Throughout his career, Smetana was drawn to compose program music. Works such as the symphonic cycle Ma Vlast (containing his famous "The Moldau") and his operatic masterpiece, The Bartered Bride, partake of a brand of external illustrative music, closely and constantly associated with Czech nationalism. Late in life, however, Smetana was, like Beethoven, stricken with complete deafness which caused him gradually to withdraw into himself and to compose in a more subjective and intimate way than before. Programmatic music from this period (1876- 1878), therefore, often comes from an internally directed, reflective view of the world around him. The E-Minor Quartet, written in late 1878, is one such internal, reflective, and even nostalgic work. Its program, "From My Life," is best described in Smetana's own words from a letter of 1879 addressed to Josef Srb-Debrnov: My intention was to paint a tone picture of my life. The first movement depicts my youthful leanings towards art, the Romantic atmosphere, the inexpressible yearning for something I could neither express nor define, and also a kind of warning of my future misfortune. . . . The long insistent note in the finale owes its origin to this. It is the fateful ringing in my ears of the highpitched tones which in 1874 announced the beginning of my deafness. I permitted myself this little joke, because it was so disastrous to me. The second movement, a quasi- polka, brings to mind the joyful days of youth when I composed dance tunes and was known everywhere as a passionate lover of dancing. The third movement . . . reminds me of the happiness of my first love, the girl who later became my wife. The fourth movement describes the discovery that I could treat national elements in music and my joy in following this path until it was checked by the catastrophe of the onset of my deafness, the outlook into the sad future, the tiny rays of hope of recovery -- but remembering all the promise of my early career, a feeling of painful regret.
-- Kendall Briggs