Janácek, Leoš

(also Leo Eugen Janáček). Born July 3, 1854, in Hukvaldy, Moravia; died Aug. 12, 1928, in Ostrava. Czech composer, folklorist, choirmaster, conductor, teacher, and music critic.

Janáček studied under P. Křižkovský in Brno from 1865 to 1872 and under F. Z. Skuherský at the Organ School in Prague in 1875; in 1879 and 1880 he studied at the Leipzig and Vienna conservatories. In 1881 he founded the Organ School in Brno (since 1919 a branch of the Prague Conservatory) and became its head. From 1881 to 1888 he was conductor of the orchestra of the Czech Philharmonic Society and edited the music newspaper Hudební listy (Musical Pages).

Beginning in the 1890’s, Janáček collected and adapted Moravian folk music, publishing some 2,500 folk songs. In 1889 he wrote the now classic article “The Musical Aspect of Moravian Folk Songs.” The founder of the 20th-century national school of composers, Janáček drew on previously unknown ancient Moravian folk music, although his mature works did not make use of particular folk melodies. In highly original fashion he musically rendered specific Bohemian and Moravian speech inflections, which he notated as “spoken songs.” He achieved a synthesis of the harmony, rhythm, and color of folk music art with a modern musical idiom, thereby creating a unique individual musical style that drew on the achievements of 20th-century musical art and is distinguished by its strikingly national originality.

Janáček, reacting against the influence of German late romanticism on Czech music, turned to Russian realistic musical art, Franco-Italian verismo, and French music of the turn of the 20th century. He initiated Czech composers’ interest in Russian literature as a source for operas and programmatic works. He headed the Russian Circle in Brno from 1896 to 1915 and visited Russia in 1896 and 1902. His Piano Trio (1909) and String Quartet (1923) were inspired by The Kreutzer Sonata of L. N. Tolstoy, whom he called a “teacher of life,” and sketches for the operas Anna Karenina and The Living Corpse have been preserved. Also based on plots from Russian literature were the symphonic rhapsody Taras Bulba (1918, after N. V. Gogol), the opera Katia Kabanova (1921, based on A. N. Ostrovskii’s The Thunderstorm), and the opera From the House of the Dead (1928; staged 1930, Brno; after F. M. Dostoevsky).

Notable among Janáček’s nine operas are Her Foster Daughter (Jenůfa; 1904, Brno), the productions of which in Prague in 1916 and Vienna in 1918 earned the composer worldwide recognition, and The Cunning Little Vixen (1924, Brno). Other works include the oratorio Glagolitic Mass (1926), the Sinfonietta (1926), works for chamber orchestra with various instruments, choral works, songs and song cycles, and piano sonatas.

After the independent Czechoslovak Republic was created, Janáček gained widespread recognition. He was chairman of the Moravian Composers’ Club (1919) and represented Czech musical art at international music festivals in Salzburg (1923), Venice (1925), and Frankfurt am Main (1927). An opera theater and the Academy of Fine Arts (1947) in Brno were named in his honor. Festivals devoted to Janáček’s works were held in Brno in 1948, 1958, 1965, and 1978.