Together with Antonín Dvořák, Bedřich Smetana ranks as the founder of a Czech national style of music. While Dvořák, however, concentrated mainly on the traditional genres of the symphony and the string quartet, Smetana geared his musical language more toward the advanced forms and musical innovations of the "new Germans” around Franz Liszt, with whom he was joined in a close friendship. Smetana had a cruel fate: he became deaf at the age of 50 and had to give up his activities as conductor. He died in a state of dementia in Prague.
born on March 2, 1824 in Litomysl
died on May 12,1884 in Prague