Editing Leoš Janáček (section)

== Biography ==
=== 1854–1872: Early life and family ===
[[File:Hukvaldy, stará škola.jpg|thumb|The school in Hukvaldy, Janáček's birth house]]

Leoš Janáček, son of schoolmaster Jiří Janacek and [[Amálie Janáčková|Amalie (née Grulichová) Janáčková]], was born in [[Hukvaldy]], Moravia (then part of the [[Austrian Empire]]) on 3 July 1854.{{sfn|Drlíková|2004|p=7}} He was born with six surviving siblings, and baptised as Leo Eugen.{{sfn|Tyrrell|2006–2007|pp=30,134|loc=Vol. 1}} He was a gifted child in a family of limited means, and showed an early musical talent in choral singing. His father wanted him to follow the family tradition and become a teacher, but he deferred to Janáček's obvious musical abilities.{{sfn|Tyrrell|2006–2007|pp=33–35|loc=Vol. 1}}

In 1865, young Janáček enrolled as a ward of the foundation of the [[St Thomas's Abbey, Brno]], where he took part in choral singing under [[Pavel Křížkovský]] and occasionally played the organ.{{sfn|Drlíková|2004|p=33}} One of his classmates, [[František Neumann]], later described Janáček as an "excellent pianist, who played [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]] symphonies perfectly in a piano duet with a classmate, under Křížkovský's supervision".{{sfn|Štědroň|1946|p=24}} Křížkovský found him a problematic and wayward student but recommended his entry to the Prague Organ School.{{sfn|Štědroň|1946|p=29}} Janáček later remembered Křížkovský as a great conductor and teacher.

=== 1873–1880: Education and early career ===
Janáček originally intended to study piano and organ but eventually devoted himself to composition. He wrote his first vocal compositions while choirmaster of the ''Svatopluk Artisan's Association'' (1873–1876).{{sfn|Drlíková|2004|p=13}} In 1874, he enrolled at the Prague organ school, under [[František Zdeněk Skuherský|František Skuherský]] and František Blažek.{{sfn|Černušák|Štědroň|Nováček|1963|p=557}} His student days in Prague were impoverished; with no piano in his room, he had to make do with a keyboard drawn on his tabletop.{{sfn|Štědroň|1946|p=32}} His criticism of Skuherský's performance of the Gregorian mass was published in the March 1875 edition of the journal ''Cecilie'' and led to his expulsion from the school, but Skuherský relented, and on 24 July 1875 Janáček graduated with the best results in his class.{{sfn|Štědroň|1946|p=31}}

On his return to Brno he earned a living as a music teacher, and conducted various amateur [[choir]]s. From 1876 he taught music at Brno's Teachers' Institute. Among his pupils there was Zdenka Schulzová, daughter of Emilian Schulz, the Institute director. She was later to be Janáček's wife.{{sfn|Černušák|Štědroň|Nováček|1963|p=557}} In 1876, he also became a piano student of Amálie Wickenhauserová-Nerudová, with whom he co-organized chamber concertos and performed in concerts over the following two years. In February 1876, he was voted Choirmaster of the ''Beseda brněnská'' Philharmonic Society. Apart from an interruption from 1879 to 1881, he remained its choirmaster and conductor until 1888.{{sfn|Drlíková|2004|p=19}}

From October 1879 to February 1880, he studied piano, organ, and composition at the [[Felix Mendelssohn College of Music and Theatre|Leipzig Conservatory]]. While there, he composed ''Thema con variazioni'' for piano in B-flat, subtitled ''Zdenka's Variations''.{{sfn|Drlíková|2004|pp=27, 29}} Dissatisfied with his teachers (among them [[Oscar Paul]] and Leo Grill), and denied a studentship with [[Camille Saint-Saëns]] in Paris, Janáček moved on to the [[University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna|Vienna Conservatory]], where from April to June 1880, he studied composition with [[Franz Krenn]].{{sfn|Firkušný|2005|p=45}} He concealed his opposition to Krenn's neo-romanticism, but he quit [[Josef Dachs]]'s classes and further piano study after he was criticised for his piano style and technique.{{sfn|Štědroň|1946|p=55}} He submitted a violin sonata (now lost) to a Vienna Conservatory competition, but the judges rejected it as being "too academic".{{sfn|Štědroň|1946|p=57}} Janáček left the conservatory in June 1880, disappointed despite Franz Krenn's very complimentary personal report.{{sfn|Firkušný|2005|p=48}} One of his classmates and friend in Vienna was composer and pianist [[Josef Weiss]].<ref name="SO">{{cite journal|url=https://operaslovakia-sk.translate.goog/kosicki-bratia-weiss-a-bereny-v-berline-new-yorku-parizi-a-budapesti/?_x_tr_sl=sk&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc|title=Košickí bratia Weiss a Berény v Berlíne, New Yorku, Paríži a Budapešti|date=25 November 2020|first=Agata|last= Schindler|journal=Opera Slovokia Magazine}}</ref>

=== 1881–1899: Folkloristic work and early compositions ===
[[File:Brno-Veveří - Neoklasicistní vila na nároží Kounicovy a Smetanovy ulice.jpg|thumb|Former organ school in Brno. Janáček lived in a small house in the garden of the villa. His garden house is today's Leoš Janáček Memorial.]]
Janáček returned to [[Brno]]{{sfn|Drlíková|2004|p=31}} where, on 13 July 1881, he married his young pupil, Zdenka Schulzová.{{sfn|Drlíková|2004|p=33}}

In 1881, Janáček founded and was appointed director of the organ school, and held this post until 1919, when the school became the [[Brno Conservatory]].{{sfn|Drlíková|2004|p=33}} In the mid-1880s, Janáček began composing more systematically. Among other works, he created the ''Four male-voice choruses'' (1886), dedicated to Antonín Dvořák, and his first opera, ''[[Šárka (Janáček)|Šárka]]'' (1887–1888).{{sfn|Vysloužil|2001|p=224}} During this period he began to collect and study folk music, songs and dances. In the early months of 1887, he sharply criticized the comic opera ''The Bridegrooms'', by Czech composer [[Karel Kovařovic]], in a ''Hudební listy'' journal review: "Which melody stuck in your mind? Which motif? Is this dramatic opera? No, I would write on the poster: 'Comedy performed together with music', since the music and the libretto aren't connected to each other".{{sfn|Štědroň|1946|pp=111–112}} Janáček's review apparently led to mutual dislike and later professional difficulties when Kovařovic, as director of the [[National Theatre (Prague)|National Theatre in Prague]], refused to stage Janáček's opera ''[[Jenůfa]]''.{{sfn|Štědroň|1946|p=112}}{{sfn|Drlíková|2004|p=41}}

From the early 1890s, Janáček led the mainstream of folklorist activity in [[Moravia]] and [[Silesia]], using a repertoire of folk songs and dances in orchestral and piano arrangements. Many of the tunes he used had been recorded by him but a second source was [[Františka Xavera Běhálková|Xavera Běhálková]] who sent him 70 to 100 tunes that she had gathered from around the [[Haná]] region of [[central Moravia]].{{sfn|Simeone|Tyrrell|Němcová|1997|p=250}}

Most of his achievements in this field were published in 1899–1901 though his interest in folklore would be lifelong.{{sfn|Procházková|2006|p=380}} His compositional work was still influenced by the declamatory, dramatic style of [[Bedřich Smetana|Smetana]] and [[Antonín Dvořák|Dvořák]]. He expressed very negative opinions on German neo-classicism and especially on [[Richard Wagner|Wagner]] in the ''Hudební listy'' journal, which he founded in 1884.{{sfn|Firkušný|2005|p=62}} The death of his second child, Vladimír, in 1890 was followed by an attempted opera, ''Beginning of the Romance'' (1891) and the [[cantata]] ''[[Amarus]]'' (1897).

=== 1900–1915: Difficult years ===
[[File:Jenůfa - the only well-preserved page of the score.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|The only preserved page of the autograph manuscript of Janáček's ''[[Jenůfa]]'']]
[[File:Leóš Janáček (1904).png|thumb|upright=0.9|Janáček in 1904]]
In the first decade of the 20th century, Janáček composed choral church music including ''[[Our Father (cantata)|Otčenáš]]'' (Our Father, 1901), ''Constitues'' (1903) and ''Ave Maria'' (1904). In 1901, the first part of his piano cycle ''[[On an Overgrown Path]]'' was published and gradually became one of his most frequently-performed works.{{sfn|Zahrádka|2006|p=XI}} In 1902, Janáček visited Russia twice. On the first occasion he took his daughter Olga to [[Saint Petersburg]], where she stayed to study Russian. Only three months later, he returned to Saint Petersburg with his wife because Olga had become very ill. They took her back to [[Brno]], but her health worsened.{{sfn|Tyrrell|2006–2007|loc=Vol. 1|pp=525–542}}

Janáček expressed his painful feelings for his daughter in a new work, his opera ''[[Jenůfa]]'', in which the suffering of his daughter had transfigured into Jenůfa's.<ref name=PlumleyBio>{{cite web|url=http://www.leosjanacek.com/biography.htm|title=Janáček: a brief biography|access-date=15 September 2008|last=Plumley|first=Gavin|archive-date=18 September 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080918064958/http://www.leosjanacek.com/biography.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> When Olga died in February 1903, Janáček dedicated ''Jenůfa'' to her memory. The opera was performed in Brno in 1904,{{sfn|Sehnal|Vysloužil|2001|p=183}} with reasonable success, but Janáček felt this was no more than a provincial achievement. He aspired to recognition by the more influential Prague opera, but ''Jenůfa'' was refused there (twelve years passed before its first performance in Prague).<ref>{{cite book |title=Káťa Kabanová |last=Tyrrell |first=John |author-link=John Tyrrell (musicologist)|year=1982 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-29853-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/leosjanacekkat00tyrr/page/2 2] |url=https://archive.org/details/leosjanacekkat00tyrr |url-access=registration}}</ref> Dejected and emotionally exhausted, Janáček went to [[Luhačovice]] spa to recover. There he met Kamila Urválková, whose love story supplied the theme for his next opera, ''[[Destiny (Janáček)|Osud]]'' (''Destiny'').<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Tyrrell|first=John|author-link=John Tyrrell (musicologist)|year=1972|title=Janáček's ''Fate''|journal=[[The Musical Times]]|volume=113|issue=1547|pages=34–37|doi=10.2307/957619|jstor=957619}}</ref>

In 1905, Janáček attended a demonstration in support of a Czech university in Brno, where the violent death of František Pavlík, a young joiner, at the hands of the police inspired his piano sonata, ''[[1. X. 1905]]'' (''From The Street'').{{sfn|Drlíková|2004|p=67}} The incident led him to further promote the anti-German and anti-Austrian ethos of the ''Russian Circle'', which he had co-founded in 1897{{sfn|Černušák|Štědroň|Nováček|1963|p=558}} and which would be officially banned by the Austrian police in 1915.{{sfn|Drlíková|2004|p=81}} In 1906, he approached the Czech poet [[Petr Bezruč]], with whom he later collaborated, composing several choral works based on Bezruč's poetry. These included ''Kantor Halfar'' (1906), ''Maryčka Magdónova'' (1908), and ''70.000'' (1909).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Závodský |first1=Artur |title=Petr Bezruč a Leoš Janáček |journal=Sborník prácí filozofické fakulty Brněnské univerzity |date=1981 |volume=D |issue=28 |pages=32–33 |url=https://digilib.phil.muni.cz/_flysystem/fedora/pdf/108143.pdf |access-date=24 August 2023}}</ref>

Janáček's life in the first decade of the 20th century was complicated by personal and professional difficulties. He still yearned for artistic recognition from Prague.{{sfn|Vysloužil|2001|p=225}} He destroyed some of his works, others remained unfinished. Nevertheless, he continued composing, and would create several remarkable choral, chamber, orchestral and operatic works, the most notable being the 1914 cantata, ''Věčné evangelium'' (''The Eternal Gospel''), ''[[Pohádka]]'' (''Fairy tale'') for 'cello and piano (1910), the 1912 piano cycle ''V mlhách'' (''[[In the Mists]]''), his [[Violin Sonata (Janáček)|violin sonata]], and his first symphonic poem ''Šumařovo dítě'' (''A Fiddler's Child''). His fifth opera, ''Výlet pana Broučka do měsíce'' (''[[The Excursions of Mr. Brouček to the Moon and to the 15th Century]]''), composed from 1908 to 1917, has been characterized as the most "purely Czech in subject and treatment" of all of Janáček's operas.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Shawe-Taylor|first=Desmond|author-link=Desmond Shawe-Taylor (music critic)|title=The Operas of Leoš Janáček|journal=[[Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association]]|pages=49–64|volume=85|date=1958|doi=10.1093/jrma/85.1.49}}{{subscription required}}</ref>

=== 1916–1928: Breakthrough and masterworks ===
In 1916, he started a long professional and personal relationship with theatre critic, dramatist and translator [[Max Brod]].{{sfn|Drlíková|2004|p=83}}<ref>C Susskind, ''Janáček and Brod''. Yale University Press, 1985, {{ISBN|0-300-03420-2}}</ref> In the same year, ''Jenůfa'', revised by Kovařovic, was finally accepted by the National Theatre. Its performance in Prague in 1916 was a great success, and brought Janáček his first acclaim.<ref>{{cite AV media notes|last=Štědroň|first=Miloš|translator=Ted Whang|title=Jenůfa (Brno Janáček Opera Chorus and Orchestra, conductor [[František Jílek]])|others=Leoš Janáček|type=CD|publisher=[[Supraphon]]|id=SU 3869-2|location=Prague|year=2006}}</ref>{{sfn|Sehnal|Vysloužil|2001|pp=184, 185}}

[[Image:Kamila Stösslová in 1917.jpg|thumb|Kamila Stösslová with her son Otto in 1917]]
Following the Prague première, he began a relationship with singer Gabriela Horváthová, which led to his wife Zdenka's attempted suicide and their "informal" divorce.<ref name=PlumleyBio />{{sfn|Přibáňová|2007|p=8}} A year later (1917), he met [[Kamila Stösslová]], a young married woman 38 years his junior, who was to inspire him for the remaining years of his life. He conducted an obsessive and (on his side at least) passionate correspondence with her, of nearly 730 letters.{{sfn|Drlíková|2004|p=99}} From 1917 to 1919, deeply inspired by Stösslová, he composed ''[[The Diary of One Who Disappeared]]''. As he completed its final revision, he began his next 'Kamila' work, the opera ''[[Káťa Kabanová]]''.{{sfn|Tyrrell|2006–2007|loc=Vol. 2}}{{page needed|date=August 2023}}

In 1920, Janáček retired from his post as director of the [[Brno Conservatory]] but continued to teach until 1925.{{sfn|Drlíková|2004|p=91}} In 1921, he attended a lecture by the Indian philosopher-poet [[Rabindranath Tagore]] and used a Tagore poem as the basis for the chorus ''[[The Wandering Madman]]'' (1922).{{sfn|Simeone|Tyrrell|Němcová|1997|p=148}}  In the early 1920s, Janáček completed his opera ''[[The Cunning Little Vixen]]'', which had been inspired by a serialized novella by [[Rudolf Těsnohlídek]] in the newspaper [[Lidové noviny]].<ref>{{cite book |title=The Dictionary of the Opera |last=Osborne |first=Charles |page=[https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofoper00osbo/page/87 87] |year=1983 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=0-671-49218-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofoper00osbo/page/87 }}</ref>

In Janáček's 70th year (1924), his biography was published by Max Brod, and he was interviewed by [[Olin Downes]] for ''[[The New York Times]]''.{{sfn|Drlíková|2004|p=99}} In 1925, he retired from teaching but continued composing and was awarded the first honorary doctorate to be given by [[Masaryk University]] in Brno. In the spring of 1926, he created his [[Sinfonietta (Janáček)|Sinfonietta]], a monumental orchestral work, which rapidly gained wide critical acclaim. In the same year, he went to England at the invitation of [[Rosa Newmarch]]. A number of his works were performed in London, including his first string quartet, the wind sextet ''Youth'', and his violin sonata.{{sfn|Drlíková|2004|p=109}} Shortly after, and still in 1926, he started to compose a setting to an [[Old Church Slavonic]] text. The result was the large-scale orchestral ''[[Glagolitic Mass]]''.<ref name="glagolitic">{{cite web|title=''Mša glagolskaja''|url=http://www.leosjanacek.com/glagolitic.htm|website=leosjanacek.com|access-date=19 April 2012|archive-date=30 March 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120330045329/http://www.leosjanacek.com/glagolitic.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The world première of Janáček's lyrical [[Concertino (Janáček)|Concertino]] for piano, two violins, viola, clarinet, French horn and bassoon took place in [[Brno]] in 1926.<ref name="Grove-Janacek">{{Cite Grove |first=John |last=Tyrrell |title=Janáček, Leoš |id=14122 }}</ref> Around the same time, Janáček began work on a comparable chamber work for an even more unusual set of instruments, the [[Capriccio (Janáček)|Capriccio]] for piano left hand, flute, two trumpets, three trombones and tenor tuba, was written for pianist [[Otakar Hollmann]], who lost the use of his right hand during World War I. It premièred in Prague on 2 March 1928.{{sfn|Simeone|Tyrrell|Němcová|1997|pp=235–236}}

[[File:Leos Janacek hrob.jpg|thumb|upright|Janáček's grave, in [[Brno]]]]

In 1927 – the year of the Sinfonietta's first performances in New York, Berlin and Brno – he began to compose his final operatic work, ''[[From the House of the Dead]]'', the third act of which would be found on his desk after his death. In January 1928, he began his second string quartet, the ''[[String Quartet No. 2 (Janáček)|Intimate Letters]]'', his "manifesto on love". Meanwhile, the Sinfonietta was performed in London, Vienna and Dresden. In his later years, Janáček became an international celebrity. He became a member of the [[Akademie der Künste|Prussian Academy of Arts]] in Berlin in 1927, along with [[Arnold Schoenberg]] and [[Paul Hindemith]].{{sfn|Drlíková|2004|p=113}}{{sfn|Vysloužil|2001|p=227}}

=== Death and funeral ===
In August 1928, he took an excursion to [[Štramberk]] with Kamila Stösslová and her son Otto, but caught a chill which developed into pneumonia. He died on 12 August 1928 in [[Ostrava]], at the sanatorium of Dr. L. Klein, at the age of 74. He was given a large public funeral that included music from the last scene of his ''Cunning Little Vixen''. He was buried in the Field of Honour at the Central Cemetery, Brno.{{sfn|Drlíková|2004|p=119}}