Jaroslav Egon Salaba-Vojan

“ He did not use any folk songs in his works, but he wrote his own original music so perfectly in the spirit of the folk music that his operas, symphonic poems, etc., are immensely dear to every Bohemian heart. His works are the Bohemian music par excellence. He gained his victory only after a long and tragic struggle: Smetana’s opponents asserted that the progressive ideas of the world’s music were incompatible with the national idea, but Smetana proved the contrary. ”

“ The folk dances are closely related to the folk songs, and their rhythms are very original. What Chopin did for the mazurka and the valse, Smetana did for the polka, a Bohemian dance dating from 1830. His “Polkas” for piano-forte are congenial to Chopin’s sublime compositions. He wrote also ten other Bohemian dances for piano and inserted a “polka”, a “furiant,” and a “skočná” in his opera “Prodaná nevěsta”, and Dvořák used the furiant even as scherzo in his symphonies. ”

“ New York and Chicago Grand Opera are playing today works of Italian and French authors of the second and third rank, but Smetana and Dvořák are entirely forgotten. Is it not curious?
The greatest gift of Smetana to his nation was the cycle of six symphonic poems “Má Vlast” (My Country) . Here in America again only two poems of this complex are given every season by the symphonic orchestras: the first “Vyšehrad” and the second “Vltava” (In German “Moldau”) . “My Country” is a grandiose conception. ”

“ Among Smetana’s other works, piano compositions “The Bohemian dances” and “Polkas”, male choruses “Rolnická" (Farmer’s song) , “Píseň na moři” (Song on the sea) , the cantata “Česká píseň” (Bohemian Song) , five songs “Večerní písně” (Evening songs) and the pompous Shakespeare March (written for the Shakespeare Festival in Prague in April, 1864) are the most important.
Smetana is the greatest Bohemian composer. He deliberately took his stand as an exponent of the art of his native country, and every note of his immortal bequest shows how passionately he loved his nation. ”

“ To the end of the eighteenth century and the early part of the nineteenth, the leadership in all that pertained to the art was acknowledged by the musical world to be in the masterly hands of Mozart and Beethoven. ”

“ Otokar Hostinský, late professor at the Bohemian University of Prague, a fervent champion of Smetana, Karel Stecker, professor at the Conservatory of Music in Prague, Dr. Zdeněk Nejedlý, professor at the Bohemian University, etc.
The reproductive art reached always the highest level. Many Bohemian virtuosos and singers became world-famed. ”

“ The same year on his fiftieth birthday the University of Cambridge in England gave him the title of a doctor of music and the Bohemian University in Prague the honorary title of doctor of philosophy.
In 1892 Dvořák came to America for three years as head of the National Conservatory in New York. Of ten works written in America, the first was the immortal Fifth Symphony in E minor, “Z Nového Světa” (From the New World) op. 95 (sketched from January 10 to May 25 in New York, first performance at New York Music Hall, December 16, 1893) . ”