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Bedrich Smetana exhibited flair in music from childhood itself and became a competent violinist playing in string quartet. Bedřich was known by his family as Fritz and was introduced to the music scene at the age of 4 by his father. He then started to learn the violin but he favored the piano more. He was only 6 in his first public solo performance as pianist playing at an entertainment event honoring Emperor Francis I of Austria.
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His family moved to a town south of Bohemia in 1831 and Smetana attended the local elementary school and gymnasium there. He learned violin and piano and started to admire Mozart and Beethoven. After Liszt gave a series of piano recitals in the city, Smetana became convinced that he would find satisfaction only in a musical career. He confided to his journal that he wanted "to become a Mozart in composition and a Liszt in technique".
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It was in 1874 that Smetana complained of a continual whistling in his ears. In his diary, he described it as “like that A-flat major chord….in the high treble”. The whistling turned to buzzing and then roaring, which he said sounded, “as though I were standing under a waterfall.” Then, he could hear absolutely nothing at all.
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Later on he wrote that “deafness would be a relatively tolerable condition if only all was quiet in my head.” He remained deaf for the rest of his life. However, it did not hinder his writing. It was on the very first day he became deaf that he wrote the main theme of 6 national tone poems, collectively titled “Ma Vlast”. We heard some of “Ma Vlast” on Wednesday. Ma Vlast became Smetana’s greatest orchestral monument to Czech nationalism.
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