Music: Romantic Period - Smetana

Music: Romantic Period - Smetana

Bedrich Smetana (1824-1884)

Bedrich Smetana was born in 1824 in Bohemia (modern day Czech Republic). His father was a beer brewer and also a novice violinist. He taught Smetana how to play violin and sent him to school in Prague where his love for music blossomed. Smetana spent more time at concerts and composing for his friends than he actually did in school. He became a piano teacher for the family of Count Leopold Thun. However, Smetana grew up in a time when Bohemia was under Austrian rule, and Smetana joined the patriots until the revolution was crushed by the Austrians.

He then went to Sweden to accept a conducting position and taught piano at Goteborg, Sweden. He had quite a run of misfortune including a failed music school venture and the deaths of three of his daughters and his wife. He did return to Prague later and wrote operas and symphonic poems in the nationalistic style. He wrote eight operas and a cycle of six symphonic poems and was appointed conductor of the National Theater. He is best known for his opera, The Bartered Bride and the six symphonic poem cycle, Ma vlast (My Country). He wrote mostly programmatic music tied together by a literary or pictorial association and embedded in flowing melodies. His health declined due to syphilis, and he lost his hearing. He died in 1884 at the age of 60.