Smetana’s String Quartet No. 1 “From My Life” (1876), isn’t just music. It tells the story of his life, from youthful dreams to the devastating moment he lost his hearing.
A change in Smetana’s life
Bedřich Smetana (1824 -1884) was a well-known composer in his life. He gained a major name in Czech music with operas like The Bartered Bride. But in the 1870s, a disaster hit the composer’s life. He started losing his hearing, a side effect of syphilis. By 1874, he was completely deaf. Instead of giving up, in 1876 he poured his emotions into this quartet, making it one of the very first chamber pieces to tell a personal story.
A new kind of chamber music
Most string quartets followed strict musical rules, but Smetana made his about raw emotion: he turned this quartet into something personal. Instead of writing a quartet for the sake of musical structure, he made it programmatic. He told a story through music.
This was rare in the chamber world, making it a forerunner of later works by other composers, who also used string quartets to express personal experiences.
A Life in Four Movements
Each part of the quartet depicts a different phase of Smetana’s life.
- Allegro vivo appassionato: passionate and dramatic, this movement is about his youth, ambition, and love of music. The main theme, played by the viola, is a bold, descending motif, suggesting ambition and determination.
- Allegro moderato alla polka: a lively and full of energy polka, capturing the joy of his early career and the excitement of Czech folk traditions.
- Largo sostenuto: a deeply emotional movement, with an air of sorrow but also warmth. It reflects the premature loss of his first wife and children.
- Vivace: starts off cheerful, showing his artistic success. Then, suddenly, a high-pitched E note (played by the violin) interrupts. It’s the sound of the ringing in Smetana’s ears that marked the start of his deafness. From there, the music turns darker, all the good spirits are gone.
Reception and legacy
It was given a private premiere in 1878 in Prague, with Antonín Dvořák as violist, for a small group of Smetana’s friends. The reception was tepid, sinse a programmatic quartet, far from the classical struct, was never seen before.
Smetana later wrote a second quartet, even more experimental, but his health was failing fast. “From My Life” remains his most famous chamber work, a powerful reminder that even as he lost his hearing, he never stopped making wonderful music, like his masterpiece Má vlast (1874-1879).
Classical Wonders 