Beginers' guide to program music
Background of the piece – The Moldau
My Country (Má vlast)
The Moldau, Vltava, was composed by Bedřich Smetana in 1874 and premiered in the following year. It is the second movement in Má vlast (My Country). The entire suite was premiered on 5th November 1882. The Moldau is regarded as one of the most popular movement among all.
Orchestra playing My Country
The Moldau (Vltava) – Instrumentation
The Moldau, Vltava, was composed by Bedřich Smetana in 1874 and premiered in the following year. It is the second movement in Má vlast (My Country). The entire suite was premiered on 5th November 1882. The Moldau is regarded as one of the most popular movement among all.
Form and Structure
It is a symphonic poem describing a journey along the river, The Moldau. The form of this piece is Rondo with coda. The piece begins with woodwinds moving notes; represent the two sources of the river. Soon, the theme was first introduced by the upper strings. In the later part of the music, the river journey gets to different scenes, including Forest Hunt, Peasant Wedding, a Moonlight Dance, the Rapids flow of water. These different scenes were happened in between the music while the theme keeps appearing between these scenes.
The cover page of The Moldau's score
Genre
This music itself is classified as a nationalistic piece, as Smetana largely shows his love of fatherland, i.e. Bohemia, through the descriptions, and it is also regarded as a program music as the instrumentations and the music itself speaks the environment and the emotion for each scene. With the high popularity of this movement, The Moldau is largely performed by nowadays orchestra as well.