String Quartet No. 1 (Smetana)

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Bedřich Smetana's String Quartet No. 1 is a four-movement Romantic work in E minor. It is semi-autobiographical and composed of sketches of parts of Smetana's life, as is suggested by its subtitle Z mého života ("From My Life"). Its notable features include a prominent viola solo in the very beginning of the first movement, and a high, sustained harmonic E on the first violin in the last movement, which represents the ringing presage of his deafness in Smetana's ears (though the actual ringing was a chord of A).

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