Z Českych Luhů a Hájů (From Bohemia's Meadows and Forests)
Smetana writes:
“It is a painting of the feelings that fill one when gazing at the Bohemian landscape. On all sides singing, both gay and melancholic, resounds from fields and woods: the forest regions, depicted on the solo horn; the gay, fertile lowlands of the Elbe valley are the subject of rejoicing. Everyone may draw his own picture according to his own imagination; for the poet has an open path before him, even though he must follow the individual parts of the work.”
A long cantando theme appears in the clarinets and horns as we enter the “shade of the woods.” We hear the fugato taking turns with the cantando. Finally we hear a stately full orchestra statement of the cantando theme.
“It is a painting of the feelings that fill one when gazing at the Bohemian landscape. On all sides singing, both gay and melancholic, resounds from fields and woods: the forest regions, depicted on the solo horn; the gay, fertile lowlands of the Elbe valley are the subject of rejoicing. Everyone may draw his own picture according to his own imagination; for the poet has an open path before him, even though he must follow the individual parts of the work.”
A long cantando theme appears in the clarinets and horns as we enter the “shade of the woods.” We hear the fugato taking turns with the cantando. Finally we hear a stately full orchestra statement of the cantando theme.
Then after a several irresolute hints, the music is launched into a joyous allegro polka. The polka continues while we hear a reappearance of the “peasant girl theme” in the winds. A presto coda brings the work to an exuberant close.