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Bedrich Smetana [BED-rick SMEH-tan-a] was a composer from the Czech Republic who was known as the father of Czech music.
Bedřich Smetana was born as Friedrich Smetana on March 2, 1824 in a small town just to the east of Prague. What continent is Prague on? |
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He was born as the third child, and had nine siblings. Smetana’s father was a brewer and later, during the Napoleonic Wars, he accumulated moderate wealth by supplying clothing and provisions to the French Army.
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Statue of Bedrich Smetana in Prague
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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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Emperor Francis I of Austria
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Bedrich Smetana was a highly passionate and strong willed individual who overcame many hurdles through his life in order to fulfill his dream of becoming a famous musician.
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Also, in 1848, Smetana started writing revolutionary pieces of music, which involved him in an unsuccessful movement to overthrow the oppressive Habsburg emperor rule. His involvement had important repercussions later on, for it had awakened a national consciousness in him for the first time.
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Around the age of 50, Bedrich Smetana started to lose his hearing. For any musician, hearing is critical. Can you imagine composing music that you could not hear?
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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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