BEDRICH SMETANA Vltava
This month Bridget Mermikides tackles a delightful but stirring piece by the father of Czech composers, the genius Smetana who turned folk poems into beautiful musical works.
Bridget arranges and transcribes the bestknown movement from Smetana’s poignant and heartfelt Ma Vlast or ‘My Homeland’.
The European classical music tradition had been firmly established by the 18th century around the heritage of German, Italian and French composers. However from the 19th century there was a growing desire from composers of other nationalities to celebrate, develop and incorporate into the ‘classical’ tradition the folk and traditional music of their respective home countries. Important composers of this music nationalism movement included among many others Grieg (Norway), Sibelius (Finland), Bartok (Hungary), Chopin (Poland), Albéniz (Spain), Elgar (UK), Copland (US), the Russian Mighty Five (Balakirev, Cui, Mussorgsky, RimskyKorsakov and Borodin), and the Czech composer Bed Smetana (1824-84). Smetana was a musical prodigy and dedicated composer whose musical style was closely associated with his homeland’s aspiration for state independence, and the father of Czech music paving the way for composers such as Dvorak, Janacek and Martinu.
This nationalistic influence is perhaps most overtly demonstrated in Má Vlast (My homeland) a set of six symphonic poems composed between 1874-1879, each musical depictions of Czech locations of natural beauty, architecture and folklore. Of these six beautiful compositions, Vltava is the best known. It is a musical description of the course of the Vltava (aka Moldau) river, as the streams from its two springs course across the Czech landscape finally meeting. The simple melody in E minor (I’ve maintained that key here), perfectly captures through ‘tone-painting’ (musical figures that reflect literal meaning and references in the music) the undulation and majesty of the river and the diverse beauty of the Czech landscape and its residents. This is all the more impressive and moving given that Smetana composed this work after succumbing to complete hearing loss, the sounds existing entirely in his mind’s ear.
I’ve had to reduce the long symphonic introduction and form, but have managed to capture the main melodic section and musical essence of this work. The arrangement works really well on the guitar. In fact it almost feels written for it, with familiar guitaristic melody and accompaniment techniques exploited. Still there are some challenges: the arpeggio sections must be kept flowing so be sure to not repeat plucking hand fingering; and to play the melody against the accompaniment requires some awkward stretches and careful use of fingering.
Always practise slowly at first and aim for absolute precision with all the chord shapes and position shifts. Pay attention to the melody and once you have this under your fingers you should be producing a nice lilting 6/8 feel. I hope you enjoy learning this! The tab captions will guide you through these challenges and allow you (with some work) to enjoy this beautiful work by a wonderful composer of magical pieces.
NEXT MONTH Bridget transcribes the thrilling prelude to Charpentier's Te Deum
THE ARRANGEMENT WORKS WELL FOR GUITAR. IN FACT IT ALMOST FEELS WRITTEN FOR IT, WITH GUITARISTIC MELODY AND ACCOMPANIMENT