Má vlast

Má vlast(Czech pronunciation:[maːvlast]), also known asMy Fatherland,is a set of sixsymphonic poemscomposed between 1874 and 1879 by the Czech composerBedřich Smetana. The six pieces, conceived as individual works, are often presented and recorded as a single work in six movements. They premiered separately between 1875 and 1880. The complete set premiered on 5 November 1882 inŽofín Palace, Prague,underAdolf Čech.
Má vlastcombines thesymphonic poem form, pioneered byFranz Liszt, with the ideals of nationalistic music of the late nineteenth century. Each poem depicts an aspect ofBohemia's countryside, history, or legends.
The works have opened thePrague Spring International Music Festival, on the 12 May anniversary of the death of their composer, since 1952.
Má vlastconsists of six pieces:
The first poem,Vyšehrad(The High Castle), composed between the end of September and 18 November 1874 and premiered on 14 March 1875 at the [Prague] Philharmonic,describes theVyšehradcastle inPraguewhich was the seat of the earliestCzech kings. During the summer of 1874, Smetana began to lose his hearing, and total deafness soon followed; he described the gradual, but rapid loss of his hearing in a letter of resignation to the director of the Royal Provincial Czech Theatre, Antonín Čížek. In July 1874 he began hearing anomalous noise and then a permanent buzzing. Not long after the onset he was unable to distinguish individual sounds. At the beginning of October he lost all hearing in his right ear, and finally on 20 October in his left. His treatment was based on maintaining isolation from all sounds, but was unsuccessful.
The poem begins with the sounds of the harp of the mythical singerLumír, and then crosses over into the tones of the castle's arsenal. This section of the music introduces the main motifs, which are used in other parts of the cycle. A four note motif (B♭–E♭–D–B♭) represents the castle of Vyšehrad; this is heard again at the end of 'Vltava' and once more, to round the whole cycle off, at the conclusion of 'Blaník'.
In the score two harps are required to perform the opening arpeggios. After a dominant seventh chord, the winds take up the theme, followed by the strings, before the whole orchestra is employed to reach a climax. In the next part, Smetana recalls the story of the castle, using a faster tempo which becomes a march. A seemingly triumphant climax is cut short by a descending passage depicting the collapse of the castle, and the music falls quiet. Then the opening harp material is heard again and the music reminds again of the beauty of the castle, now in ruins. The music ends quietly, depicting the riverVltavaflowing below the castle.
Conceived between 1872 and 1874, it is the only piece in the cycle to be mostly completed before Smetana began to go noticeably deaf in the summer of 1874. Most performances last approximately fifteen minutes in duration.
Vltava, also known by its English titleThe Moldau, and the GermanDie Moldau, was composed between 20 November and 8 December 1874 and was premiered on 4 April 1875 underAdolf Čech. It is about 13 minutes long, and is in the key of E minor. It is the most well known of the poems, often performed separately from the full work.
In this piece, Smetana usestone paintingto evoke the sounds of one of Bohemia's great rivers.In his own words:
Vltava contains Smetana's most famous tune. It is an adaptation of the melodyLa Mantovana, attributed to the Italian RenaissancetenorGiuseppe Cenci,which, in a borrowedRomanianform, was also the basis for theIsraelinational anthemHatikvah. The tune also appears in an old Czech folk song,Kočka leze dírou("The Cat Crawls Through the Hole");Hanns Eislerused it for his "Song of the Moldau[de]"; andStan Getzperformed it as "Dear Old Stockholm" (possibly through another derivative of the original tune, "Ack Värmeland du sköna").Horst Jankowskiplayed asyncopatedversion of the tune on hiseasy listeninghit, "A Walk in the Black Forest."
The piece is featured inDon Hertzfeldt's short filmEverything Will Be OK(2006) and inTerrence Malick'sThe Tree of Life(2011).
The third poem was finished on 20 February 1875 and is named for the female warrior Šárka, a central figure in the ancient Czech legend ofThe Maidens' War. Šárka ties herself to a tree as bait and waits to be saved by the princely knight Ctirad, deceiving him into believing that she is an unwilling captive of the rebelling women. Once released by Ctirad, who has quickly fallen in love with her, Šárka serves him and his comrades with druggedmeadand once they have fallen asleep she sounds ahunting horn: an agreed signal to the other women. The poem ends with the warrior maidens falling upon and murdering the sleeping men. It was first performed under the baton ofAdolf Čech(sources disagree whether this was on 10 December 1876or 17 March 1877).
Smetana finished composing this piece, commonly translated as "From Bohemia's Woods and Fields" or "From Bohemian Fields and Groves",on 18 October 1875, and it received its first public performance nearly eight weeks later, on 10 December. A depiction of the beauty of the Czech countryside and its people, the tone poem tells no real story. The first part is dedicated to the grandeur of the forest with a surprisingfuguein the strings, interrupted by a soft woodland melody of the horns, which is later taken over by the whole orchestra. In the second part, a village festival is depicted in full swing. This tone poem was originally written to be the finale ofMá vlast.
This piece, which was finished on 13 December 1878 and premiered on 4 January 1880, is named after the town ofTáborinSouth Bohemiafounded by theHussitesand serving as their centre during theHussite Wars. The theme for the piece is quoted from the first two lines of the Hussite hymn, "Ktož jsú boží bojovníci" ("Ye Who Are Warriors of God").
Blaník was finished on 9 March 1879 and premiered on 4 January 1880. It is named for the mountainBlaníkinside which a legend says that a huge army of knights led bySt. Wenceslaussleep. The knights will awake and help the country in its gravest hour (sometimes described as four hostile armies attacking from allcardinal directions).
Musically,Blaníkbegins exactly asTáborends, "hammering" out the motto which was left unresolved, but now continuing on, as if in the aftermath of the battle. Thus these last two tone poems of the cycle form a cohesive pair, as do the first two; the High Castle's theme returns as the Vltava's river journey triumphantly reaches that same destination, and again returns triumphantly at the end ofBlaník. Once again, the Hussite hymn used in Tábor is quoted, though this time it is the third line which rings out in the march at the end of the piece. The original lyrics to this line in the hymn are "so that finally with Him you will always be victorious", a reference to the eventual victorious rise of the Czech state.
The work is scored forpiccolo, twoflutes, twooboes, twoclarinets, twobassoons, fourFrench horns, twotrumpets, threetrombones,tuba,timpani,bass drum,triangle,cymbals, twoharps, andstrings.