You Be the Judge! The Bartered Bride Overture

Today begins my discussion of the pieces that will comprise Orchestra Kentucky's concert on October 25th. Entitled, You Be the Judge!, audience members will choose what compositions they want to hear...right on the spot. There will be two exceptions to the voting: the overture and the finale. Today, I will give you some background information on The Bartered Bride Overture of Bedrich Smetana (pronounced Sme-ten-uh). I have also supplied a link to a classic perform-ance of the masterpiece.

Smetana (1824-1884), is known as the father of Czech music. He is best known for his opera, The Bartered Bride, a comic opera composed between 1863 and 1866. Smetana had written an earlier opera, but this was the work that would put him on the map. His inspiration was a comment from the Viennese conductor Johann von Herbeck, who in so many words said that Czechs were incapable of making music of their own, Smetana replied, "I swore there and then that no other than I should beget a native Czech music."

In order to create an opera that was identifiably Czech, Smetana made use of traditional Bohemian dance forms like the polka and furiant. Although he mostly avoided quoting folk songs in the opera, he wrote music that had the characteristics of Bohemian folk music. Smetana composed the overture before almost any of the other music of the opera--highly unusual for an opera composer.

Listen and watch a classic performance of the overture conducted by Vaclav Neumann: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hLtLN87I90.

Tomorrow I will talk about Beethoven's famous Symphony No. 5, the first candidate up for "election".