Discover Leoš Janáček’s oeuvre

Did you expect only compositions here? That would deny you much of Janáček’s legacy.

Get to know Janáček the theorist, music critic, conductor, teacher and folk-song collector.

Writings form a substantial part of Janáček’s creative legacy. They include his peculiar ideas and critical insights with which he responded to the social and cultural life of his time and the environment in which he lived.

Like his father and grandfather, Janáček was a teacher, but in the scope of his educational and organising activities he far surpassed his ancestors. He led the choir and the orchestra of the Beseda brněnská association, started a tradition of large choral-orchestral concerts, published a new issue of the journal Hudební listy every week, penning opera reviews himself, founded the Organ School and later as its director was instrumental in its transformation into the Brno Conservatory.

What is more, from 1888 he started to collect folk music around his native village of Hukvaldy, which inspired his own compositions. Janáček developed a scholarly interest in collecting folk songs and dances. With leading ethnographers, he prepared the Czech-Slavic Ethnographic Exhibition in Prague in 1895. From 1905 he was the chair of the Working Party for Folk Song in Moravia and Silesia. This made him a pioneer of folklore studies in Moravia and he helped to establish specialist departments.In addition, he taught and composed throughout the school year.