String Quartet No.

1
Bedřich Smetana

Dameer Gustafson
 Program Notes

String Quartet No. 1 in E minor, Op. 116 (“From My Life”)

Though through poverty, pain, and the means of health deterioration, Czech composer Bedřich Smetana continued to
compose in later life, writing for chamber music based on the personal reminisces in commemoration to his early youth.
This programmatic string quartet was pioneering with each movement conveying importance to his early life dedication
to the arts. The opening movement depicts Smetana in a Romantic atmosphere, having inexpressible yearning for
something he could not express nor define. The second movement invites joyous character of polka themes in relation to
his love of Czech folk dances of the time, with themes that are child-like and of springy nature. The third movement is
very interpersonal, with lyrical solos combined with sonorous harmony for his first love, a girl who he later married. The
finale begins with pleasant dance, but is later faded by a high whistle from the violin, indicating the beginning of his
deafness. With nationalism and more lyricism, the slow intensity unfolds the “painful regret” from his once blissful youth.
 Histrical Context
Smetana first learned music from his father, who first taught him the violin. He later picked up piano from early in life,
became a virtuosic performer, and was encouraged by Franz Liszt to open a piano school in Prague in 1848. Smetana was
one of the greatest nationalist composers, with famous works pertaining to the Romantic era. In 1856 he was appointed
conductor of the philharmonic society of Gothenburg in Sweden, in which he remained for the next five years.
Afterwards, he returned to Prague, where he led the establishment of the national opera house. He composed his first two
operas, The Brandenburgers in Bohemia and The Bartered Bride, which set his reputation as the well renown Czech
composer. After becoming completely deaf in late 1874, the title Ma vlast (My Country) was the set of collective
symphonic poems that was considered amongst his finest works of composition. From this moment of his life came his
string quartet, . The end of Smetana’s life with attacks of depression and mental instability have pushed him to the point
of madness with no choice but to go to an asylum in Prague, where he passed.
In this time period, the sense of polyphony and melodic phrasing gave means with chromatic harmonies for individual
and emotional expression. Especially, the intricacies with using rubato add even more text painting, allowing composers
to have further expression in their works.
Time stamps
Movement 1 - Allegro vivo appassionato

00:00 - opens with a crashing E minor chord played by all musicians, setting up theme for viola solo in the following measures
00:17 - very soft introduction with suspense building onto the viola melody and a crescendo with string accompaniment
00:27 - viola repeats melody, but is now altered to C minor reaching another chord that’s fully diminished (00:46)
00:51 - homophonic across violin parts with another crescendo into several sforzando chords that are short and dissonant
00:56 - first melody that was at the beginning is now present for both violins and fortissimo eighth notes across both viola and cello
1:07 - build up of triplet notes with accents and staccatos at the beginning of each set leading to the climax
1:14 - the beginning of the diminuendo and the decay amongst all members along with rubato set are going to set a new theme
1:20 - cello gets some leading notes that are crucial to the mood of the ensemble (using rubato with allow us to “romantically” ease our way into the new
phrasing
1:34 - dolce - sweet ; amongst violinists are delicate 8th notes that sway the mood to reminisce Smetana’s past and his yearning for something he couldn’t
express
1:52 - new theme that’s more present, hinting at more of Smetana’s youth with a pleasant, almost go-lucky presence from the low strings
2:10 - tensions rise and fall constantly, with more modulations of notes (yearning)
2:43 - aggressiveness, ferocity amongst all strings, different mood change
2:49 - polyphony at it’s finest, each member contributes to one of Smetana’s ideas, and it’s all polyrhythmic
3:07 - meno allegro with a rallentando - like the theme at 1:52 but now it’s more mellow in key of G and less out going but eventually leaves a cadence (for
which we will stop)
https://www.naxosmusiclibrary.com/catalogue/item.asp?cid=8.550379
Bibliography

Christiansen, Kai. Smetana, String Quartet No. 1, "From My Life", 9 Apr. 2006,
https://www.earsense.org/article/Smetana-String-Quartet-No-1-From-My-Life/.
Lotha, Gloria, et al. “Bedřich Smetana.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.,
20 July 1998,
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bedrich-Smetana.
Ottlová, Marta, et al. “Smetana, Bedřich [Friedrich].” Grove Music Online, 28 Sept. 2018,
https://doi-org.libproxy.unl.edu/10.1093/omo/9781561592630.013.3000000151.
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