Moldau By Smetana

The Moldau written by Bedřich Smetana in 1874 is one of the most widely performed symphonic poems ever written. This paper will deconstruct, analyse and evaluate this piece and examine both of the ways in which it pushes the boundaries of the Classical Period establishing a new romantic style. This piece is written as a nationalistic piece as Smetana shows his love for his homeland and describes the flowing river in which he grew up going to. This 13 minute piece is separated into 8 sections, each with a contrasting melody and theme which represents the various aspects of this Czech river. Section one is entitled the ‘The Two Sources of the Moldau’, and is featured from bars 1-35. The second section, ‘The River’ then begins at bar 36 and continues until bar 79. The following segment,
This was not a common occurrence in the classical, however the romantic era saw lower brass instruments playing the main melody to provide added timbral variation to the piece. In contrast to section 1, the violins are now playing in an Arco style, as seen in bar 36, which creates greater depth to the sound and once again representing a more gushing river. Traditionally in early Romantic music, the double bass was used to double up the cello part but, towards the end of the era this idea got modernised with the bass having its own part and also having written solos. In this piece, they have underlying countermelody of pizzicato at the beginning of each bar. This adds emphasis on the shadowy depths of the river. In order to keep the music flowing, Smetana chose to make the melody an ascending pattern which was connected. Furthermore, its simplicity makes it very memorable which is similar to those composed in the early classical era but its use of pizzicato and the double bass make it similar to the Romantic