Bedrich Smetana

Smetana began working on his second string quartet in the summer of 1882, when it was clear that his mental state had begun to decay. Smetana's physician forbade him to compose at all, telling him it would make blood rush to his brain and cause insanity. Smetana defied his physician's orders, noting that "if I don't commit them to paper immediately, I can't remember how they were even half a day later."

The String Quartet No. 2 in D minor was finished on March 12, 1883, written only a few measures at a time due to his constantly feeling stunned and drowsy. Like the Quartet No. 1 in E minor, the Quartet in D minor has an autobiographical impetus, but the composer left fewer clues regarding what this was. In a tortured letter to Václav Zelený, Smetana explained, "The new quartet continues from where the first one ended, after the catastrophe. It introduces the swirl of music of a person who has lost his hearing."

Despite his miserable state, Smetana felt confident enough about the quartet to submit it for publication, which did not take place until 1889, after the composer's death. The brief but intense work has not been as popular as its older sibling. In the Second String Quartet Smetana distanced himself from the traditional Classical-era forms. The composer himself acknowledged that the first movement was unconventional, noting that "it is quite unusual in style and difficult to follow, as if the whole movement were the product of whim...." The two principal themes are related. The first is a rising D minor scale in triplet eighth notes at an Allegro tempo. This transforms into the second theme, in F major, which also rises stepwise, but at a slower tempo and with dotted rhythms. A third idea, related very closely to the second, completes the first part of the movement, which thus far roughly follows the pattern of sonata form. The central section, however, is not developmental, but acts as a contrasting episode. When the themes return in the finale section of the movement, they do so in reverse order, the first theme de-emphasized and the harmony closing on F major. Some writers consider the close in the major mode to indicate Smetana's "triumph over adversity." For the second movement, Smetana drew on a 20-measure idea he had sketched in 1848-1849. In overall form, the movement resembles a scherzo: the primary section is a polka with lively syncopation and the trio is a slower, graceful section in triple meter. The third movement is more intricate and animated, containing at times a frenetic energy amplified by an unusual succession of imitative and march-like passages. It leads, without pause, directly into the tempestuous finale, a technically difficult and harmonically dissonant movement that would later please Arnold Schoenberg.