Dávný dluh české muzikologie. Historie vydávání korespondence Bedřicha Smetany

The study presents a historical overview of the previous editions of Bedřich Smetana’s correspondence published since the end of the 19th century, and in the course of the 20th century. Next to the editions of single or limited selections of letters in the journals, we have a number of book editions of Smetana’s selected letters, and series of correspondence to several personalities, in a few cases even their mutual correspondence. The editions vary in quality ranging from simple reprints of the texts to the fully commented editions. The editions also vary greatly from the transcription point of view, ranging from the translation into the contemporary language to the effort to preserve the specific forms of Smetana’s language. No edition so far, however, had a clearly defined, as well as pronounced transcription format; and they always contained editors’ amendments, some of which went out of control. In this study, we compiled a list of all edited collections of Smetana’s correspondence, and analysed the first two attempts to the general critical edition, the first made by František Bartoš, and Zdeněk Němec in the 1940s, and the second by the Museum of B. Smetana in the 1980s.