Smetana married Kateřina and they had four daughters, but three of them died. He still had very little money, so he went to Sweden where he was very successful as a piano teacher and conductor. He composed the first of his symphonic poems: "Richard III". After three years in Sweden he decided to return to his homeland because of his Kateřina’s health, but she died on the way. Smetana spent two more years in Sweden. He married again. After the Austrian defeat by Napoleon III in 1859, it became clear that there were going to be big changes in his native country. The Czechs were going to be allowed to have a national opera and put on plays in the Czech language instead of having to perform everything in German. Smetana realized that this was an exciting chance for him. After a big farewell concert in Stockholm to which the Swedish royal family came, Smetana returned to Prague.
Smetana now started to learn Czech, a language he did not speak. It was not easy for him in Prague because he was only known there as a pianist and teacher. He put on a concert of music by German composers but nobody came. He wanted to be director of the Provisional Theatre but the job was given to a man called Mayr who was not very good.
Gradually Smetana’s reputation grew and he started to write operas in Czech which became very popular. The first one was called "The Brandenburgers in Bohemia". Mayr made things very difficult for Smetana but the audience loved the opera and it was performed ten more times. His next opera is the one which has become his best-known opera internationally: "The Bartered Bride". Smetana got the job of director of the Provisional Theatre instead of Mayr. Smetana made lots of improvements, introducing well-known German, French and Italian operas to the audiences as well as new operas by young Czech composers. The operas "Dalibor" was first performed on the day that the first stone was laid for the building of the National Theatre. It was a great occasion, although the music critics were unkind and said that his music sounded too much like Wagner. His opera "Libuše" was written for the coronation of Franz Joseph in Prague, but that coronation never happened, so the opera was not performed for another ten years when the National Theatre was opened (1881). He spent several years composing a cycle of six symphonic poems called "Ma Vlast" ("My Country"). These are very popular today, especially the second one, "Vltava", which describes the river Vltava flowing from its source all the way to the sea.
In his last years Smetana became totally deaf. He was suffering from syphilis. He heard horrible high squeaks in his ears a lot of the time. He showed this when composing his "String Quartet no 2": the first violin plays a very long high note for a long time in the last movement, showing the audience what he had to suffer. He became very depressed and his wife did not help by quarrelling a lot with him. It became painfully difficult for him to compose. In the end he was writing four bars a day. His mental state got worse. He was guarded all day in case he harmed himself. He did not recognize his own family. He was put in an asylum where he died shortly afterwards.
As soon as the Czech people were allowed to produce plays and operas in their own language Smetana thought it was his duty to write a series of nationalist operas. His operas were based on the nation’s history and legends. His symphonic cycle "Ma Vlast" was programme music, full of heroism, often describing nature and the countryside. Smetana also wrote a lot for piano. He was the most important Czech composer there had been at that time. Smetana and Dvořák were the founders of modern Czech music.
Light-emitting diode
A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that produces light from electricity. LEDs last a long time and do not break easily (compared to incandescent lightbulbs). They can produce many different colors. They are efficient - most of the energy turns into light, not heat.
An LED is a type of diode that makes one color of light when electricity is sent through it in the expected direction (electrically biased in the forward direction). This effect is a kind of electroluminescence.
The color of the light depends on the chemical composition of the semiconducting material used, and can be near-ultraviolet, visible or infrared. The color affects how much electricity is used by the LED. A white LED has either two or three LEDs inside, of different colors. Some white LEDs have one single-color LED inside (usually blue), combined with a phosphor that converts that single color to white.
LEDs are used in many places. They are the colored indicator lights on many electronic devices, they can be used to make bright advertising signs, brake lights on some newer cars, in TVs, and more recently, light bulbs for the home. White LEDs bright enough to illuminate rooms are usually more expensive than regular lightbulbs but they last longer and burn less electricity.
LEDs, which make their own light, should not be confused with LCDs, which block light. Some displays, however, mix the two technologies, using LEDs to backlight the LCD.
Today, some LEDs are surface-mount devices (SMD), so they can be very small.
Antonín Dvořák
Antonín Dvořák (b.Nelahozeves, nr Kralupy, September 8 1841; d. Prague May 1 1904) was a Czech composer. Along with Smetana and Janáček, Dvorak is one of three famous composers who wrote nationalist Czech music. He wrote chamber music including several string quartets, piano music, songs, operas, oratorios and nine symphonies. The last of his symphonies is known as the "New World" Symphony because he wrote it in the United States (the “New World”). The slow movement with its solo played on the cor anglais is especially famous.
Dvořák was born in a village near Prague, Czechoslovakia. Today Prague is the capital city of the Czech Republic, but in those days it was part of the Austrian Empire. His father was a butcher and innkeeper. He also played the zither and composed a few simple dances.
The young Antonín started to have violin lessons from the village schoolmaster. Soon he was playing the violin in his father’s inn, in local churches and in the village band. Just before his 12th birthday he left school and started to learn how to be a butcher. A year later he left home to go to school in Zlonice. He learned a lot about music there, and he also learned German. His teacher persuaded Dvořák's parents that he should have a musical career, so they sent him to study music in Prague at the Organ School. He continued to learn German, and he became a good viola player and played in concerts and in the Estates Theatre when they needed a big orchestra for Wagner’s operas "Lohengrin" and "Tannhäuser".
When Dvořák had finished his studies he got his first job playing in a band in restaurants and for balls. This was a time when there was suddenly a great interest in national culture in Bohemia. Plays and operas were allowed to be performed in the Czech language. The band he played with became part of the Bohemian Provisional Theater Orchestra, which from 1866 was conducted by Bedřich Smetana. Dvořák was principal viola player in the orchestra. He earned extra money by teaching, and he started to compose.
In 1871 he left the orchestra so that he could spend more time composing. For several years he still had to teach in order to earn enough money to live. He wrote a cantata "The heirs of the White Mountain" which was a great success. In 1874 he wrote an opera "King and Charcoal Burner", but the opera house did not want it. This made Dvořák realize that he had to be more self-critical. He destroyed a lot of his compositions which he thought were not his best works. He decided he must not compose like Wagner, but that he needed to find his own style of composing.