When the UB was founded in 1863, its fundamental objective was to facilitate the “general cultivation of the fine arts.” Its designation as a “beseda” also situated the organization as “a friendly meeting” or “a neighborly gathering for a chat.” Despite its relatively neutral beginnings, the UB, born in the midst of a “reawakening” or Czech “národní obrození” (national rebirth), unofficially transitioned to cultivating and building specifically Czech arts by the 1880s. This shiftresulted in a new kind of activism among members; whereas in the past, the UB had aimed simply to bring together a Czech community, now members wanted to promote “Czech” as an aesthetic category, inventing its history and identifying its artistic leaders, including Bedřich Smetana.

Examining the UB's origins and shifting political work creates an important framework for this study, not only by contextualizing Smetana's compositions, but by illuminating nuances of nationalist thinking that still deeply impact research on the composer today. On one hand, the activism of UB members— for whom the act of promoting (or not promoting) Smetana became equivalent to serving the nation—reminds us that nationalist movements were typically divided, their internal struggles undermining any sort of united front. We should also note that while though nationalists spoke on behalf of a presumably much larger nation, they actually represented a narrow social and economic demographic—those who could afford to publish and disseminate their ideas. These circumstances mean that Smetana's status as a “Czech” composer was by no means stable; rather, it was hotly contested among audiences even within the UB. Additionally, his supposedly Czech musical language did not actually give voice to a nation in the largest sense, but a group of social elites. As one of the main set of sources for contemporary writings on the composer, UB members’ promotions illuminate a narrow perspective, despite their universalizing rhetoric that still frames discussions of Smetana today.

Situating the National Rebirth

The characteristics of the National Rebirth—a movement from around the 1830s during which many began self-identifying as “Czech,” rather than Austrian or Bohemian—are many and complex.