The Genesis of 'The Bartered Bride' Author(s): Gerald Abraham Source: Music & Letters, Vol. 28, No.

1 (Jan., 1947), pp. 36-49 Published by: Oxford University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/854710 . Accessed: 06/02/2011 11:12
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THE GENESIS OF 'THE BARTERED BRIDE'

BY GERALD ABRAHAM

THOUGHa simple opera, 'The Bartered Bride' has had a fairly complicated history. Not as complicated as that of' Boris Godunov', certainly, nor as important as that of' Fidelio ', yet by no means without interest. And its history all falls within the lifetime of its composer; it is not a tale of posthumous re-hashing like the latter part of the eventful story of 'Boris' or, to take another comic opera (with a. somewhat tragic history), Cornelius's ' Barbier von As it happens, the histories of the 'Bride' and the Bagdad'. 'Barber' are slightly interwoven. Both were written under the sign of Liszt, and it was actually at Weimar, in September I857, that the first germ of the work-or of such a work-found its way into Smetana's mind. There was a gathering of musicians and other artists in connection with the Karl August centennial celebrations, and Cornelius, always at Liszt's and the Princess Wittgenstein's beck and call, his 'Barber' held up largely on their account since early in the year, was called upon to arrange a great deal of hospitality. Among the guests was Smetana, making a detour on his way back to Sweden, and on one of the two or three days he spent there the conversation turned on the necessity of creating a modern type of comic opera as a complement to Wagner's work. Can we doubt that Cornelius and his 'Barber' were the occasion for that turn in the conversation? And a little later the Viennese Herbeck remarked somewhat tactlessly that, whereas the Czechs were excellent performers, they seemed incapable of creating any music of their own.1 " That evening ", Smetana said in later years, "was decisive for my whole life; I swore there and then that no other than I should beget a native Czech music." From that meeting at Weimar Cornelius fled, without even taking leave of his friends at the Altenburg,2 to finish sketching out his 'Barber' at Johannisberg; Smetana collected his sick wife and family at Dresden to continue their journey to Sweden, but carrying with him those two fruitful
1 Some accounts date Herbeck's remark from a later meeting at Weimar, in June 1859, but we know at any rate that Herbeck attended the Karl August Centenary. 2 There was a new threat to his creative leisure: Liszt was again toying with his old idea of an opera based on ' Manfred ', and he wanted Cornelius to translate and adapt Byron. 36

THE GENESIS OF 'THE BARTERED BRIDE'

37

ideas of " a modern type of comic opera " and " a native Czech music ". As it happened, when Smetana finally returned to settle in his native land in May I86I, his first major composition-though Czech enough-was not a comic opera but the historical and patriotic ' Brandenburgers in Bohemia ', written for a prize competition. But even before he put the finishing touches to the on April 23rd 1863, he was noting down 'Brandenburgers' themes for a comic opera. As early as October 1862, for instance, he wrote in his note-book sixteen bars (4-4, vivace, G major) marked " Chorus in comedy ", which later became the theme of the opening chorus of the 'Bride', " Proc bychom se netesili " (in Mrs. Newmarch's version: " Come then, let us all be merry "). On May 13th 1863 he noted eight bars (2-4, A major) marked " In comic opera. Duetto! ", afterwards used for the duet "Verne milovani" (" If our love is strong and true "). Again in September he recorded nineteen bars (2-4, allegro, A major) for the comic duet " Milostne zvifatko" (" Now my dear Sir Bruin "). By that time he had at least got a libretto; his diary for 1863 contains an entry: "July 5th. I've bought from Sabina the text for the comic operetta, which still has no name ". But this was probably not in the form he actually set, for we know that Sabina-who was also the librettist of the ' Brandenburgers '-originally wrote the text in one act and that he expanded it to two at Smetana's request. We must not, therefore, blame Sabina if we find the action a little thin when spread, as it now is, over three acts; it is recorded that he said: " If I had suspected what Smetana would make of my operetta, I should have taken more pains and written him a better and more solid libretto ". The original ' Bartered Bride ' consisted of twenty numbers, including the overture, the dialogue being spoken:
ACT I

(i) Introductory chorus (with the little interlude for Mafenka and Jenik, " Prod jsi tak zasmusila?"-" Why are you so sad to-day? "). (2) Marenka's aria, " Kdybych se cos takoveho" (" If I thought you would be faithless "). (3) Duet, "Jako matka pozehnanim" (" Though a mother is a (4) (5) (6) (7) Kecal's "Jak vam pravim " (" As I said before, old crony,).3 Terzetto, " Mladik slu?ny" (" Such a pice lad "). The ensemble " Tu ji mine " (" Here she comes "). VaSek's" MAmatieka povidala " (" Mama said to me ").
blessing ").

Kecal is never named in the composition sketch; he is always referred to simply as Dohazovac (the marriage-broker), usually abbreviated to " Doh ".

38

MUSIC AND LETTERS (8) Duet, " Znamt' j, jednu div6inu" ("I know of one lonely maid "). (9) Duet, "Nuie, mily chasniku " ("Just a word with you, my boy "), with Kecal's "Kazdy jen tu svou " (" Ev'ry lover's girl ") and the duet " Znamt' jednu divku" (" I know a maiden "). (Io) Jenik's aria,'" Az uzfi " (" How could he ever dream? "). (I ) Finale, " Pojd'te, lidiyky " (" Come here, neighbours all "). ACT II Vakek's "To mi v hlave lezi" ("With dread my wits are cumbered "). Couplets for Esmeralda and the Manager. Duet, " Milostne zvihatko" (" Now, my dear Sir Bruin "). Ensemble, "Jakze? Nechce ji! " (" What! What's this? "), with Mafenka's entry and the sextet. Mafenka's recitative, "Ach, jak zial" (" Ah! Bitterness!") and Jenik's entrance, with the duet "Tak tvrdoijnou, divko, jsi " (" Now what a stubborn lass you are "). Jenik's aria, " Uti se, divko " (" Take comfort, my dearest ") and the trio "Ted' pfivedu sem rodiCe" (" I'll summon back my people all "). Ensemble, "Jak si se, Marenko, rozmyslila" ("Have you reflected?") as far as the entrance of the panic-strickenboys. Finale, beginning with KruSina's words, " Pomnete, kxnote " (" Come now, neighbour ").

(I) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8)

Smetana appears not to have begun serious work on the composition for nearly a year-perhaps because of the desired recasting of the text in two acts-though he seems to have written the overture earlier; the musical paper ' Slavoj' (December ist 1863) reports the performance at the soiree of the Umelecka Beseda on November I8th of a " comic overture by Smetana ", presumably at the piano.4 The composition of the actual libretto seems to have been begun about the end of August i864. Smetana's note-book contains an entry for I864: This year I have been composing a comic opera in two acts by Sabina. I have tried to give it an entirely national character, as the action is from village life, where a bridegroom sells his sweetheart, but really for himself-which calls for national6 music.
4 Czech critics seem to agree in supposing that this " comic overture " was that to 'The Bartered Bride '. But may it not have been the overture to the puppet play, 'Doktor Faust' (for two horns, bass trombone, triangle, bass drum, strings and piano) composed in December 1862? Another puppet overture, to Kopecky's 'Oldfich a Bczena ', for a similar collection of instruments, was written in December 1863 for the New Year's Eve celebration of the Umelecki Beseda. Both overtures were published in miniature score by the Umelecka Beseda in 1945. which I have here twice translated as " national ", is ambiguous: b The word ncrodni, it may mean " national " or " popular ".

THE GENESIS OF 'THE BARTERED BRIDE'

39

Writing to a Swedish friend on October 12th 1865, the composer tells her he has finished the pencil sketch. The scoring took another five months, for the end of the score is dated March 5th i866. And the first version of' Prodana nevesta ' (literally, ' The Sold Bride ', which is of course more accurate6), was produced at the Provisional Theatre, Prague, on May 3oth, only two months after its completion. The times were unfavourable; it was the eve of the Seven Weeks' War, and the audience was small.7 Smetana's friend Josef SrbDebrnov did not go to the first performance, but he questioned the audience as they came out of the theatre: One praised it, another shook his head, and one well-known musician, a celebrated organist, said to me: " That's no comic opera; it won't do. The opening chorus is fine, but I don't care for the rest ". The second performance also had a poor audience and poor Thome, the director of the Theatre, told the composer: " Mit der' Prothana' ist nichts. You will be doing me the greatest pleasure if you cancel the contract for the performance of this opera; otherwise I shall have to pay you the 600 fl. out of my own pocket ". Yet the work had a good press and when it was revived after the war-the Emperor Franz Josef was present at the third performance (October 27th)-its success was beyond all doubt. But this was only the first version of the opera. Changes were made from the very beginning. The prose dialogue had been drastically cut even before the first performance and the couplets for Esmeralda and the Manager (No. 2 of Act II) were taken out. The need of a change of scene was also felt; for both acts were played with the same scenery: the village square. Librettist and composer took counsel and January I869 saw the production of the second version of the 'Bride'. The first act was now divided, between Nos. 6 and 7, into two scenes of which the second was played inside the inn and opened by a new drinking chorus. The opening of the second act was enlivened by a polka-there were no dances in the first version-and after her recitative (No. 5) Mafenka was given a new aria, " Ten lasky sen" (" Our dream of love "). A few months later further changes were made: the second part of
' Smetana's diary records that he himself gave it that name, " as the poet didn't know what to call it ". 7 When news came of the crushing Austrian defeat at K6niggratz early in July, Smetana was thunderstruck. As composer of 'The Brandenburgers in Bohemia' he expected to be shot when the Prussians entered Prague, or at best to be made to work with the rest of the inhabitants at demolition of the fortifications. So he fled to the country with his family.

40

MUSIC AND LETTERS

Act I was made into a separate act, the polka was transferred from the beginning of the last act to the end of the first, the furiant -one of the few numbers based on actual folk-tunes-was inserted in Act II between the drinking-chorus and VaSek's first stuttering song, and a third dance, the sko~na, was introduced in Act III. In this form-the third-' The Bartered Bride' was produced on June ist 1869. Finally, in view of a forthcoming performance in Russian at the Maryinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg, Smetana replaced the spoken dialogue by recitative, in which definitive form it was given in Prague on September 25th I870. I have spoken above of the "pencil sketch" of the original version, finished in October I865. That sketch-in vocal scorewas carefully preserved in the Bedrich Smetana Museum in Prague, and its recent publication in facsimile8 allows us some interesting glimpses of Smetana's method of work. On the whole it is very clean, showing relatively few corrections, and there are hints here and there-not very decided ones-that Smetana composed at the piano. On that point the most reliable witnesses differ. According to one Ferdinand Heller the 'Bride' was composed at the piano, while Srb asserts that " Smetana never used the piano while composing; only when the work was finished would he go to the piano and play it ". Obviously he did not needthe piano, for three of his operas and all his best-known instrumental works were composed when he was completely deaf. One piece of evidence, for what it is worth, is a recollection of Smetana's eighty-four-year-old nephew sent to Mirko Ocadlik, the editor of the facsimile edition, in I94I. The nephew, Alexander Kniesl, describes how as a six-year-old boy staying in the country in the summer of 1863 he often used to hear his uncle playing on " an old black piano with a thin, hollow tone ": He would call me, a six-year-old boy sitting on a little, low child's chair, to listen. " Do you like it? " my uncle would ask in a kindly voice.. . . Naturally at six I had no critical judgment-but it was music and I would say, " Yes, I love it! "-But without realizing it I had an opportunity of watching my uncle compose. On the desk lay manuscript paper partly written on and I saw how he would write the notes in pencil with the right hand while with the left he would turn what he had written into music. It often happened that my uncle would cross out a bar that did not please him and substitute another.-As a child I didn't pay much attention to all this, but years later I learned from my cousin Zdenka Smetana that these sketches were the humble beginnings of' The Bartered Bride '. If this really happened in the summer of 1863, the sketches must
8 By Melantrich and the Bedrich Smetana Society. Prague, 1944.

THE GENESIS OF 'THE BARTERED BRIDE'

4I

have related to Sabina's very first one-act version of the libretto, which Smetana found unsatisfactory. The sketch begins directly with the opening chorus almost exactly as we have it now, though there is, for instance, no dominant seventh in bar 3: the tenors have D instead of C. After the first eight bars Smetana does not bother to write the piano orchestral part, which simply doubles the chorus, except in the interludes. These are always more abrupt than in the definitive version; for instance, in the little interlude before the " Ouvej! " (" Heighho! ") episode-rather different in the sketch-Smetana originally took only two bars instead of four to change from major to minor (there is an exact parallel in the transition after the sextet in the last act), while the transition back to the main theme is a perfunctory sketch of which only traces survive in the final sixteen-bar version. The other G minor episode, for the two lovers, is essentially the same in the sketch and the final version though the voice-parts, superimposed on the orchestral background, show considerable differences -a remark which applies to many other passages. Smetana naturally does not trouble to write out the main choral tune in full for the third time: he draws a wavy line and starts again with the music of the coda, identical in substance with the long moltomoderato orchestral introduction to the first act, though now with chorus parts added. But why did not Smetana sketch out his orchestral introduction first, instead of bringing in one of its themes as (apparently) an afterthought at the end of the chorus? The answer is that the essential part of the introduction had been written a good many years before 'The Bartered Bride' was even thought of. In 1849 Smetana's pupil, the Countess Marie von Thun-Hohenstein, married; and as a wedding-present the composer dedicated to her a suite of three 'Wedding Scenes' for piano: 'Wedding March', 'Bridegroom and Bride' and 'Wedding Festivities'. Now the middle part of the' Wedding Festivities' is a tempodi polka, and it was this which Smetana fifteen years later used as a frame for the opening number of his opera. One interesting point is that the original key of the polka was F, the key of the overture to the ' Bride '; but in the opera it had to be transposed to G, the key of the opening chorus, and was therefore provided with a ten-bar prelude modulating from F to G. The introduction as a whole therefore consists of: 10 bars on the chorus theme, modulating; 57 bars taken note for note (with a few one- and two-bar inserts) from the ' Wedding Scenes'; 8 bars rounding off the polka; 22 bars of allegromoltoon the chorus tune.

42

MUSIC AND LETTERS

Mafenka's aria "Kdybych se co takoveho" (" If I thought you would be faithless "), like most of the set numbers, lacks the orchestral introduction which in the finished product anticipates the vocal melody, but is otherwise identical except in unimportant details with the final version. But even the facsimile betrays a considerable amount of rubbing-out in the opening bars, and the editor has been able to decipher some twenty bars of the earlier sketch which he prints in the notes to the facsimile. I quote the opening:

t 'El- &

Kdybych

f C rrrse coFta-ko-ir Ive - ho i o

XJ fr ' ^^i.

tobe' do-e-de - la

("~~~~~?~~~J1"~~~~~$8,~~~~~~i

? *? .

The ensuing duet differs entirely from that in the sketch: Smetana has scribbled at the head of the latter " original; later re-composed ". Almost the only thing common to both settings of the words is that they fall into two sections, minor and relative major: in the sketch C minor and Eb major, in the published version G minor and Bb major. Now the odd point is that the lulling, rocking theme in Bb, of which the opening theme of the overture is perhaps a sparkling transformation, had been noted down long before (see supra) in A major and actually marked " In comic " opera. Duetto! ". (" In comic opera may, of course, have meant " in some comic opera ", even though Smetana seems already at that time to have been at least discussing the 'Bride' subject with Sabina; he often noted themes before he thought of the works in which to embody them; for instance, the note-books for I863 also contain two themes afterwards used in 'The Two Widows', though he did not make the acquaintance of Mallefille's comedy, much less think of composing it, till I868.). But in the composition sketch we find instead: Ex. 2 1t ) I r h ir

THE GENESIS OF 'THE BARTERED BRIDE'

43

slo - vo jsme si

na vzdy

da - li;

- r' VVFP11IEc~ (Lj\ (sic.)

And when, later in the first act, Mafenka comments sottovoce" Mam uz jineho" (" I have a lover ") the orchestra underlines the remark with Ex. 2 in the sketch, not with the Bb theme as in the published version. But there is one other passage in the published version where the orchestra refers back to the love-duet: just after Marenka's agitated entry in the last act, when she is crushed by the apparent proof of her lover's baseness. And here in the sketch we find, not a corresponding allusion to Ex. 2, but a snatch of the Bb theme, incomplete and in 4-4 time, but in the right key and with the rather cloying orchestral sixths: lak ~ PJ'

I 'J e

'1_-

[. 0

Ex.a3 1__.

It is worth noting that Smetana preserved the semiquaver accompaniment of Ex. 2 when he substituted the Bb tune and that x is echoed in one of the melodic cadences of the final version. On the other hand, if this feature already appears in the A major version of 1863, which I have not seen, we must put it that x is the echo; but it is a typical Smetana trait, familiar in ' Vltava ' and occurring in the closing bars of' The Bartered Bride '-to look no further. I have already spoken of Smetana's alteration of voice-parts over an unchanged orchestral background. This is particularly true of declamatory passages, which he often re-writes completely, often for the sake of more comfortable range and tessitura, though in at least one case-Mafenka's passionate outburst in the last act, "0 jaky ial, kdyz srdce oklamano" (" Ah! bitterness! When hearts have trusted vainly ")-a passage lying within a diminished fifth is expanded to cover a tenth. But it is also true of arias

MUSIC AND LETTERS

44

and ensembles, as in the trio " Mladik slusny" (" Such a nice lad "):

(sketch) r"P
Ex. 4 Mladik

i
sluS

ny a mra-vuvfc

ti

-chych

(final) _h

(sketch)

vbiF

^^

f^

and the quartet from the next scene, from which I quote a typical passage for one voice:
(sketch)

Ex.5
(final version,

4
)
sJ

Ir Ii

Ne-bu - de-li

se ti

ti

I'i~~T f ~~f
(sketch)

pq

Ct. +
li-bit,ko

4
r
si -

r
cek mu das,

r
ko-si-cek

(sketch)

(final version,

~-^ _ ~>l, .
Ne-bu - de-li se ti

"

mu das.

'

i - bit,

ko-si-cek

mu di11

'~"r: rn
(sketch)

=~r

'I

THE GENESIS OF 'THE BARTERED BRIDE'

45

Incidentally, in the sketch the trio and Scene IV are separated by a ten-bar sketch for Vasek's first stuttering song-marked " Scene VI-Vasek (dressed as bridegroom) "-in 3-4 time and different from the ultimate version; Smetana has drawn quite brackets round it and left it. The right version duly appears in its proper place in the score, though still incorrectly marked " Scene VI" (instead of V), without its prelude and with its postlude shortened, but otherwise pretty much as we know it. Both the duets for Marenka and Vasek and for Jenik and Kecal appear in the sketch very much as we know them, not only in melody but in harmony and details of figuration; only the passage in the first duet, where Marenka threatens Vasek with his fictitious admirer's suicide, is entirely different. Jenik's aria, "Az uzris" (" How could he ever dream "), shows more substantial changes. For once Srietana sketched a four-bar introduction-perhaps it has because it was not to anticipate the vocal melody-though in common with the longer passage that replaced practically nothing it. And the voice-part begins with quite a different melody, set to the words treated as recitative in the printed score:
8 Ex.6

If r
Az uz-r[s

r IJ
kom-us kou-pil
nev-

1
s- tu

r\

smut-ne nas-tou-pis,

r
smut-ne nas-tou-pis

Ir-

J
ces - tu!

4r

zpa-tec - ni

of which an echo remains in the final version at the words " pro nejz mi neni nic obtizneho " (" No more shall that old huckster vex ") for the sixteen bars beginning " Drahou Mafenku" (" 0 lodestar of my soul ") were taken over from twelve bars of the original sketch. A parallel case, also in the part of Jenik, occurs in the last act where in the duet "Tak tvrdosijnou divko, jsi " (" Now what a stubborn lass you are ") his melody originally began:

Ex.7 =
Tak tvr-do-si-jnou,dlv-ko,jsi, ze nechces pravdu zvedet

continued for another six bars exactly as in the final version, and then diverged again.
Vol. XXVIII. D

46

MUSIC AND LETTERS

The finale of Act I (that is, of Act II of the published score) originally began with four orchestral bars anticipating Kecal's call to the neighbours, instead of with seventeen bars more or less identical with the opening of the overture, and was written in 2-4 time instead of 4-4. The substance of the finale is generally the same, though there are the usual differences in the voice-parts and the original lacks the colourful modulation underlining Jenik's significant reference to " the son of Tobias Micha ". On the other hand, a little later at the reference to the " three hundred crowns ", Smetana softened his original modulation to A major (from the main key of F) into a simple dominant modulation to C. The sketch for Act II (III in the published score) begins straight away with VaSek's first words, gives his lament pretty much as we know it, and then goes straight on to the ensemble, " Aj ! Jak ie nechce ji? " (" What's this? You refuse? "), omitting not only the sko6na-of course-but the music for the entry of the players, the lost couplets for Esmeralda and the Manager and their duet, " Milostne zviratko " (" Now, my dear Sir Bruin "), although the theme of the last-named number was one of the first Smetana noted down (see supra). We may conclude from this that originally neither Esmeralda nor the Manager was intended to be a singing part, and that although in September I863 Smetana noted the theme afterwards used for their duet he had at that time no definite idea how or where he was going to introduce it. I have mentioned one instance-the two quotations of the love duet-where the device of thematic reminiscence is used far more effectively in the final version than in the sketch. (I say " thematic reminiscence" advisedly, for there are no Leitmotivein the true, Wagnerian sense in ' The Bartered Bride '.) But there is one case of the reverse, of a theme having its outline so smoothed out in the printed score that two later references to it-perfectly obvious in the sketch-probably pass unnoticed by the audience, possibly even by students of the score. This is the theme, first heard in the ensemble "Aj! Jak ie, nechce ji? ", as it appears in the sketch:

Ex.

J .II JJL ).d [ -*Y 3 ru ( <% *iA {(> ?:

J p I

THE GENESIS OF 'THE BARTERED BRIDE' and this is the final form:

47

9 Ex.9

t tII

Ff

I4 IA

IuYl7

F'9r I j:;i;t

9i422@W:itik 2it

Bar 4 of Ex. 9, I should add, is anticipated in Hata's part in Ex. 8, which otherwise more or less doubles the orchestral part I have actually quoted. The words are " Neni v tom nikdo nez ten pacholek sam" (" 'Tis no other than the boy himself"--or, as Mrs. Newmarch puts it, " All this story of some pretty lady sounds like a stupid lie "). Now this is appropriately quoted in the next scene when Vagek notices Marenka and cries " A ta to byla " (" There's the very girl "): Ex. 8 in the sketch, Ex. 9 in the score. The theme is obviously associated with Marenka. But when Smetana refers to it once again in the orchestral interjections to her recitative "Oh jaky zal" (" Ah! bitterness! "), he quotes in a form on the whole nearer to Ex. 8, which no one in the audience has heard, than to Ex. 9,'which is not very distinctive anyhow. It is impossible in the scope of a short study to mention a hundredth of the interesting points of detail that strike one in comparing sketch with score, but one other important number must at least be mentioned: the famous sextet. One fact revealed by the sketch is that Smetana originally intended it to be a quintet; the number is headed "Quintetto-Micha, Hata, Vag (tenor), Kru?, Doh". Yet, although five singers are specified, the music is strictly in four parts until Mafenka's entry near the end; probably " Micha " was, a slip for " Mafenka ", especially as he-a bass-is mentioned first, otherwise the preponderance of men's voices would have beea overwhelming. Ultimately VaSek was taken out and Ludmila, a soprano, substituted. The original version of the music was singularly flat and uninspired; I quote the opening:

48
A 11

MUSIC AND LETTERS

& L

I(
Ex. 10

^
Ros-mys-li k L

J j^
I

j ffz M z
ko,
_

i-

si, Ma- ren t

roz-mys-li,

rr-F
roz-mys-li

rko,

si, Ma - ren

roz-mys-li,

i^f-

5-

trr

The final form of the sextet is also considerably expanded; bars 14-26, for instance-the repeat of the first thirteen bars with different distribution of the parts-were an afterthought. The composition sketch breaks off rather oddly near the beginning of the opening chorus of the finale. Ten bars are written for sopranos and altos, with a blank stave for the tenor and bass parts; then another ten bars or so are indicated for sopranos only-and the rest is blank music-paper. The original form, erased but still legible, was:
Ex.i1
Jak si se,Ma-ren-ko, romysli-a, rozmysli-la, by se roz-mys-li-la, b Vl V rv -mluv, mluv,

by sev'c dob're u - kon-Zi-la,

Fr mlumu l
mluv, mluv,

Smetana changed this to:

Ex.12

,II ~ o~(P ~

J% .J ~ml

II T^pi.--

r'9:AifD_
But the printed version differs from both except in rhythm-an interesting sidelight on Smetana's approach to his text. Even the ultimate key, A major, for once differs from that in the sketch. Does the sketch throw any penetrating light on Smetana's creative processes? To a limited extent only. After all, this is the

THE GENESIS OF 'THE BARTERED BRIDE '

49

sketch for only one work and a work of early rather than full maturity at that. But the rhythmic identity of Exs. i and 12, and their rhythmic identity with the final version, is typical. When Smetana alters a voice-part he is more likely, one observes, to change the melodic rise and fall than the rhythmic pattern. Alterations in the rhythmic pattern are more often modifications than complete changes. I have quoted instances (Exs. 4 and 5) of voice-parts rewritten over an unchanged instrumental passage, and the harmonic almost-identity of Exs. 8 and 9 will not have escaped the reader's notice. Can we conclude that Smetana's basic method of composition, at any rate in ' The Bartered Bride ', was a species of piano improvisation to the words? I suggest that his first care was to get a continuous musical texture underlying the words on to musicpaper; afterwards came the polishing of the vocal line. The always simple harmony usually came right the first time; sometimes even the figuration and quite often the part-writing. But only once in the whole sketch is there any indication of scoring: the word Corno marking the doubling of the voice-part an octave lower at the words "Ni za tisice " (" Not for a gold-mine ") in Jenik's " Az uzfis" aria.