The Music Plays On — Smetana Má vlast
The Czech composer Bedřich Smetana composed the six individual movements of his symphonic masterpiece, Má vlast (My Homeland), between 1875 and 1880. The six movements — Vyšehrad, Vltava, Šárka, Z českých luhů a hájů, Tábor, and Blaník — were conceived as individual symphonic poems, but only one of them, Vltava (Die Moldau in German), is performed by itself with any frequency. They were played as a set for the first time on November 5, 1882 in Prague.
Each symphonic poem, or movement, of Má vlast describes some sort of aspect of the countryside, history, or legends of what was then called Bohemia.
Vyšehrad (The High Castle) is a musical description of the castle overlooking the Vltava river, which goes directly through Prague.
Vltava, the second movement of Má vlast, is the most often performed of the symphonic poems. It is a musical description of the river from its beginnings a tributary, to the mighty St. John’s Rapids, by the majestic walls of the castle Vyšehrad, and finally disappearing as…
