Page:The music of Bohemia.djvu/40

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26
THE MUSIC OF BOHEMIA

tling sound of very high pitch, which had pre-
ceded my deafness. This little tone-picturing I dared to insert in this composition because it was so fateful for me."

Smetana always found in the small ensem-
ble of chamber music the proper interpreter for expression of his most intimate feelings. Thus the Trio, op. 15,[1] was written to the memory of his little daughter, whose death brought to Smetana a great sorrow.

Smetana never accommodated his artistic principles to the taste of the public. He was too serious an artist to make a work pleasing to the masses. His eight operas—except The Bartered Bride—had to fight against a wall of misunderstanding; and were victorious, only after many years of dispute, because of their originality and vitality. A real genius, Sme-
tana was much ahead of his time.

The Bartered Bride[2] (1866), Two Widows

  1. Trio in G minor, op. 15, for piano, violin, and violoncello.
  2. Was performed for the first time in America in 1909 at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, with great success.