Czech Song (Vocal Score)

Smetana Czech Song (Vocal Score)
Czech text

Bedřich Smetana, (1824-1884) was a Bohemian composer of operas and symphonic poems, founder of the Czech national school of music.  He is perhaps best known for his cycle of six orchestral tone poems, Má vlast (‘My Country’), especially ‘Vltava’, his depiction of the river that flows through Prague.  He was the first truly important Bohemian nationalist composer.

Czech Song, Smetana's only cantata for mixed choir and orchestra set to a text by revivalist poet Jan of Hvezda, has long been part of the fundamental Czech choral repertoire. The composer completed the definitive version for the above-mentioned combination of performers in 1878; it was published for the first time in 1882 in the original arrangement with two-hand piano accompaniment. 

The first critical edition of the score came out in 1941 as part of the Study Edition of the Works of Bedrich Smetana. This was the  edition Karel Solc used to produce a full piano reduction for our current edition. 

The title is available in both its Czech (H7402) and German versions (H7402-01)