Leos Janacek

A Czech composer of opera (Jenufa, 1904) and orchestral, instrumental, and sacred vocal music utilizing folk elements; employed his own "speech melody" concept based on the Czech language. From an early age, Jancek believed that music should follow the natural rhythms of human speech, animals, and birds. He went on to produce works of a completely original sound that are romantic, delight in the natural, and have an "angular" and even ascetic quality and a rhythmic vitality, all at the same time. His best-known piece is probably the Sinfonietta, with its wonderfully tuneful br...