Where is my home?
Where is my home?
Where is my home? Its a piece of music written by the composer František Škroup and the playwright Josef Kajetán Tyl.
The piece was written as a part of the incidental music to the comedy Fidlovačka aneb Žádný hněv a žádná rvačka (Fidlovačka, or No Anger and No Brawl). It was performed for the first time by Karel Strakatý in the Stavovské divadlo (Estates Theatre) in Prague on December 21, 1834. The original song consists of two strophes (see below). Although J. K. Tyl is said to have considered leaving the song out of the play, not convinced of its quality, it soon became very popular among Czechs and was accepted as an informal anthem of a nation willing to revive its identity within the Habsburg Empire.
Soon after Czechoslovakia was formed in 1918, the first strophe of the song became the Czech part of the national anthem, followed by the first strophe of the Slovak song Nad Tatrou sa blýska. Because of language diversity of First republic official translations to Hungarian and German language were made.
The split of Czechoslovakia in 1992 divided also the Czechoslovak anthem. While Slovaks have extended their anthem adding a second strophe, the Czech Republic´s national anthem has been legally adopted unextended, in its single-strophe version.
A small motif used by Škroup was written previously by W. A. Mozart in Concertanto Symphony KV 297 b.
Original lyrics from Fidlovačka, 1834
Where is my home? Where is my home?
Waters murmur across the meads
Pinewoods rustle 'pon the cliff-rocks,
Bloom of spring shines in the orchard,
Paradise on Earth to see!
And that is the beautiful land,
The Czech land, my home!
The Czech land, my home!
Where is my home? Where is my home?
If, in the heavenly land, you have met
Tender souls in agile frames,
Of clear mind, vigorous and prospering,
And with a strength that frustrates all defiance,
That is the glorious race of Czechs,
Among the Czechs (is) my home!
Among the Czechs, my home!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLompOE9lvQ
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