Bedrich Smetana is considered to be the Father of Czech music and is known for his exceptional love for the motherland, its beauties and independence. Smetana started his music career very early – as a pianist at the age of 6. But with age he became more and more concerned about the future of his homeland – Bohemia – and his started composing music with nationalistic features.
Smetana’s late years of life were quite pathetic – the great composer gradually lost his hearing and ended his life in an asylum for mentally ill people. However, the heritage he left remained unsurpassed. Among composer’s most famous works are the opera The Bartered Bride, string quartet From My Life and of course the renowned symphonic cycle known as Ma Vlast.
The latter is actually a set of six individual works-movements that were recorded individually too. But the part of this tone poem – Vltava – stands even more aside. Its German name is “Die Moldau”, the work is dedicated to a country’s ‘blood’ – the rivers, particularly the majestic Vltava. The tone is painted in such a way that it brightly describes all the natural phenomena of the river – its current, streams, day and night niceties, life on its banks. This music piece involves one of Smetana’s famous tunes, and exactly the adopted melody of La Mantovana which is also known to be the base of the national anthem of Israel.
Below is a curious adaptation of Vltava for solo guitar:
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| The river Vltava |
Smetana’s late years of life were quite pathetic – the great composer gradually lost his hearing and ended his life in an asylum for mentally ill people. However, the heritage he left remained unsurpassed. Among composer’s most famous works are the opera The Bartered Bride, string quartet From My Life and of course the renowned symphonic cycle known as Ma Vlast.
The latter is actually a set of six individual works-movements that were recorded individually too. But the part of this tone poem – Vltava – stands even more aside. Its German name is “Die Moldau”, the work is dedicated to a country’s ‘blood’ – the rivers, particularly the majestic Vltava. The tone is painted in such a way that it brightly describes all the natural phenomena of the river – its current, streams, day and night niceties, life on its banks. This music piece involves one of Smetana’s famous tunes, and exactly the adopted melody of La Mantovana which is also known to be the base of the national anthem of Israel.
Below is a curious adaptation of Vltava for solo guitar:
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