Má vlast Czech pronunciation: [maː vlast]also known as My Fatherland[n 1] is a set of six symphonic poems composed between and by the Czech composer Bedřich Smetana. The six pieces, conceived as individual works, are often presented and recorded as a single work in six movements.
They premiered separately between and Má vlast combines the symphonic poem formpioneered by Franz Lisztwith the ideals of nationalistic music of the late nineteenth century. Each poem depicts an aspect of Bohemia 's countryside, history, or legends.
The works have opened the Prague Spring International Music Festivalon the 12 May anniversary of the death of their composer, since The first poem, Vyšehrad The High Castlecomposed between the end of September and 18 November and premiered on 14 March at the [Prague] Philharmonic, [6] describes the Vyšehrad castle in Prague which was the seat of the earliest Czech kings.
During the summer ofSmetana 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 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 singer Lumír, 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.
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 Blandat och Aktuellt the beauty of the castle, now in ruins.
The music ends quietly, depicting the river Vltava flowing below the castle. Conceived between andit is the only piece in the cycle to be mostly completed before Smetana began to go noticeably deaf in the summer of Most performances last approximately fifteen minutes in duration.
It is about 13 minutes long, and is in the key of E minor. In this piece, Smetana uses tone painting to evoke the sounds of one of Bohemia's great rivers. The composition describes the course of the Vltavastarting from the two small springs, the Studená and Teplá Vltava, to the unification of both streams into a single current, the course of the Vltava through woods and meadows, through landscapes where a farmer's wedding is celebrated, the round dance of the mermaids in the night's moonshine: on the nearby rocks loom proud castles, palaces and ruins aloft.
The Vltava swirls into the St John's Rapids ; then it widens and flows toward Prague, past the Vyšehrad, and then majestically vanishes into the distance, ending at the Elbe.