Editing Leoš Janáček (section)

== Inspiration ==
=== Folklore ===
Janáček was deeply influenced by folklore and Eastern European folk music, and by [[Moravian folk music]] in particular, but not by the pervasive, idealized 19th century romantic folklore variant. He took a realistic, descriptive and analytic approach to the material.<ref name=autogenerated9>{{cite AV media notes|title=Janáček: Moravian Folk Poetry in Songs (Martina Pecková, Tomáš Král, Ivo Kahánek)|year=1994|first=Miloš|last=Štědroň|translator-first=Ivan|translator-last=Vomáčka|page=8|type=CD |publisher=[[Supraphon]]|id=SU 4183-2|location=Prague|language=cs,en|url=https://www.supraphon.com/album/108572-janacek-moravian-folk-songs}}</ref>{{sfn|Sehnal|Vysloužil|2001|p=175}} Moravian folk songs, compared with their Bohemian counterparts, are much freer and more irregular in their metrical and rhythmic structure, and more varied in their melodic intervals.{{sfn|Zemanová|2002|p=61}} In his study of Moravian modes, Janáček found that the peasant musicians did not know the names of the modes and had their own ways of referring to them. He used the term "Moravian modulation" to describe the harmonic progression I–{{flat}}VII,{{sfn|Steinmetz|2021|page=42}} which he considered a general characteristic of this region's folk music.{{sfn|Zemanová|2002|p=61}}

Janáček partly composed the original piano accompaniments to more than 150 folk songs, respectful of their original function and context,<ref>{{cite book|title=Moravská lidová poezie v písních|trans-title=Moravian Folk Poetry in Songs|last=Janáček|first=Leoš|chapter=Foreword|year=1994|publisher=[[Bärenreiter]]|location=Prague|language=cs,de|id=H 4570}}</ref> and partly used folk inspiration in his own works, especially in his mature compositions.<ref name="autogenerated9"/> His work in this area was not stylistically imitative; instead, he developed a new and original musical aesthetic based on a deep study of the fundamentals of folk music.<ref name="autogenerated9"/>

=== Russia ===
Janáček's deep and lifelong affection for Russia and Russian culture represents another important element of his musical inspiration.<ref name=Krombholc>{{cite AV media notes |title=Leoš Janáček: Katya Kabanova (Prague National Theatre, Jaroslav Krombholc)|page=6 |type=CD |publisher=Supraphon |id=108016-2612 |location=Prague }}</ref> In 1888 he attended the Prague performance of [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky|Tchaikovsky]]'s music, and met the older composer. Janáček profoundly admired Tchaikovsky, and particularly appreciated his highly developed musical thought in connection with the use of Russian folk motifs.{{sfn|Štědroň|1946|p=132}} Janáček's Russian inspiration is especially apparent in his later chamber, symphonic and operatic output.<ref name=Krombholc /> He closely followed developments in Russian music from his early years, and in 1896, following his first visit to Russia, he founded a ''Russian Circle'' in Brno. Janáček read Russian authors in their original language. Their literature offered him an enormous and reliable source of inspiration, though this did not blind him to the problems of Russian society.<ref name=Krombholc /> He was twenty-two years old when he wrote his first composition based on a Russian theme: a melodrama, ''Death'', set to [[Mikhail Lermontov|Lermontov's]] poem. In his later works, he often used literary models with sharply contoured plots.<ref name=Krombholc /> In 1910 Zhukovsky's ''Tale of Tsar Berendei'' inspired him to write the ''Fairy Tale for Cello and Piano''. He composed the rhapsody ''Taras Bulba'' (1918) to [[Nikolai Gogol|Gogol's]] short story, and five years later, in 1923, completed his first string quartet, inspired by [[Leo Tolstoy|Tolstoy's]] ''[[The Kreutzer Sonata|Kreutzer Sonata]]''. Two of his later operas were based on Russian themes: ''Káťa Kabanová'', composed in 1921 to [[Alexander Ostrovsky]]'s play ''The Storm'', and his last work, ''From the House of the Dead'', which transformed [[Fyodor Dostoevsky|Dostoevsky]]'s vision of the world into an exciting collective drama.<ref name=Krombholc />{{rp|7}}

=== Other composers ===
One of Janáček's early influences was Antonín Dvořák,{{sfn|Sehnal|Vysloužil|2001|p=175}} whom he always deeply admired and to whom he dedicated some of his works. He rearranged part of Dvořák's [[Moravian Duets]] for mixed choir with original piano accompaniment. In the early years of the 20th century, Janáček became increasingly interested in the music of other European composers. His opera ''Destiny'' was a response to another significant and famous work in contemporary Bohemia – ''[[Louise (opera)|Louise]]'', by the French composer [[Gustave Charpentier]].{{sfn|Tyrrell|1991–1992|p=108}} The influence of [[Giacomo Puccini]] is apparent particularly in Janáček's later works, for example in his opera ''Káťa Kabanová''. Although he carefully observed developments in European music, his operas remained firmly connected with Czech and Slavic themes.{{sfn|Tyrrell|1991–1992|p=156}}