Essay On Smetana

Hans Christian Andersen once said, “where words fail, music speaks.” I believe if we could speak with any of the composers from the Medieval, Renaissance, Classical, and Romantic periods that they would say the same also. One of the composers from the Romantic period whom I believe would agree with this statement is Bedřich Smetana. He, along with many other composers, have a way of speaking through their compositions. Bedřich Smetana was born on March 2, 1824 and died on May 12th, 1884. According to New World Encyclopedia, “Smetana was a child prodigy who grew up in a family that cultivated music and schooled him in violin and piano before he received formal musical training in Prague.” He got his first violin when he was one year old and his father, Frantisek Smetana, taught him how to play it. Later, his father also purchased a piano for him and he had his first piano concert when he was six years old. Smetana’s father did not want him to pursue an education in …show more content…
It was first performed on May 30, 1866. The opera has three acts and starts out in a small Bohemian village. It is centered around the plot of arranged and unarranged marriages. I have decided to focus in on Act III, Scene IV of The Bartered Bride. In this scene, Vasek tells his parents—Mícha and Háta—and Kecal, a marriage broker, that he does not want to marry Marenka anymore. Marenka was the woman Micha and Hata had arranged for Vasek to marry. When he tells them this, they are very shocked and start to sing “Aj! Jažke? Jažke?”—meaning “He does not want her–what has happened?” All four people are singing therefore making a quartet. Due to the tones of the singers in this scene of the opera, the listener can pick out whose voice is whose and what they are feeling emotionally—whether it be anger, disappointment, happiness, relief,