century is Bohemia, where two
names are to be mentioned. Bedrich Smetana (1824-1884), is to be
remembered as the creator, or at least the awakener, of Bohemian
music. After a short education at the Prague university Smetana
entered diligently upon the study of music, becoming a brilliant
pianist, and as such forming one of the circle of enthusiastic and
advancing souls surrounding Liszt at Weimar, between 1850 and 1860.
His first position as musical director was at Gothenberg, 1856. Here
he lost his wife, the brilliant pianist Katharina Kolar. In 1861 he
made a long concert tour to Sweden. In 1866 he was appointed director
of the music at the national theater in Prague, a position which he
held until obliged to give it up on account of loss of hearing in
1874. Smetana wrote eight operas upon Bohemian subjects, with music in
the Bohemian spirit; one best known is "The Bartered Bride," which was
the last composed. He also wrote about ten symphonies or symphonic
poems, and a great variety of chamber music. Of his symphonic poems
those most often played are: "In Wallenstein's Camp," "Moldau,"
"Sarka" and "Visegrad." In all these the titles are mainly suggestive,
although in "Sarka" a programme is quite closely followed. Smetana was
a brilliant composer, but his value lies in his awakening of the
Bohemians to musical creation.

[Illustration: BEDRICH SMETANA.]

[Illustration: ANTON DVORAK.]

The most brilliant name in Bohemian music, and the one most valued by
the world in general, is that of Anton Dvorak (1841- ), who was the
son of a butcher at Mulhausen. The boy early applied himself to the
violin, and after some years' playing in small orchestras, found a
place as violinist in the orchestra of the National theater at Prague.
This was at the age of nineteen. About ten years later he first
attracted attention as composer, by means of a hymn for mixed chorus
and orchestra. The attention of his countrymen, thus gained, Dvorak
fastened still more by a succession of compositions of varied scope,
ranging from the Slavic dances and Slavic rhapsodies to symphonies,
chamber music and choral works of great brilliancy. In 1892 Dr. Dvorak
was called to New York as director of the so-called National
Conservatory of Music. In 1895 he returned to Bohemia. The choral
works of Dvorak were generally first written for English musical
festivals. "The Specter's Bride," "Stabat Mater," "Saint Ludmilla."
The list of his works includes five