Performing and Visual Art

DISCURSIVE ARCHETYPES IN THE MUSIC OF BEDRICH SMETANA

Prof. Dr. Petruța Coroiu1

Assist. Drd. Alexandra Belibou
1
Transilvania University of Brașov, Romania

ABSTRACT
Bedrich Smetana is one of the most important composers of the 19th century national
schools, being the one who stylistically outlined the Czech music. Our paper highlights
the discursive archetypes of his art, in an attempt to summarize the concise but
exhaustive picture of his compositional means of articulating the musical discourse.
Although his compositional means are typical for Romanticism, the vastness of the
musical genres he chose makes us say that he is one of those who possesses, together
with Dvorak, the stylistic key of Czech cult music. Characterized by researchers as
romantic, nationalist and realistic at the same time, the composer from whose death we
commemorate 135 years on the 12th of May this year, has marked the entire register of
musical creations from piano works to vocal and choral, chamber music, orchestral
works or opera. His discursive strategies are based on an inner dynamic of the work,
that emphasizes the typical romantic elements related to the presentation of the climax,
the general breaks as semantic suspension, the positioning of the orchestral and vocal
musical layers.
Keywords: Romanticism, national school, discursive archetypes, Czech music

INTRODUCTION
Bedrich Smetana is one of the most important composers of the 19th century national
schools, being the one who stylistically outlined the Czech music. Our paper highlights
the discursive archetypes of his art, in an attempt to summarize the concise but
exhaustive picture of his compositional means of articulating the musical discourse.
Although his compositional means are typical for Romanticism, the vastness of the
musical genres he chose makes us say that he is one of those who possesses, together
with Dvorak, the stylistic key of Czech cult music. Characterized by researchers as
romantic, nationalist and realistic at the same time, the composer from whose death we
commemorate 135 years on the 12th of May this year, has marked the entire register of
musical creations from piano works to vocal and choral, chamber music, orchestral
works or opera. His discursive strategies are based on an inner dynamic of the work,
that emphasizes the typical romantic elements related to the presentation of the climax,
the general breaks as semantic suspension, the positioning of the orchestral and vocal
musical layers.

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“The so-discussed ingredients of romanticism, the mixture of instinct and reason,

imagination and form, heart and intellect, dionysiac and apollinic, with supremacy of
the first term in the pair over the second, determine in fine measure the description of
the style of each romantic composer, moreover, of each score.” [1] Behind the change
in the aesthetic taste of Romanticism, there is a profound reinterpretation of spiritual
attitudes: an attempt to increase the kingdom of the human mind by overcoming the
limits of ordinary consciousness. Human consciousness, a small circle of light in the
midst of the darkness, in the Classical period (toward which the rationalist is kept as
close as possible to the center, ordering his life as if this small sphere of light were the
universe) becomes incongruous for the romantic creator. The romantic man sought to
enter the secret of the great hidden reality behind the veil of darkness and preferred the
regions of the twilight.
National schools, in the second half of the 19 th century, have revived romantic music at
the height of development and, at the same time, at its crisis. The musical language of
these schools has brought scores with added color, and folkloric inspiration, by
appealing to the popular ethos. They had the role of diversifying the musical
expressiveness. In this climate Bedrich Smetana became one of the most important
composers of the Czech national school.
Smetana was a nationalistic composer from Bohemia, and it is important to notice that
his country began to gain independence from Austrian empire in his life-time. He
started his musical career as a concert pianist and composer in Prague, where he also
started studying music. His creation includes works for piano, vocal music, symphonies,
chamber music, tone poems and operas. Revealing an intense interest in subjects easily
to overlap with national pride, Smetana’s compositions’ titles are very suggestive.

DISCUSSION
When we talk about Smetana's creation, we can not ignore his rich opera repertoire. The
depth of his musical thinking is observed in the appeal to the roots of the popular ethos
in his works. His first opera - The Brandenburgers in Bohemia, is a three-act creation,
with a libretto by Karel Sabina. Based on events from Czech history, the opera was
composed at a time of great Czech patriotism, with the pending opening of a new
theatre for production of Czech operas in Prague.
If the first work we talked about has a historical subject that confirms the national
feeling of the creator, The Bartered Bride (composed between 1863-1866), Smetana's
most famous syncretic creation positions him among the personalities that shaped the
Czech national school, due to the popular ethos found in his musical pages, without
mentioning folk tunes. By adapting his language to the folk tradition, Smetana proved
himself not only a very fine connoisseur of traditional Czech music but also a worthy
follower of it. His musical moments in the comic opera we are talking about are proofs
of a need to adapt the musical texture to his native language, to the national atmosphere
and to the popular feeling. The Bartered Bride opera is one of the most loved works by
Smetana, in the international repertoire of today.
Smetana's creative nationalism outlines two directions, as we already noticed: the
historical inspiration for the subject of The Brandenburgers in Bohemia and the folk
inspirational music in The Bartered Bride. Regarding the last one, the score reminds us
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of the jovial character of the simple people, the rhythms are reminiscent of the dancing
character of the Czech music, and the "exoticism" of the Czech music (accomplished by
using of rhythms and cadences of the language, the rhythmic drive of Bohemian folk
dances, and modal sonorities) that had not existed until then in the Western repertoire, is
made evident for the whole world to see. About the Overture of The Bartered Bride
opera, Chris Myers says: “Unlike most opera overtures, Smetana composed this piece
before the opera itself. The result is a thrilling romp which sets the mood for the
comedy (and, arguably, the entire tradition of Czech classical music) to follow. After a
syncopated opening figure played by full orchestra, the strings launch into a moto
perpetuo fugato that brings to mind Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro. The winds soon burst
in with the rhythmic drive of Bohemian folk dances, and the two themes interact and
develop, giving the orchestra a chance to show off its virtuosity until it races to a
brilliant conclusion.” [2]
About the folk music inspiration, Charles Rosen says: “The composer who appeal to the
folk material is like the landscape artist who paints based on the exterior: they both
reject the idea of artificial in favor of natural; they do not begin with what is invented,
but with what is given by reality.” [3] Smetana appeals to the natural background of the
music of his people, transforming it through the filter of his own musical consciousness,
and then offers his art to the people he found his inspiration in. Thus, we observe an
interesting adaptation of the triad music - ideology - audience, in the sense that what has
been made by the people, returns to it, as an artistic gift.

Fig. 1. Introduction fragment from The Bartered Bride Overture

From his very first orchestral compositions in 1848, Smetana exploited his experience
gained as teacher and member of a chamber orchestra and thus, composed his first
symphony in 1855 (Slavnostní symfonie). The symphonic poems inspired by
Shakespeare or Schiller completed the creation of a great symphonist (Richard III),
being influenced by Liszt’s personality and music (composer whom he had the
opportunity to meet). Always inspired by the great theater plays (Macbeth, Cid),
Smetana accumulates and internalizes features typical of the great musical Romanticism

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(the luxurious and complex thematic processing, the use of great forms and their ecstatic
endings).
The third period in which he was preoccupied by orchestral music started around 1870
with his masterpiece - Má vlast. The composition displays the diversity and complexity
of a symphonic poem for which the author himself came up with the program. Together
with other symphonic poems dedicated to the beauties of the Czech Republic
(Vyšehrad, Tábor, Blaník), Smetana creates this time as well national monumental
cycles (without resorting to the direct quote), filtering the sonorous result through the
European interface.
Má vlast was written before he went deaf and was interpreted either as separate parts or
as a whole. Má vlast ("My homeland") is Smetana’s representative work, which honours
the country through a series of six symphonic poems composed between 1874 and 1879
for an orchestra which includes bow instruments, wood and brass wind instruments, a
consistent segment for percussion instruments and harp. The work speaks
fundamentally to Czech identity and, that is why, a knowledge and understanding of
Czech history of the period of Czech nationalism (to which Má Vlast belongs), is
helpful for seeing the rich significance of the composition. At the beginning of the 19 th
century, the Czechs were a suppressed minority that struggled to maintain their identity
within the multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic Austrian Empire. The Czech people had been
under Austrian rule for nearly 200 years. “During this long period of foreign
domination, the Czechs suffered the gradual Germanization of their lands, which
included the obliteration of the Czech language from state institutions, heavy
censorship, and a ban on Czech literature” [4]. In this climate, Czech nationalists
turned to literature, history, language, music, and art as the primary outlets for
nationalist growth and expression, and this effectively laid the foundation for the future
struggle for political autonomy.
The most widely known and sung is Vltava, although each of the independent parts
describes the history, myths and surroundings of his native land. The six parts are
entitled Vyšehrad, Vltava, Šárka, Z českých luhů a hájů, Tábor, Blaník. The first
creation pays homage to a beautiful castle in Prague, the home of Czech kings –
represented especially at the harmonic level by suggesting a medieval atmosphere.
While working on this first poem, Smetana rapidly lost his hearing in both ears. The
second moment is Vltava, the name of the largest river in Bohemia – followed from its
spring to its triumphant crossing of the capital city. Šárka is the name of a heroine of a
national legend, who walks the road of life from love to death dramatically as only a
heroine can. The fifth composition is called Z českých luhů a hájů ("From Bohemia's
woods and fields") and was planned at the end of the cycle of symphonic poems,
describing the beauty of the forests and meadows of his country. The last two moments,
Tábor and Blanik praise the Hussite by describing the town they founded and recalling
the fights which lead to the creation of the Czech state.
If the central idea of the landscape, from Romanticism, expressed in programmatic
music, refers to nature as a symbol of memory force, sparking memories, combining the
present with the past, in Smetana's music, the evocation of nature goes beyond
emotional symbolism to a real national feeling. Thus, the program proposed by the
composer for the creation of Má vlast is part of the romantic ideals, but also involves
the patriotic layer - so important for the historic moment we are discussing.
 Performing and Visual Art

Fig.2. Fragment from Má vlast, Smetana

Smetana’s deafness set in when he was at the peak of his creation: “the impact of
hearing loss on great musical composers is appreciable. (…) Gabriel Fauré, Bedřich
Smetana and Ludwig von Beethoven wrote many of their best compositions while totally
deaf. The greatest problem with deafness for a skilled composer is interference from
internal noise (tinnitus)” [5].
Bedrich Smetana suffered from hearing loss that came on rather quickly in 1874,
possibly after an infection, although not necessarily the neurosyphilis that ended his life.
He became totally deaf, but the greatest handicap to composing was persistent tinnitus.
He told a friend that “written music…comes to life in my imagination without any effort
of will on my part, as though I could really hear the instruments and voices, deafness
would be a relatively decent condition, if only all was quiet in my head… strident
whistles to ghastly shrieks… drowns the threads of the music which had been born or
were being born in my imagination, so that I have to leave my work” [6].

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, we can state that certain features of his creation place him closer to other
great representatives of the national personalization which took place in the second half
of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century (such as George Enescu in
the first period of his creation): the rich Neo-Romantic symphonism (very well-
articulated at the level of melody and harmony to the performance of the bow and wind
instruments), the intimate aspects (ludic, pastoral) which render the ethnical load of
each stylistic area represented, the dance moments rooted in the rhythm of folklore
dances, the segments (sometimes modal) which suggest an area of expression related to
the fantastic, bohemian, fairytale and lyricism, along with the direct references
(quotations) to the national musical space. The discourse is mainly tonally articulated in
Smetana’s case, his music containing a significant infusion of the European romantic
symphonic style.

His instrumental music seems to be perfectly complementary to opera music (which

also involves words and many other visual elements supporting the musical message).
His instrumental music falls easily into the category of program music (like most of the
related works of the time when the national cultures were formed), emphasizing a
special relation between sonority and its significance: “the most fascinating aspects
involve the sections dealing with the attempt to describe meaning to specific moments of
instrumental music” [7].

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Bedrich Smetana was one of the most important Czech musicians, with multiple
directions in his activity (the first important composer, conductor and musical critic of
his country). In addition to the symphonic music he composed after 1860, his creations
gave rise to and spported the tradition of the national opera. The tradition of the Czech
music meant, after Smetana, incorporating all the data of his sonorous vision.
Continuing the tradition of Mozart’s music in Prague, Smetana was a composer of
instrumental music and opera who underlies the style of Czech music in the second half
of the 19th century. Smetana’s stylistic features are 19 th-century Romantic sounds
conjuncted with individual qualities that are uniquely Smetana – such as folk-style
elements and a haughty declamatory melodic line.

REFERENCES
[1] Sandu-Dediu, Valentina. (2013). Choices, attitudes, affects. Bucharest: Didactic and
pedagogical press, pp 126.
[2] Myers, Chris. The Bartered Bride Overture.
https://www.redlandssymphony.com/pieces/the-bartered-bride (accessed July 2019)
[3] Rosen, Charles. (1998). The Romantic Generation. Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, pp. 471.
[4] Ericson, Kaitlin Lee. (2010). Forging a National Identity: Ideological Undercurrents
in Smetana’s Vltava. The University of Texas at Austin, pp. 15.
[5] Marmor, M.F. (2014). Vision loss and hearing loss in painting and musical
composition, in Ophthalmology Volume 121, Issue 7, pp. 1480-1485.
[6] Smetana, B. (1955). Letters and Reminiscences. Bartos F, ed. Rusbridge D, Prague:
Artia, pp. 211-12.
[7] Webber, C. (2018). Bedrich Smetana: Myth, Music and Propaganda, in Opera
Magazine, volume 69, issue 7, pp. 899-900.