Introduction

Janáček writes in the preface to a collection of Moravian folk-song arrangements:

This statement reveals two important elements that shaped Janáček's own musical language: his profound admiration of the folk musicians' art on the one hand, and his nineteenth-century heritage on the other. His genuine love of folk-songs went back to his youth and influenced his entire philosophy of existence: ‘Folk-song! I've lived and breathed it since I was small. In folk-songs we find the whole person, body, soul, environment, everything, everything. Whoever grows up with folk-song, grows up into a whole person.’ Folk-songs touched Janáček's emotions for nostalgic reasons – as well as for the beauty of the music. To him, they encapsulated the genuine emotions and concerns of ordinary people, and they were creations equivalent in stature to those from the art-music repertory. Their apparent simplicity was necessitated only by the lack of notation, which did not affect their quality. Folk-songs also echoed Janáček's fervent nationalistic concerns.