Page:The music of Bohemia.djvu/42

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tremendous gradation. Surely this work ought to be heard at least in a concert hall.

Considering the technical side, Smetana's works exhibit a great skill in the most problematic combinations of the polyphonic style flowing so naturally, that the hearer does not notice the difficulties solved with such exquisite grace and lightness. The melodies are fresh, original, and impressive; and enriched with Smetanian harmonic peculiarities. Speaking of the harmony, I want to disclose this fact, that in his piano sketch, "A Scene from Macbeth," composed in the year 1859, there was introduced for the first time in the history of musical literature, the whole tone scale: