My Country: National Museum exhibition celebrates Bedřich Smetana’s masterpiece
An exhibition dedicated to Czech composer Bedřich Smetana and his most famous piece, the cycle of six symphonic poems entitled My Country, has got underway at Prague’s National Museum. The exhibition, which is part of the Year of Czech Music, commemorates 200 years since the birth of the Czech musical great.
The new exhibition dedicated to Smetana’s My Country was launched this Tuesday, November 5, marking exactly 142 years since the complete cycle premiered at the Žofín Palace in Prague.
Smetana himself couldn’t hear the performance, since had gone completely deaf over the course of its composition.
The exhibition presents the individual symphonic poems of My Country through authentic notes, correspondence and scores, but it also provides the historical context in which they were created and their reception at various moments of Czech history, says its curator Marianna Lebedová:
“We wanted to invite visitors to go on trips, to wander around my country, but with the music. In the exhibition hall, there are many audio samples, there are samples of familiar motifs from those individual parts, but visitors can also hear the individual pieces in their entirety.”
Visitors can find out, for instance, that Smetana completed the score for Vltava in an incredible 19 days. On the side of the score they can see a note scribbled by the composer which says: "being completely deaf". Also on display are letters Smetana wrote to his children and friends, says Ms. Lebedová:
“I read many of his letters and diary entries, and they reveal that Bedřich Smetana did have a sense of humour. And although the family relationships were far from ideal, they also experienced lots of nice everyday moments, going mushroom picking or swimming.”
Among the most valuable exhibits is a so-called rastrum, a five-pointed writing instrument used to draw the five lines of the standard music staff, and a handwritten autograph of Vyšehrad:
“It shows that Bedřich Smetana was very precise. This autograph is now open at the beginning, and you can see the harp cadence as the notes rise and fall. And judging by the neat handwriting, you can really tell that he was precise to the point of being a stickler.”
The visitors can also take a glimpse of Smetana’s life through his personal objects, such as reading glasses, writing utensils, and a hearing aid. There is also a unique conducting baton that used to belong to the great Czech composer:
“In those days, musicians were given trophies as a kind of thanks for their work. This baton is made of ivory and inlaid with garnets and it was never actually used for conducting. So it really is an honorary baton, a sort of a trophy.”
The exhibition My Country will be on display in the main building of the National Museum until the end of October 2025.
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