"Miluji svou vlast!"
"I love my homeland!" (in Czech)
"I love my homeland!" (in Czech)
God Bless America, The Start Spangled Banner, God Save the Queen, Rule Britannia, Come All Ye Bold Canadians, Advance Australia Fare...what do all these songs have in common? They are either the national anthem or a nationally recognized patriotic song for that particular country.
Music has long served as an emblem of national identity both publicly and in educational systems throughout the world. Since elementary school children in America have been taught the Pledge of Allegiance and The Star Spangled Banner. This builds patriotism from an early age. Teaching them the values that we hold as citizens of America. There is a sense of loyalty and pride that goes along with thinking about our national anthem or listening to a rendition of God Bless America. These things can bring a nation closer together and this can be even more evident during times of hardship or war in the country.
All of these things hold true for the Czech nation as well.
The following pages will take you through the life of the composer, and hopefully will help you to fall in love with the music that gave a nation in desperate times the hope it needed to keep moving forward.
Each movement will have corresponding pictures of the locations that inspired Smetana to write about them. As you listen to each section, close your eyes, and listen. See if you can imagine yourself in the composers shoes, as he saw these well known places and told the stories that gave such a pride, that he was compelled to bring them to life through music.
Music has long served as an emblem of national identity both publicly and in educational systems throughout the world. Since elementary school children in America have been taught the Pledge of Allegiance and The Star Spangled Banner. This builds patriotism from an early age. Teaching them the values that we hold as citizens of America. There is a sense of loyalty and pride that goes along with thinking about our national anthem or listening to a rendition of God Bless America. These things can bring a nation closer together and this can be even more evident during times of hardship or war in the country.
All of these things hold true for the Czech nation as well.
The following pages will take you through the life of the composer, and hopefully will help you to fall in love with the music that gave a nation in desperate times the hope it needed to keep moving forward.
Each movement will have corresponding pictures of the locations that inspired Smetana to write about them. As you listen to each section, close your eyes, and listen. See if you can imagine yourself in the composers shoes, as he saw these well known places and told the stories that gave such a pride, that he was compelled to bring them to life through music.