In order to gain a full understanding of music in Prague after 1900, it is necessary first to explore the aesthetics of music during the nineteenth-century Cultural Revival, and the roles of Smetana and Hostinský in it. In many surveys of music history, it is often assumed that music in the Czech Lands began with Smetana, the so-called “Founder/Father of Czech music,” or more specifically with his return to Prague in 1862 after several years abroad. While this rhetoric certainly plays into nationalist narratives that have held sway since the late nineteenth century, it is impossible to deny the rapid development in Prague's musical activity after 1860, a situation owing in part to Smetana's participation. Smetana, of course, had been the product of several different precursors, including the influence of the New German School and an extended apprenticeship in Sweden as well as the substantial music education he received prior to his departure from Prague in 1856. Indeed, the dates of Smetana's absence are more than a mere biographical detail: they fall during the years of the repressive Alexander Bach era that held sway throughout the Austrian Empire until 1860 (see discussion below). As such, Smetana's years of exile, return, and subsequent accomplishments on native soil say as much about the artist as about his political and cultural milieu, since his mature career could have happened only after the post-Bach easing of restrictions.