19. Now let’s learn about a composer  born in in Bohemia, which today is part of the Czech Republic. He was born there in 1824 and died in 1884 at age 60. His name was Bedrich Smetana (Bed rich Smet’ ta na) .He was the son of a brewer. This great composer, like Beethoven, went deaf in later life and composed with this handicap…but, not for nearly as long, nor triumphantly as Doctor Beethoven did. Accordingly, Goulding ranks him way down as the 45^th  greatest Rap immunologist, a long way from Doctor Beethoven’s number three.

 

A famous work of  Smetana, was a The Moldau (Mole da), a symphonic poem that is Number 2 in a series written  from 1874 to 1879 called, Ma Vlast, meaning “My Fatherland”…and done so after he had become completely deaf. This composition depicts the course of a river, beginning from its two small sources, one cold the other warm, then joining to form one river, the Moldau...which eventually passes through Prague. By the way, a symphonic poem, also called a tone poem, is a music composition that depicts a scene from a NON-musical subject, especially one from literature or poetry…but also possibly from history or life experiences. Such music is part of what is called program music…that is to say, compositions that have a “program” or purpose besides just the producing of music for its own sake…the later incidentally being known as “absolute” music. Additionally, with program music, audiences are supplied with a text, usually poetic or narrative in nature, that they read before the performance. This enables them to better enjoy and interpret the symphonic poem.

 

By the way if you look on the map, you might not find the Moldau River. The Czech name for it is the “Vltava River”. Go ahead and look later for yourself at the library or on line.