Czech composer Bedřich Smetana
08/10/2013 14:05
Bedřich Smetana was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style which became closely identified with his country's aspirations to independent statehood. He is thus widely regarded in his homeland as the father of Czech music. Internationally he is best known for his opera The Bartered Bride, for the symphonic cycle Má vlast ("My country/homeland"), which portrays the history, legends and landscape of the composer's native land, and for his First String Quartet From My Life.
Má vlast "My country/homeland") is a set of six symphonic poems:
I am sending you one of them... symphonic poem "Vltava"... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jWQqW6MEso
In this piece, Smetana uses tone painting to evoke the sounds of one of Bohemia's great rivers.
In his own words:
The composition describes the course of the Vltava, starting from the two small springs, the Cold and Warm Vltava, to the unification of both streams into a single current, the course of the Vltava through woods and meadows, through landscapes where a farmer's wedding is celebrated, the round dance of the mermaids in the night's moonshine: on the nearby rocks loom proud castles, palaces and ruins aloft. The Vltava swirls into the St John's Rapids; then it widens and flows toward Prague, past the Vyšehrad, and then majestically vanishes into the distance, ending at the Labe (or Elbe, in German).
So close your eyes and let yourself be carried away by the river Vltava tones...
Marie, your Czech teacher