My Country

As part of the Year of Czech Music and the 200th anniversary of the composer's birth, the My Country exhibition commemorates the personality of Bedřich Smetana and one of his most important compositions. Through authentic notes, correspondence and, above all, scores, it presents the individual symphonic poems as the composer himself conceived them, the historical context in which they were composed and the reactions that accompanied them at later important historical moments in czech history. The exhibition opens symbolically on 5 November 2024, the 142nd anniversary of the first complete performance of My Country.

In the exhibition, you can look forward to unique collection items from the National Museum, which will be on display during nine thematic stops. At the beginning, the exhibition will introduce you to the personality of Bedřich Smetana, whose life you will be able to glimpse through his personal objects, such as glasses, a desk, writing utensils, a calamus, a peephole or a hearing aid. The second stop will immerse you in the time and circumstances in which the My Country cycle was created between 1874 and 1879, and will also remind you of the first ensemble performance on 5 November 1882 at the Žofín in Prague. Other parts of the exhibition are devoted to six individual poems – Vyšehrad, Vltava, Šárka, the poem From the Czech Meadows and Groves, Tábor and Blaník. You will learn, for example, that the score for Vltava was written under the composer's hands for an incredible 19 days, when he added the note "being completely deaf" to the score. The last, ninth stop will present My Homeland in the Changes of Time and will recall performances of the piece associated with important historical moments.

In addition to the composer's personal objects, you will be able to see various musical materials and sheet music, photographs, sculptures, paintings, letters, books, illustrations, musical instruments – for example, there will be a harp to play. The exhibition also includes historical artefacts such as replicas of Hussite weapons from the 19th century.  My Homeland in Stones is also on display, so you will be able to touch rocks from Blaník or pebbles from the Vltava River. Of course, the exhibition also focuses on the sound experience. It includes a listening map of the Vltava and audio islands with entire symphonic poems. The central themes can be heard in short excerpts.