Leoš Janáček was a Czech composer known for creating an original musical style inspired by Slavic folk music. He devoted early works to folklore research but later incorporated folk influences into highly original compositions. His breakthrough work was the opera Jenůfa in 1904, which helped establish his modern style. Janáček went on to compose other celebrated works including string quartets, orchestral pieces, and additional operas that earned him recognition as one of the most important Czech composers alongside Dvořák and Smetana.

1. Leoš Janáček

2. • Leoš Janáček; 3 July 1854 – 12 August
1928) was a Czech composer, musical
theorist, folklorist, publicist and teacher.
He was inspired by Moravian and
all Slavic folk music to create an
original, modern musical style. Until
1895 he devoted himself mainly to
folkloristic research and his early
musical output was influenced by
contemporaries such as Antonín Dvořák.

3. • His later, mature works incorporate his earlier
studies of national folk music in a modern, highly
original synthesis, first evident is the
opera Jenůfa, which was premiered in 1904
in Brno. The success of Jenůfa (often called the
"Moravian national opera") at Prague in 1916 gave
Janáček access to the world's great opera stages.
Janáček's later works are his most celebrated.
They include the symphonic
poem Sinfonietta, the oratorio Glagolitic Mass, the
rhapsody Taras Bulba, two string quartets, other
chamber works and operas. Along with Antonín
Dvořák and Bedřich Smetana, he is considered as
one of the most important Czech composers.

4. Leoš Janáček, son of schoolmaster Jiří and
Amalie, was born in Hukvaldy (part of the Austrian
Empire). He was a gifted child and showed an early
musical talent in choral singing. In 1865 young
Janáček enrolled as a ward of the foundation of
the Abbey of St. Thomas in Brno, where he took
part in choral singing under Pavel Křížkovský and
occasionally played on organ. Křížkovský found him
as problematic and wayward student but
recommended his entry to the Prague Organ
School. Janáček later remembered Křížkovský as a
great conductor and teacher.
Beginnings

5. • Janáček originally intended to study piano and
organ but he devoted himself to composition.
He wrote his first vocal compositions while
choirmaster of the Svatopluk Artisan's
Association. On 24 July 1875 Janáček graduated
with the best results in his class. On his return to
Brno he earned as a music teacher and
conducted various amateur choirs. From 1876
he taught music at Brno's Teachers
Institute. There was Zdenka Schulzová, daughter
of the Institute director. She was later to be
Janáček's wife. In February 1876 he was voted
as choirmaster of the Beseda
brněnská Philharmonic Society.

6. • From October 1879 to February 1880 he studied
piano, organ, and composition at the Leipzig
Conservatory later at Vienna Conservatory, but
he was criticised for his piano style and
technique so he returned to Brno and married
Zdenka Schultzová, later they had 2 children
Olga and Vladimír, but he died when he was 2
and later his daughter died too. Janáček
expressed his painful feelings for his daughter in
a new work, his opera Jenůfa. When Olga died in
February 1903, he dedicated Jenůfa to her
memory. In 1881 Janáček was appointed as
director of the organ school, and held this post
until 1919, when the school became the Brno
Conservatory.

7. Jenůfa

8. • He created the Four male-voice
choruses, dedicated to Antonín Dvořák, and
his first opera Šárka. He was at Russia
twice, for inspiration for his compositions.
After accepted his Jenůfa by the National
Theatre in Prague (1916) he composed next
five operas and two violins quartets. Because
he had mistress and later, he had a son with
her, Zdenka wanted leave him. In 1920 he
retired from his post as director of Brno
Conservatory, but still continued to teach and
composed.

9. National Theatre in Prague

10. • Sir Charles Mackerras, the Australian conductor who
helped promote Janáček's works on the world's
opera stages, described his style as "... completely
new and original, different from anything else ... and
impossible to pin down to any one style". In 1925 he
was awarded a first honorary doctore to be given by
Masaryk University. In 1927 – the year of his opera
Sinfonietta's first performances in New York, Berlin
and Brno – he began to compose his final operatic
work- from the House of the Dead. In this same year
he became a member of the Prussian Academy of
Arts in Berlin. On 12 August 1928 he died into
pneumonia in Ostrava.

11. Masterpieces
Operas: Šárka, Her Stepdaughter
(Jenůfa), Destiny, The Cunning
Little Vixen, Makropulus
Affair, From the House of the
Dead
Orchestral, vokal and choral:
Glagolitic Mass, Lachian
dances, Moravian
dances, Sinfonietta, Taras
Bulba, Amarus
Chamber and instrumental:
Youth, Violin Sonata, String
Quartet No. 1 Krautzer