the second time a twenty year old girl, Bettina Ferdinandova. The new Nationalistic awakening that followed the Austrian defeat by Napoleon III and his home sickness brought Smetana back to his homeland only to find himself no more successful than he was before his departure to Sweden. All this changed with his first opera, “The Brandenburgers in Bohemia”, enthusiastically received in January 1866. This was soon followed by his opera, “The Bartered Bride”. The opera ignited pride in the nation’s peasant origins. Smetana was appointed principal conductor of the Provisional Theatre (1866 –1874).
He added 42 operas to the reportory, including his own “Dalibor” based on a heroic national theme and “The Two Widows”. “Dalibor” and “Libuse” were performed at the opening of the National Theatre in Prague in 1881 and are Smetana’s two most nationalistic operas. When completing the latter he also composed a vast orchestral monument to his nation which became the cycle of symphonic poems entitled “Ma Vlast” (My Fatherland), including the evocative and stirring “Vltava”, a symphonic picture of the river that flows through Prague. Both these composition played no small a part in the 20th century’s Velvet Revolution against communist oppression.
In 1874 there appeared the first signs of syphilis that was to result in Smetana’s deafness. The String quartet “From My Life” (1876) suggests in its last movement the piercing whistling that haunted him, making work almost impossible. He somehow managed to complete two more operas, a second string quartet and several other works, but in April 1884 he was taken to the Prague lunatic asylum, where he died the following month.
Smetana was the first major nationalist composer of Bohemia. He gave his people a new musical identity and self-confidence. He was a great inspiration to Antonin Dvorak and other Czech composers. His music sustained his countrymen during World War II and the Russian occupation and he is today known to every schoolchild in his beloved country as the Father of Czech Music.
Suggested listening:
Smetana Vltava (The Moldau) - Stunning Performance. YouTube, uploaded by Sevnikov. Accessed March 3, 2020.
Photo credit:
Bedrich Smetana. Public Domain.
(Note: Mrs. Agnes Selby is author of Constanze, Mozart's Beloved. This piece was originally written by Mrs. Selby July 25, 2006, for one of my classical music blogs, now closed. Thanks, dear Agnes.)
(c) March 2008. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.
Dear Agnes,
ReplyDeleteA splendid article. Thank you for this stimulating piece on Bedrich Smetana. Indeed, it glows with a noble pride, his musical patriotism at its best, although I must admit that I know about Dvorak and his music more.
I learnt a lot from this piece, thanks again.
Best regards, Tel