Má vlast

Composer: SMETANA, Bedřich
  • Má vlast (My Homeland, JB 1:112) is a cycle of six symphonic poems which Smetana composed between 1872-79.1
  • Smetana composed the first two tone poems of Má vlast (Vyšehrad and Vltava) in 1874.2
    • Vyšehrad is a fortress which, according to legend, was the site of the founding of Prague. The Moldau (Vltava) is a river which runs through Prague at the foot of the fortress of Vyšehrad. 
  • Fun fact: the leitmotif Smetana uses to illustrate running water in The Moldau resembles Wagner’s leitmotif for the Rhine River in the Ring Cycle.3

Movements

  1. Vyšehrad (The High Castle) 
  2. Vltava (The Moldau) 
  3. Šárka 
  4. Z českých luhů a hájů (From Bohemian Fields and Groves) 
  5. Tábor 
  6. Blaník 4

Sources

  1. “Má Vlast, JB 1:112 (Smetana, Bedřich),” IMSLP, accessed April 8, 2021, https://imslp.org/wiki/M%C3%A1_Vlast,_JB_1:112_(Smetana,_Bed%C5%99ich).
  2. Marta Ottlová, Milan Pospíšil, John Tyrrell, and Kelly St Pierre, “Smetana, Bedřich,” Grove Music Online (September 28, 2018), accessed April 8, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-3000000151.
  3. Ibid.
  4. “Má Vlast, JB 1:112 (Smetana, Bedřich),” IMSLP.

Cut IDs

40756 41939 22547 21315 44451 16750 22548 22550