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 with the folk-poetry were fitted for use in the church by changing a lover's name to that of a saint.

The so-called counter-reformation under the Jesuits was too unpopular among the Czechs to lead to the production of original spontaneous songs among the people; but at the same time there began the development of Bohemian classical music as a part of the European classical period. The Bohemian masters of this time whose art was appreciated in foreign countries were: Bohuslav M. Černohorský (1684–1740), the teacher of Giuseppe Tartini and Christoph W. Gluck; Anton Reicha (1770–1836), who was the successor of Méhul at the Conservatory of Paris; and Georg Benda (1722–1795), a significant name in the history of melodrama or recitation with music.

The enlightened eighteenth century touched profoundly the spiritual life of the whole of Europe. To the Czechs this meant a great Renaissance, a time of national awakening. For two hundred years the people of Bohemia had