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 influenced by Wagner, Smetana preferred the lyric and simple melodious form as being more in keeping with the Slavonic spirit. He is the composer of eight operas, of which the most popular are those illustrative of country life. His compositions have a wide range; as in addition to the operatic works referred to, he produced some of the most successful comic operas ever performed in Bohemia. The unquestioned merits of his many and varied works warrant his recognition as the founder of the modern Bohemian School of Composition.

Smetana's heir, as a worthy representative of the purely Slavonic in musical composition, was Antonin Dvorak, whose name is well known in England, where his fame is acknowledged by the frequent performance of many of his best works by the principal choral and orchestral societies.

Dvorak's start in life was very humble; he had more difficulties to overcome in the pursuit of education than the majority even of music's least favoured sons. But at first gradually, then rapidly, he advanced to fame, and the world's verdict was that in him a great master had arisen. The work which won for him the ear of all Europe was his "Stabat Mater," which speedily became a favourite especially in England, where it was first performed by the London Musical Society in 1883. This work rises above the strong influences of national feeling so generally found, as we have before remarked, in Dvorak's writings, and reaches a more cosmopolitan atmosphere challenging comparison with the most universally accepted settings of the Latin Hymn. Other compositions 46