Bedřich Smetana: biography. Bedřich Smetana – founder of Czech musical classics Vocal and choral works

Bedřich Smetana

Bedřich Smetana is the first recognized classic of Czech music, the founder of the Czech school of composition, who made a significant contribution to the development of all genres of Czech musical classical art - opera, symphonic, instrumental and choral music. The work of this composer reflected the progressive aspirations of the Czech people, who were striving to gain national independence.

Bedřich Smetana was born on March 2, 1824 in the small town of Litomyšl, in the family of brewer Frantisek Smetana, who was in the service of a local landowner. Being a patriot of his people, the father tried to instill this feeling in his children. Despite the strictest ban from the authorities, Smetana’s family spoke native language, the boy was taught Czech literacy. In addition, young Bedřich was greatly influenced by the stories of his father’s friend, artist Antonín Macek, about the heroic past of the Czech people and their struggle against the oppressors.

The ideological formation of the young composer was greatly facilitated by his friendship during his gymnasium years with Karl Havlíček, who later became an outstanding writer and public figure in the Czech Republic, and the lessons of Vaclav Divock, who sought to instill in his students a love of Czech national culture. The idea of ​​serving his people became increasingly stronger in Bedřich’s mind.

Smetana's outstanding musical abilities manifested themselves quite early. The composer's father, a passionate music lover, often played with friends at home concerts, so the boy early childhood was familiar with the works of the world's best classics and Czech folklore. At the age of four, Bedřich taught himself to play first the violin and then the piano. His first debut took place in 1830: a six-year-old boy performed in a concert, performing the overture to the opera “The Mute of Portici” on the piano.

At the age of eight, Smetana wrote his first piece of music. During his years of study at the gymnasium, he created a large number of piano pieces, the themes for which were various impressions of the young composer, usually embodied in cheerful polkas (“Louise Polka”, “Memories of a New Place”, etc.).

In 1840, Bedřich moved to Pilsen, where he continued his studies. Three years spent in the family of his uncle, Professor Josef Smetana, turned out to be not only educational for the young man (he learned a lot about the Hussite movement and its heroes), his uncle’s stories contributed to the growth of patriotic consciousness.

The Pilsen period of life became for Smetana the time of formation of artistic views. Without ignoring such phenomena of virtuoso pianism as Moscheles, Hummel and Thalberg, Bedřich devoted all his energies to studying the works of Beethoven, Berlioz, Schumann and Chopin, who had a significant impact on the development of the young composer’s talent.

Bedřich Smetana's first serious works, especially his piano music, were created under the influence of the works of Schumann and Chopin, his later works were influenced by the democratic spirit of Beethoven's music, and the appeal to programming is nothing more than following the creative principles of Berlioz.

The closest to Schumann’s work in spirit and history of creation is a series of plays written in 1844 and published under the title “Bagatelles and Impromptu”. At this time, love entered Bedřich's life in the person of his long-time friend Katerzyna Kolar, who five years later, in 1849, became the wife of the young composer. Even in the titles of Smetana’s plays (“Love”, “Desire”, etc.) something Schumann creeps through. The reason for such passion for the work of an outstanding composer is called by many emotional state(love); Indeed, in Schumann’s music, Smetana felt experiences close to himself.

Chopin’s nationally original music was no less attractive to the young patriot. Following this brilliant composer, Bedřich tried to find special artistic media reflections of the life of their people. For Chopin, such nationally distinctive forms in music were polonaises and mazurkas, for Smetana – polkas.

Of great importance for the development of Smetana as a composer and performer was his acquaintance in 1846 and friendship with the famous Hungarian Franz Liszt, deeply national creativity which inspired the young musician to write works about his beloved Czech Republic.

In 1843, after graduating from the Pilsen gymnasium, Bedřich went to Prague to enter the conservatory. Having successfully passed all the tests, the young man began his studies in the class of the talented music teacher Joseph Proksch. The latter managed to entice his talented student to collect and study Czech folk music, which later found expression in his work.

Heavy financial situation forced Smetana to become a music teacher in the family of Count Thun. The young man used the small advantages that his work gave him: thus, traveling with the count's family around the country in the summer months, Bedřich was able to accumulate rich material for further creative activity.

At the same time, he tried to realize his idea of ​​​​creating a musical educational institution, in which teaching would be conducted not in the then popular German language, but in the native Czech. Beginnings young talent were supported by F. Liszt: he helped to publish Smetana’s “Six Characteristic Pieces” abroad, the proceeds from the publication of which were transferred to the foundation of the Prague Music School.

Czech researchers often refer to the 1840s as the era of the Czech Renaissance. In those years, the artistic environment of Prague, represented by such leading figures as the historian Frantisek Palacky, the poet Jan Kollar, the historian and philologist Pavel Josef Safarik, was quite fertile for the young talented composer.

In addition, intense creative activity was facilitated by the vivid impressions of those years (the Prague uprising of 1848, in which Smetana took a direct part, and the persecution of the rebels). During this period, Bedřich wrote revolutionary songs and marches (“Song of Freedom” based on verses by Kollár, “March of the National Guard”, “Rejoicing Overture”, etc.).

Neither the brutal political reaction that followed the defeat of the Prague uprising, nor the constant persecution to which leading public figures were subjected could shake the democratic convictions of the patriotic composer, who had dreamed of the national independence of the Czech Republic since childhood. These sentiments found expression in a series of piano pieces, presented mainly in the form folk dances(“Wedding Scenes” (1843), “Three Poetic Polkas”, “Three Salon Polkas” (both 1851), and in concert activities (some posters announcing Smetana’s concerts were written in Czech).

The tense political situation created certain difficulties for creative activity. In 1856, Smetana was forced to leave for Sweden, where he lived until 1861. Having settled with his family in the city of Gothenburg, Bedřich enthusiastically set to work, but he had to engage not only in writing, but also in performing and teaching activities.

Continuing to maintain friendly relations with Liszt, the young Czech composer repeatedly visited his home in Weimar. Passion for Liszt's work, especially the idea program symphony, was reflected in Smetana’s music: during the years of Swedish exile, he wrote three heroic-dramatic symphonic poems: “Richard III” (based on Shakespeare’s tragedy), “Wallenstein’s Camp” (based on Schiller) and “Hakon Jarl” (based on the work of the Dane Elenschläger) , as well as the piano pieces “Memories of the Czech Republic in the Form of Poles” (1859 – 1860).

Particularly noteworthy is the essay “Wallenstein’s Camp,” written at the suggestion of the Czech tragedian Kollár as an introduction to Schiller’s drama “Wallenstein.” Smetana managed to connect the content of the drama with the national liberation struggle in the Czech Republic. This symphonic poem contains not only solemn march tunes, but also the melodies of Czech folk dances. Thus, “Camp Wallenstein” is more a picture of the life of the Czech people than a reproduction of Schiller’s plot.

By the beginning of the 1860s, tragic changes took place in Smetana's personal life: his daughter and wife died in a foreign land, and a close friend of his youth, Havlicek, who took an active part in the liberation struggle of the Czech people, died in Prague. Feelings of melancholy and loneliness forced the composer to increasingly think about returning to his homeland.

At this time, significant socio-political changes took place in the Czech Republic: the defeat of the government of the hated Austrian governor allowed many outstanding representatives of the Czech people, including Smetana, to return to their homeland and begin active work.

Bedřich Smetana tried to cover all areas of Czech musical culture: he acted as a teacher, conductor, pianist, musical and public figure fighting for the revival and prosperity of Czech national art. At the end of 1861, the composer's long-time dream came true: the first Czech music school was opened in Prague.

By that time, there were about 200 choral societies in the Czech Republic, and the leader of one of them, the Prague Verb, for several years was the most talented son of the Czech people, Bedřich Smetana. His choral works (the dramatic poem about Jan Hus “The Three Horsemen”, “The Czech Song”, which is a kind of patriotic anthem, etc.) reflected the life and aspirations of his compatriots.

In 1863, Smetana became the head of the music section of the new artistic partnership “Umeletska Beseda”. Numerous concerts, which took place under the leadership and with the direct participation of this talented musician, marked the beginning of a wide concert life in the Czech Republic.

The composer's struggle to create a Czech national theater resulted in a truly national movement. In those years, all Prague theaters were under the yoke of Austrian censorship, performances in the Czech language were prohibited, but Bedřich managed to break the resistance of the Austrian authorities, and in 1862 the Temporary Theater was opened, on the stage of which the composer’s first operas were staged.

Smetana not only directed the new theater, but was also its permanent conductor for eight years. On his initiative, fundraising began for the construction of the building National Theater. It is noteworthy that on the day of the foundation stone of this building, May 16, 1868, Smetanov’s works “Solemn Overture” and the chorus “Rolnitske” (“Agricultural Song”) were played, with which the composer wanted to emphasize the people’s democratic nature of what was happening.

The 1860s became a period for Bedřich Smetana creative flourishing. The first opera, The Brandenburgers in Bohemia, was written in 1863, followed by The Bartered Bride and Dalibor (1867).

“The Brandenburgers in the Czech Republic” became the first Czech classical opera with historical and heroic content. In the events of the 13th century (the reign of Rudolf Habsburg, whose descendants oppressed the Czechs until XIX century) genius composer managed to reflect all the most pressing topics of our time. Revealed with particular expressiveness in piece of music the theme of the struggle of the Czech people against the despotic power of the Habsburg monarchy.

The love-dramatic line of the opera, which seems to be the main one, is in fact not so, since the composer puts the mass folk scenes, built on the melodic turns of Czech national anthems and folk songs. Courageous, somewhat harsh music gives the entire opera a heroic sound, which is manifested with particular force in the final scene of the expulsion of the Brandenburgers from Prague: the choir’s song “The day will come after a long night” sounds like a call to fight.

The first production of the opera “The Brandenburgers in Prague”, which took place in 1866, became a real event in the Czech Republic. national art, which marked the beginning of Czech opera classics.

Soon the comic opera “The Bartered Bride” was staged on the stage of the Temporary Theater, which brought the composer world fame. The plot, borrowed from the life of a Czech village, is based on the story of the marriage of farm laborer Jenik to the girl Mazhenka.

The opera consists of three acts: in the first of them, the main actors- Yenik, the son of the rich peasant Mikha, who left his home from his evil stepmother and became a farm laborer, and Mazhenka, the daughter of simple peasants. The young people love each other, but the girl’s parents, Gata and Krushina, oppose their marriage. The self-interested village matchmaker Quetzal intervenes in the matter, promising to find a rich groom for Mazhenka.

The second act begins with the appearance at the holiday of Yenik’s half-brother, Vashek, whom the matchmaker reads as Mazhenka’s suitor. Taking advantage of the fact that the young man does not yet know his bride, the girl tells him about the angry and grumpy Mazhenka and convinces him to refuse such a bride.

At the same time, Quetzal, persuading Yenik to forget Mazhenka, describes all the advantages of marrying a rich girl and promises to find Yenik like her. The young man enters into an agreement with the matchmaker to sell the bride, according to which the latter undertakes to pay Yenik 300 ducats in the event of the marriage of Mazhenka and Mikha’s son. The peasants present in the tavern watch what is happening in amazement.

At the beginning of the third act, the trusting, slightly stupid Vashek is grieving over his marriage to an angry and grumpy woman, but the appearance of a traveling circus troupe lifts his spirits. The impromptu performance, or rather, the young artist named Esmeralda taking part in it, makes a great impression on the unlucky groom. The girl persuades Vashek to take part in the evening performance, to act as a bear.

His debut as an actor ends in failure: Vashek reveals himself to his parents who are in the crowd of spectators, and Mazhenka’s parents refuse such a suitor. At this time, Yenik appears, who is joyfully greeted by Father Mikha. Gata and Krushina agree to the marriage of Mazhenka and Yenik. Everyone is happy, only the fooled matchmaker Quetzal has to pay Yenik 300 ducats, according to the agreement.

Individual arias, duets, ensembles, choirs and dances give the opera a bright, cheerful tone, continuity and swiftness of action, and give it significance. The dynamism of development is determined even in the overture, which is thematically related to the opera and prepares listeners for the perception of the action. Compositional feature“The Bartered Bride” is the presence of two dramaturgical lines that organically complement each other - lyrical and comedic.

Despite the fact that Smetana almost does not use genuine folk songs and dances (the exception is the furiant in the second act), in his simple, sincere, expressive melodies the characteristic features of Czech musical folklore are clearly visible: intonations and a peculiar modal structure of Czech folk songs, dance rhythms.

To give the work a bright national color the composer used the rhythms of the polka, the smooth, comically important sousedski (slow waltz) and the lively skocna (Czech gallop), thanks to which accurate musical characteristics were given to the characters and various dramatic situations were revealed. The opera The Bartered Bride is rightfully considered one of the best Czech classical operas.

In May 1868, on the day of laying the foundation of the National Theater, the premiere of the heroic-tragic opera Dalibor took place - this is how the new genre. The libretto of this work was written based on the text of the outstanding Prague playwright and public figure Josef Wenzig, who at that time headed the fellowship of progressive Czechs “Umelecka Beseda”.

The folk legend about the knight Dalibor, which served as the basis for the plot, told about a brave man who was imprisoned in a fortress for his sympathy and patronage of the rebel peasants. The image of Dali-bor became the personification for Smetana folk hero, whose thoughts and aspirations are inseparable from the fate of the people fighting for their freedom. Dalibor's leitmotif, present throughout the entire play, is reminiscent of folk heroic march songs.

The image of the brave knight’s beloved, the selfless girl Milada, who sacrificed her life to save her beloved, deserves special attention. Trying to give a deeper characterization of the heroine, Smetana uses a leitmotif. Thus, the principle of the leitmotif, along with the vocal principle, acquires leading importance in the work of a talented composer.

Despite negative attitude authorities, Smetana continued to work actively: on his initiative, the Czech vocal school and the Philharmonic Society were opened, he continued to perform as a pianist, performing in concerts not only own compositions, but also classical works, as well as works by young Czech composers (Dvořák, Tomášek, etc.).

The heyday of Smetana's compositional creativity occurred in the 1870s. However, working in various musical genres, he still remained faithful to opera. Back in the late 60s of the 19th century, Bedřich decided to write the opera “Libuše,” dedicated to the legendary founder of Prague, the wise and fair ruler Libuše, who predicted for her people a long path full of suffering and torment, crowned with victory. As in other heroic works, here the composer tried to bring the content of ancient legends closer to the topical problem of the people’s struggle against the tyrannical power of the oppressors.

Smetana defined the genre of this work as “a solemn picture in three parts.” The musical and dramatic action of the opera, which is based on impressive choral scenes, is somewhat static. This is exactly what the composer sought, creating not so much an opera as a majestic narrative about the Czech people and homeland. In the first two parts of the opera - “The Judgment of Libushe” and “The Wedding of Libushe” - the viewer is presented with pictures of Czech antiquity, the third and final part of the opera - “The Prophecy of Libushe”, accompanied by an epilogue, is the culmination of the entire work.

The Hussite battle song “Who are you, God’s warriors,” which received extensive symphonic development in the opera, is the most impressive fragment of the work. Continuing until the end of the opera, this song completes the epilogue - a kind of apotheosis of the triumph and immortality of the people.

The opera “Libuše” was ready already in 1872, but since it was written for the opening of the National Theater, the premiere performance took place only on June 11, 1881 on the stage of the National Building, which was rebuilt after a fire. opera house.

Immediately after completing the opera, Smetana began work on the cycle symphonic poems"My Motherland", United general idea. After writing Visegrad and Vltava, the composer composed four more symphonic poems, which were completed by 1879. However, the execution of the entire six-poem cycle took place only in 1881.

The years during which this work was created turned out to be the most difficult for the composer. In 1874, as a result of an unexpectedly developing nervous disease, Smetana lost his hearing, which forced him to leave the theater and conducting activities.

But even these events could not break his creative energy; the composer continued to compose. Along with the “My Homeland” cycle, several comedy and everyday operas were written. The last opera that Smetana conducted himself was “Two Widows” based on a plot from the life of the small nobility. The audience greeted the performance of this work with delight: as a sign of recognition, the composer was presented with a silver baton and flowers.

The two subsequent operas, “The Kiss” (1876) and “The Secret” (1878), were written with a libretto by the Czech writer Eliška Krasnogorska. The plot of the first of them was borrowed from the life of villagers, the second told about Czech provincials; naive fantastic plots here alternated with juicy genre scenes full of bright folk humor.

At the same time, Bedřich Smetana, who lived far from Prague, was working on a chamber work - the quartet “From My Life”, in which the ideological and artistic aspirations of the composer were expressed. In the lyrically upbeat music of the quartet, filled with bright joy and rebellious spirit, Smetana quite poetically reveals the programmatic content of the work. In expressive melodies, scherzo polkas and finales, the composer embodies the paintings folk life and everyday life, in addition, Bedřich’s great love of life and his faith in his people are expressed in the quartet’s music.

At the end of the 1870s, under the impression of life in the village, a short piano work was written, called “Czech Dances”. Using authentic folk song and dance melodies (“Lukovka”, “Bear”, “Ulan”, etc.), Smetana created a perky, cheerful and life-affirming work.

In the 80s of the 19th century, despite his worsening illness, Smetana continued his creative work, but the works of these years are far from equal: along with such bright musical masterpieces as “Evening Songs”, violin duets from “My Homeland”, orchestral polka “Venkovanka” ", unsuccessful ones appeared - the second quartet and the opera "Devil's Wall", which are characterized by some fragmentation of form and complexity of harmonic sound.

The indifference with which the listeners greeted the second quartet and “Devil's Wall” did not frighten Bedřich; he continued to compose music. Thus, in 1883, the symphonic suite “The Prague Carnival” was written, after which the composer began work on the opera “Viola” based on the plot of Shakespeare’s comedy “Twelfth Night”, but the illness made itself felt.

In November 1883, Smetana last time visited Prague, where he attended the opening of the National Theater, restored after a treacherous fire. It was a kind of farewell to the famous composer with music, theater and his beloved city. May 12, 1884 Bedřich Smetana, glorious son Czech people, who left a noticeable mark on their culture, died in a Prague hospital for nervous patients.

From the book I Explore the World. Gems author Orlova N.

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