With his cycle Má vlast, Smetana portrays his country lovingly, yet at the same time remorselessly. Of the six parts, woven with musical artistry into a splendid whole, two are dedicated to myth, two to nature and two to history. The composer also symbolically represents in sound such extremely conflict-riven themes as, for example, the linking of politics with religion, the problem of the coexistence of Germans and Bohemians, and issues of matriarchy. In doing so, it seems to have been very important to him to work exclusively with musical means in orderto reach the hearts of his listeners directly through the emotion of the music, without verbal or possibly even rational circumlocutions. There exists no comparable work in European music.

Vyšehrad, a towering rock on the banks of the Vltava river near Prague. On this site there once stood a castle, the historical and mythological seat of the Bohemian princes, which the people see as a symbol of their glorious past - as a vision of a former golden age. At the beginning of the piece, the two harps alternately play the “Vyšehrad” motif to each other - a motif that recurs again and again in the other tone-poems of the cycle. This dialogue of the harps recalls the bard Lumir. A mythological world arises before us; the glorious past becomes apparent - chivalric life put also, repeatedly, melancholy and sad thoughts. The antiphonal entries of the harps, later those of the strings, woodwinds and the brasses, too, produce the effect of sacred music. A surging theme evolves from the “Vyšehrad” motif, a theme that simultaneously becomes a motivic and harmonic pillar for the entire cycle. One thinks of water flowing by, a symbol of time. In the Allegro vivo (bar 77). chivalric life is suggested; the ancient rocks tell of the events they once witnessed - fierce battles, in which the castle was finally lost and fell into ruin. This collapse, this destruction is portrayed in a descending chain of diminished seventh chords, as ifa giant were collapsing (bars 211-232). The piece concludes with an elegiac epilogue, recalling the introduction in a mournfully transfigured manner. Lumir's ancient song seems to hover over the ruins.

Vltava - the Moldau. About this one poem Smetana said: "The composition portrays the course of the Vltava; it listens to the two springs (the 'warm' and the 'cold' Vltava), ...the flowing of the river through forests and meadows where a festival is being celebrated. In the silvery moonlight the water-nymphs are dancing; one sees fortresses, castles and ruins passing by. Roaring and swirling in the St. John’s Rapids. The broad stream continues towards Prague, past the Vyšehrad rock. Finally, in the distance, it majestically flows into the Elbe." United into a single river (bar 40), the two springs, represented by the "warm" flute and the "cold" clarinet in inversion (bar 16), flow through forests, past hunters (bar 80), past a peasant wedding (bar 118). Then, at night in the moonlight, a vision of dancing and floating elves appears (bar 187). Later, after passing through dangerous turbulent waters (bar 271), where one imagines hearing cries for help and quick fervent prayers, the Vltava finally becomes a broad and mighty river (bar 333). After flowing past the Vyšehrad rock, it disappears from sight in the distant plains.

Šárka, a mythological figure from Bohemian antiquity, when women reigned in a type of matriarchal society until they were supplanted and subjugated by men. Šárka, who, ln addition to these indignities, had been betrayed by her lover, cannot come to terms with these events and becomes the revengeful leader of the "Amazons". Šárka likely symbolically represents Smetana's homeland, which must avenge itself for every betrayal. Smetana: "In this composition I do not only wish to portray the wild region [bearing this narne] but also the legend of the girl Šárka, who, in her rage overthe faithlessness of her lover, swears vengeance on the whole male sex...". The music first depicts the many facets of the woman’s implacable, wild nature. Then one hears a subdued march (bar 47). The knight Ctirad approaches with his knightly entourage. Šárka has had herself tied to a tree by her companions; Ctirad hears her plaintive cry for help (clarinet, bar 77). During a passionate, recitative-like dialogue (Šárka - clarinet, Ctirad -cello), he frees her. A love scene follows (from bar 103), which the besotted knight allows to degenerate into wild carousing (from bar 145); the intoxicating drink was prepared by Šárka herself. One by one the men fall asleep (from bar 192), the bassoon eventually imitating their snores with a low C (within a D major chord). Šárka gives the horn signal for the attack; her companions answer (bar 218). Before the arrival of the Amazons we hear - piangendo - the clarinet lamenting: too late, Šárka regrets her action - all the men are slaughtered. The motif from the beginning is now repeated and transformed (frenetico). The final cries for help (cello and trombone from bar 302) are of no avail.

Z českých luhů a hájů - From Bohemia’s Fields and Groves
Smetana: "... the sensations and feelings aroused by the contemplation of the Bohemian landscape are lavishly painted here. From all around one hears a variety of songs... the listener's imagination is granted free rein...". In the richly textured G minor sounds of the opening we again hear the surging motif from the first tone-poem ("Vyšehrad"). We hear a tenderly sad dumka (a Ukrainian folk song), dolente in G minor (bar 37), from which there emerges a Bohemian song, brightened into G major. (Smetana: "As if a naïve country girl were leaving her home...", bar 46). The surging of the “Moldau“ reminds us where we are. According to Smetana, a fugato (bar 74) tells us of the "... beauty of forested nature in summer around noon... the sun is shimmering among the treetops... birds are singing...". Unexpectedly one hears, as ifin the soughing of the forest, three strophes of an obviously German song. It reminds us that for centuries Bohemians and Germans lived side by side in this land. The third, sparklingly festive strophe is interrupted by the onset of a polka (bar 234). For a few more minutes the music moves back and forth between the "German" song and the “Bohemian” polka, before the latter finally wins the day in a kind of peasant celebration (bar 270). Toward the end ofthe piece, there is a short, simple reminder of the song (bar 439), after which the surging motif of the opening is taken up again. Even the sad dumka sounds once more, but this time played fff by all of the winds (bar 509) in closing.

In Tábor and Blaník Smetana depicts the great and painful conflict, a hundred years before Luther, between the Bohemian Protestants on the one hand and the Church (and consequently also the Emperor) on the other. In these pieces, the Hussites represent both the tradition and the steadfastness of the Bohemians.
The Song of the Hussites (CHORALE):

Ktož jsú boží bojovníci
a žákona jeho,
prostež od Boha pomoci
a úfajte v nìho,
že koneènì vždycky s ním svítìzíte!

Ye who are warriors for God
And His commandments,
pray for God’s help
and believe in Him,
so that in the end you shall be victorious with God.

Smetana: "... the composition is built upon this chorale... It shows the will, the power, the battles, the courage, the obduracy of the Hussites... is simply their glory, their greatness...". The chorale (The Song of the Hussites) has three parts:

the motto (to bar 5),
the prayer (to bar 11), and
the march, which entreats victory.

The beginning of "Tábor" is very serious. The falling chromatic accompaniment is likely intended as a dirge. The prayer appears for the first time in bar 63; after repeated onsets of the first part of the chorale, it then appears a second time in bar 94. Thereafter, we hear for the first time the third part, the march (bar 98). In the manner of a development, the battles and persecutions are then portrayed (from bar 108). After the third prayer (bar 134), a desperate battle breaks out: standing firm, peril, the song hacked to pieces; a surging to and fro, in which fear and ecstasy are equally apparent (bar 282). Finally one hears, forthe first time, the chorale in its entirety (Lento maestoso - bar 332). The Hussites have ultimately been defeated, yet an unbroken tenacity is evident even in the depiction of their downfall.
"Blaník" follows directly; the chorale remains the musical framework. Smetana: "... After their defeat the warriors withdraw into the interior of the Blaník mountain. There they sleep, waiting for the moment when, in dire extremity, their homeland will call for their aid. Hence the same motifs as in 'Tábor' [the chorale] serve as the foundation here... A brief intermezzo tells of a shepherd boy blowing on his reed-pipe in the vicinity of the Blaník." The motto of the Song of the Hussites begins almost like a funeral march, which transforms itself, as it were, into a dream of former glory, composed of variants of the chorale (from bar 15). One has the impression that one troop of heroes after another is vanishing into the interior of the mountain. Out of the resulting silence evolves the piping melody of the shepherd (bar 70); it, too, is derived from the Song of the Hussites. This pastoral idyll in F major is abruptly broken off (bar 139). Freedom seems to be endangered: there is disquiet inside the mountain. Finally the cry of the Hussites is heard in the horn and the trombones (bar 218). The mountain splits open and the heroes emerge in a solemn march (from bar 230); both the peaceful tempo and the delicate, non-heroic dynamic allow us to recognize that Smetana's concern here is the spiritual support [to be provided by the soldiers]. After a short apotheosis (bars 287-309), peace descends - a kind of transfiguration. All of the musical building blocks are taken from the Song of the Hussites (the chorale), which eventually takes on an imposing stature. Certainty of a worthy, estimable future. At the conclusion, Smetana returns to the Largarnente maestoso, with which both "Tábor" (albeit Lento in that movement) and the whole cycle began. The “Vysšhrad" motif in the strings and some of the winds forms a background for the march motif, played by the trumpets and trombones. The two motifs are also superimposed in the final Vivace close (bar 402): the past and a vision of the future.