From my Homeland

From my Homeland was written in 1880 at much the same time as the earliest items in Smetana’s great cycle of orchestral tone poems, My Fatherland. In spite of that, however, and in spite of the similarity of their English titles, they have nothing to do with each other. My Fatherland (Má Vlast) is a work of epic proportions designed for large halls and big occasions. From my Homeland (Z domoviny) is, as the composer himself described it, “a lighter kind of work meant to be played at home rather than in the concert hall, although the latter possibility is not excluded.” Far from being a nationalist statement in the same spirit as My Fatherland, it is Smetana’s modest response to a German publisher hoping to cash in on the vogue for Czech music inspired by Dvorák’s recently published first set of Slavonic Dances. Unfortunately for the Hamburg publisher, Smetana refused to allow the work to be published under a German title. It was eventually issued by Urbanek in Prague as Z domoviny and dedicated to the Prince Alexander Thun-Taxis, who rewarded the composer with an ivory snuff-box.

Authentically Bohemian in idiom though it is, all the melodic material in From my Homeland is Smetana’s own: we have his word for it. The lyrical main theme of the opening Moderato - introduced by the violin after a few bars of introduction - is of such quality that, except in a brief middle section, it sustains the movement unaided. The other piece is rather more ambitious in structure. Beginning with a fanciful prelude, featuring the piano as much as the violin, it too is favoured by appealingly lyrical melody. Half-way through, however, the tempo changes to make way for a lively Bohemian dance (a skocna) and, although there are slower episodes still to come, it is dance rather than nostalgia that prevails, as the Presto coda emphatically confirms.