Note: It would be a good idea to consult the chapter on ‘Music of the Romantic Period’ in the Study Area before studying this analysis.

Nationalist music can be defined as that which directly and deliberately reflects aspects of a country’s heritage and character.

Má Vlast, by the Czech Romantic composer Smetana, could hardly be more nationalistic. It is a cycle of six symphonic tone poems, each depicting an aspect of the Czech national heritage.   The six poems are titled:

Smetana is widely regarded by Czechs as their supreme national composer.  His work is fiercely nationalistic and the majority of his operatic and symphonic output is concerned with Bohemian legends, history, characters and scenery.  He composed Má Vlast between 1872 and 1879.  Originally for piano, four hands, the orchestrations were completed between 1880 and 1881.

The work is scored for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 French horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, clash cymbals, 2 harps, and strings.

Analysis

1. Vyšehrad

The work opens with two harps quoting the main ‘Vyšehrad’ motif.  This motif recurs throughout.

At 1.00 the wind and brass take this up and, with fragmentary fanfare figures from the trumpets, a second motif emerges at 2.10. This motif represents the gate of Vyšehrad castle throughout Smetana’s opera, Libuše.

Ex. 1.2. ‘Libuše’ motif

The two motifs, along with the trumpet fanfares, develop in momentum until, at 2.48, we hear the strings enter with Ex.1.1. The entrance of the strings further sustains the increase in orchestral power and, at 3.35, we hear the ‘Vyšehrad’ motif played tutti. The full texture remains and, at 4.10, heralded by brass triplet fanfare figures, we hear the second motif, with its rising and falling fourth.   Eventually the texture thins and, at 4.56, there are gentle antiphonal exchanges between woodwind and brass with timpani, accompanied by string pizzicato chords.  The antiphonal exchanges juxtapose directly the two motifs.  There follows (5.37) a section marked Allegro vivo ma non agitato (fast, lively but not agitated).  Led by the strings, the music depicts a battle scene.  The main motif here is a chromatically falling idea, which, after its exposition, becomes fragmented across the wind and brass from 5.51 to 6.35, accompanied and underpinned by a falling chromatic scale.  It reaches a climax, and a rhythmic adjustment at 6.36.

Ex. 1.3. ‘Battle’ motif

At 6.50 the music depicts scenes of pomp and ceremony following the battle.  Rising fanfares in wind and brass precede jubilant chords in strings and wind with ascending glissandi in the violins (6.54). 

Ex.1.4. ‘Victory’ motif

A new motif is heard at 7.12, which forms the basis for the next section.

Ex. 1.5. New motif

This section has a rapidly shifting tonal centre and numerous modulations occur.  At 8.09 the earlier rhythmic figure associated with pomp and ceremony returns.  At 8.36 the same thing happens to the battle motif and, unexpectedly, at 8.48, the key of C major is reached. We hear, tutti, the ‘Vyšehrad’ motif, accompanied by a vamping figuration. 

At 9.14, this huge ceremonial occasion is interrupted by crashing, chromatically descending, diminished chords.  This depicts the sacking of Vyšehrad . It is no coincidence that the rhythm chosen for this (9.14 – 9.32) derives from the ‘Battle’ motif.  At 9.57, accompanied only by a thin, viola tremolando, the once proud ‘Vyšehrad’ motif is heard on a pair of clarinets in the minor key. 

One final section, starting at 11.27, dismisses this mournful episode and returns the opening music. Reflective and optimistic, the music builds for one final climax and, at 12.54, the ‘Vyšehrad’ motif is played tutti.   At 13.35 the ‘Libuše’ motif returns in the clarinet. At 14.09 the harps are used again and the music dies away.

2. Vltava

The music opens with short, fragmented passages alternating between the flutes accompanied by pizzicato strings and harp.  These motifs chase up and down the octaves in short, scalic bursts until 0.26 when clarinets, playing an inversion of the flute motif, enter, representing the second source of the Vltava.

The main ‘Vltava’ motif is introduced in the upper strings and oboes at 1.08.  The two source motifs, now combined in the lower strings and heard below the grandiose new melody, represent the restlessness of the water.

Ex. 2.3. ‘Vltava’ motif

At 2.11 the melody is transposed into the tonic major (E major). This change of tonality signifies the increased power of the river.

Having established itself, the river now passes into the forests and meadows of the Czech countryside.  At 3.12 we move directly to C major, and the sounds of hunting horns are heard with a repetitive, compound duple, dotted fanfare rhythm.

Ex. 2.4. Hunting horns in the forest

The time signature changes from the 6/8 of the previous music into 2/4.  This allows for the introduction of a Polka – a Bohemian dance form that Smetana had used extensively in his opera “The Bartered Bride” in 1863.  Its inclusion here depicts the scene of a country wedding taking place on the river-banks.

Ex. 2.5. Country Wedding Polka

The orchestration for this, strings with clarinets and bassoons (4.20), is light and graceful.  At 4.53, however, this dance is brought to life, tutti. The dance fades as the river passes on until all that can be heard of it is a ‘cello and bass ostinato on a repeated tonic pedal, (5.46), which soon disappears (5.56).

A modulation to A major and the introduction of two melancholic bassoons at 5.57, depicts nightfall and silver moonlight is portrayed by muted strings holding a pianissimo, static chord (6.15).  The flutes and clarinets represent dancing water nymphs. The picture is completed with harp chords supporting the harmony.  The string chords develop into a melody (from 6.22), harmonised homophonically, whilst the nymphs continue their fleeting movements in the woodwind.  The horns are very subtly included with long sustained notes.  At 8.42 the nymphs’ dance music transforms back into the opening motifs and the ‘Vltava’ motif returns at 8.52.

The river rolls on until 9.52 where it hits the St. John rapids.  This is marked by diminished chords, insistent brass quavers, and rising string scales. The texture is full and, at 10.25, the upper strings play a jagged, arching melody.  The harmony is based on diminished chords, adding to the general representation of mayhem.  Eventually, at 11.03, the rapids are past, the music moves supremely into E major (11.10) and the ancient city of Prague materialises.  The full orchestra is deployed and the ‘Vltava’ motif is played, this time more quickly.  Melodic development to the motif occurs at 11.14 and the original theme is extended and embellished. 

At 11.38 the ‘Vyšehrad’ motif returns in augmentation.  This leads into the ‘Libuše’ motif at 11.58.  From 12.34 the texture reduces, giving the impression of the river disappearing into the distance.

3. Šárka

In Bohemian folklore, Šárka was a maiden who, having been deceived in love, swore vengeance against the entire male race.  She allowed herself to be bound to a tree in the forest by her female companions and lay waiting.  The knight, Ctirad, comes riding by, sees Šárka and falls passionately in love with her. To reward Ctirad for freeing her, Šárka offers Ctirad and his men a drink from her goblet of mead. Ctirad accepts, not realising that the drink has been laced with a sleeping potion. He and his followers drink from the goblet and fall asleep.  Šárka, and her companions summoned by her horn-call, rush forwards and slay the men as they sleep.

The music opens with a passionate melody.

Ex. 3.1. Opening melody (treated sequentially at 0.14)

At 0.53 the music subsides and tranquillity descends. At 1.11 Šárka is tied to a tree in the forest by her companions.

At 1.18 we hear a change in tempo and metre. Quadruple time, triplet figures and pizzicato lower strings suggest the arrival of horses. This is the knight, Ctirad.

At 2.28 a piercing melody on the clarinet is heard. This is the moment at which Ctirad notices Šárka.  Around this melody the texture increases and, at 2.58, there is a climax; the triplet “horse” motif is stopped by a tutti, dotted rhythm motif and a short melody in the violas, followed, at 3.04, with an unaccompanied clarinet obligato playing a short cadenza. This is taken over by the cello section (3.22) and leads into a new section (3.45).

In A major, with the melody scored between the wide-ranging first violins, doubled with upper woodwind and accompanied by brass and lower strings, this section is full of passion and the music builds and subsides continually.

At 5.26 Ctirad finally drinks from the goblet.  The music switches to a quick triple time and there is a fanfare in the brass and percussion, giving way to the strings and wind.   The section is full of jocular writing played out mainly in the upper strings, often treated sequentially, and punctuated, humorously, with brass chords.

Ex.  3.3 ‘Drinking’ motif

From 6.50 the music gradually subsides. The melody dissolves from the continuous, well-articulated, running theme it has been since its inception at 5.30, into fragments at 7.29 and then finally into a mere rhythm played on a single chord. This is interrupted at 7.45 with a call from the French horn.

Ex. 3.4  Šárka’s horn call

This is the sign that the men are all incapacitated, and Šárka is calling to her female companions to come.  Over tremolando strings an air of expectancy settles, and a clarinet solo recaptures the passion earlier felt by Ctirad, who is now slumped on the ground before Šárka.  The music builds to a climax at 8.46, where the word frenetico appears in the score. A very busy tutti scene follows. There are brass fanfares throughout, coupled with wild, wide-ranging upper string fragments, full woodwind and percussion depicting wide-scale manslaughter.

Ex.  3.5   (8.46)

4. Z ceských luhu a háju (From Bohemia’s fields and groves)

Contrary to Nos. 1 – 3, which take the listener on definite, narrative journey through musical depiction, Smetana’s intentions in No. 4 are simply to portray, in different sections, three great features of the Czech countryside; the landscape, the woodlands and the rejoicing of peasants, through song, in thanks for their simple life.

The work opens for full orchestra in G minor. The harmonic pulse is slow, indicating the depiction of huge, panoramic vistas. This lasts until 0.52 when the texture reduces.  At 1.12 just the cellos and violas remain, playing the ostinato, over a G minor pedal point.

Ex. 4.1. Opening material used as basis for thematic derivation throughout

At 1.20 the first melody is heard, in the clarinets.  A second melody follows at 1.41, this time in the tonic major key, and the oboes.  Clapham refers to this tune as “a naïve country girl melody”¹.  This melody has the feel of Bohemian folk music.  At 1.56 it is repeated.

*** ¹ John Clapham in the foreword to Smetana, M� Vlast, no. 4. Published by�Eulenburg 1975.

At 2.41 a new section begins in A minor.  The music is in triple time (3/4) but, with the many triplets, a distinct compound 9/8 is discernible.  The music is a fugal exposition, conveying the feeling of woodland, with its mysteries and concealed life. The fugue entries are as follows:

The episode finishes at 3.40 and transitory material, over descending pedal points, leads into a more gentle section at 4:00. Here the main woodland theme is presented. It is sombre, and scored for clarinets and French horns. It has the feel of a chorale melody to it, and is accompanied by the strings.

Ex. 4.5  Woodland chorale

At 4.42 the fugue subject returns in the strings, beginning again with the first violin.  This time a stretto occurs and the viola, second violin, cello, viola again, second violin again, first violin again and double bass follow in rapid succession. At 5.07 the music moves into D major and the woodland chorale returns.    At 5.50 a second fugal stretto occurs and the opening of the fugue subject runs quickly through the strings, in order from the top, leading back, at 6.02, to a fully orchestrated and more grandiose recapitulation of the woodland chorale.

At 7.13 the chorale is interrupted with two quick bars of quasi-polka.  This stops as suddenly as it begins and is replaced, at 7.17, with melancholy strings in E major.  By 7.38 the music has moved to the relative C minor, and this too is interrupted by the same quasi-polka music.  Again the polka ends suddenly and is replaced by the strings at 7.42.  At 8.02 the polka takes over.  The music is loosely in G minor and a new section begins, based on the fast 2/4 rhythm and style of the polka.

At 8.56 the texture reduces and this gives way, at 9.06, for the recapitulation of the naïve country girl motif, this time accompanied by the polka rhythm in the upper strings.  At 9.31 the polka returns, tutti, only to be displaced again with the delightful Bohemian melody and a light texture, enhanced by the triangle, at 9.49.

We move into the coda at 10.40.   First we hear the naïve country girl melody accompanied by an insistent string triplet figure, then, at 11.08 the woodland chorale is recapitulated, and finally, at 11.30, the tutti texture is restored.

5. Tábor

Tábor was written three years after No. 4 and reflected Smetana’s wish to represent the historic, rather that the religious, significance of the period of Czech national history in which the Hussite wars were fought.  In the early 1400s John Hus was burned at the stake, and the Táborites, whose stronghold was the city of Tábor, rose in revolt against Roman Catholicism. They were finally crushed in 1436 by their rivals, the Utraquists.  Tábor is about 50 miles south of Prague.

The work opens in D minor, the closest tonality to the Dorian mode, with a low, tonic pedal in the double basses, accompanied by timpani rolls and bassoons.  Above this the opening bar of the Hussite Chorale is repeated over and over, as an ostinato, in the French horns. This is later accompanied (0.20) by descending scales in the cellos and bassoons. This builds until 1.33 when the full orchestra state the opening bar of the chorale. A bar’s rest follows then the second bar of the chorale is heard.  The falling major third, which characterises this bar, is the basis for the next passage until, at 2.05, the opening bar of the chorale reinstates itself in the French horns.  At 3.12 the same climax occurs with a tutti statement of the opening bar, followed by a rest, followed by the second bar, followed by a passage built on the falling third motif.  At 3.42 the whole of bars 3 and 4 of the motif are stated, in unison. 

At 3.55 the music continues with the oboes, clarinets and bassoons.  This music is bars 5 – 7 of the chorale.  At 4.58 the most grandiose statement of bars 1 – 2 of the chorale occurs, tutti, followed by a slightly quieter rendition of bars 3 – 4 (5.14), and then an even softer one of bars 5 – 6, (5.26).   At 5.42 we hear the end of the chorale, played tutti, and this leads into the fast section at 6.12.

As we can see, Smetana has gradually unfolded the Hussite Chorale through this opening section; he began with bar one repeated many times – 0.00: then he hints at bar 2 – 1.40: then bars 3 – 4 at 3.42; bars 5 – 7 at 3.55; finally, bars 8 – 12 are played for the first time, at 5.42 to end the slow section.

At 6.12 the music takes on a much more frenetic nature.  At 6.32 bars 8 – 9 of the chorale are used and the music slows for a short lento passage at 6.38, based on bars 5 – 7 of the chorale.

At 6.47 the music returns to that of 6.12 and the final three bars of the melody are used throughout the texture, accompanied by racing strings.  Bars 8 – 9 of the melody are heard in the brass, interrupting this passage at 7.09, and this leads into a passage of antiphonal exchanges, based on this fragment, until 7.33 when the music returns to the opening phrase of the chorale. 

From 7.41 the music changes mood and a sustained, but syncopated, brass and wind chordal passage in A major provides the accompaniment to bars 8 – 9 of the melody, played in the strings in a jagged and syncopated way.  At 8.12 the oboe has the phrase – heard for the first time in a gentle and tender way, and then played again in augmentation.

Throughout the section from 8.20 – 9.58 the music builds and uses various fragments of the chorale melody throughout the texture until, at 9.58, we hear, for the first time, the entire Hussite Chorale played from start to finish, tutti, in all its majesty. 

At 10.40 we enter a coda and an increase in texture occurs.   At 12.20 the build up is complete and, following a passage for lower strings, the music ends in D minor.

6. Blaník

Smetana viewed Blaník as a continuation of the previous tone poem, Tábor. Blaník is the name of the mountain into which the Táborites retreated following their defeat in 1436.

Tonally, the music begins where Tábor left off, in D minor, and straightaway we hear the opening bar of the Hussite Chorale in the brass. 

However, the tonality collapses almost immediately, representing Hussite defeat, and a new theme is introduced.  This is a “walking” theme – played in the first violins, sempre staccato, and its regular, rhythmic energy suggests retreat.

At 2.38 the second section of this work emerges, a delightful Pastoral section, describing the sleeping army inside the mountain of Blaník. The strings simply hold a static and unchanging F major chord for some 40 bars, whilst, above an oboe leads the way.  Smetana, in a letter to his publisher in 1879, describes this as a boy playing a shawm, and “everything he plays is echoed around the countryside”. This is indeed the case as, whilst the oboe unfolds a beautiful, peaceful melody, each phrase of that melody is immediately echoed by a clarinet, bassoon, flute or French horn elsewhere within the texture.

The mood changes abruptly at 5.18 as the third section of this tone poem emerges.  The distress of the Bohemian people is the subject of this section.

The rest of this section is characterised by the tritone interval, and fast moving string writing based on repeated notes, with brass fanfares and a quick, randomly shifting harmonic pulse. Brass melodies occasionally penetrate the texture and, at 7.34 the following can be heard:

This motif forms the basis for the next section, which emerges from the distress and turmoil.  It is heard several times, both accompanied and unaccompanied, before the section starts at 7.56.  Marked Tempo di Marcia this new section is a call to battle for the sleeping warriors.

Ex.  6.4   (7.56)  

The music grows from 8.24, hurried along by rising triplet strings over a C pedal.  The pitch rises gradually in the string and wind parts, and the fragments come in diminution throughout the texture. At 8.51 the triangle and cymbal are introduced and the march theme is played out in full.  At 10.43 the texture reduces suddenly and this leads to a more wistful passage from 10.54.  The triumphant march is returns at 12.35, and, at 12.51, the music lurches into an almost comical Piu Vivo, which leads energetically into the fourth section at 13.21.

This fourth section, “Glory Returns To Bohemia”, is a short but dramatic conclusion to the entire cycle.  We hear the Hussite Chorale melody in the brass, and the Vyšehrad motif (heard at the very opening of No. 1 in the harp – see Ex. 1.1) played fortissimo in the strings and wind.  At 13.54 the brass too take over this motif and then the marching theme is recapitulated at 14.12 played tutti, fortissimo, and vivace, to bring the music to its triumphant close.

Further Listening

Bibliography