The great wave of revolutionary nationalism which swept. Europe in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries came to the Czech people as an immensely fertilizing and liberating force. Among its many artistic fruits were Smetana’s patriotic tone poems (the most popular being ‘The Moldau’) and his nine operas, including “The Bartered Bride”
Smetana is often considered the father of Czech musical nationalism. He was only twenty-four when the liberal-patriotic revolutions of 1848-1849 swept Europe like a prairie fire, stirring Czech patriots to an unsuccessful revolution of their own, and launching Smetana on his career as a nationalist composer. From 1863 to 1866 he worked on his second opera. The Bartered Bride, a simple comedy of Czech life in a style strongly influenced by Czech folk music. To Czech listeners, “The Bartered bride” is much more than an opera. It has become almost a symbol of Czech people themselves. Happily “The Bartered Bride” captivates even non-Czech listeners with its melodic invention, its orchestral brilliance and its temperamental brio.
The music of the Overture is taken largely from the lively finale of Act II, when the townspeople witness the signing of a contract in which the hero deliberately gives the (false) impression that he is selling his claim to his own fiancée. The Overture opens with a brilliant flourish for full orchestra, a followed by a lively scherzo like figure spun out very delicately by the second violins alone. Presently they are joined by the first violins and finally by the lower strings, building up to a climax of excitement on the crest of which a syncopated dance figure, another chief theme of the Overture is heard. There is considerable development of both the dance theme and the scherzo-like figure. The whole is punctuated and concluded by reappearances of the Overture’s opening flourish.
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