Vítěslav Novák (1870–1949), born Viktor, was a Czech neo-Romantic composer of orchestral and operatic works and a teacher of composition at the Prague Conservatory. Born in Kamenice nad Lipou in Southern Bohemia, Novák would move several times while studying violin and piano in childhood before he would lose his father in 1882 and the family would relocate again to Jindřichův Hradec, another town in South Bohemia. In his late teens, he would enroll in the Prague Conservatory, change his name to Vítěslav to reflect his Czech identity and study piano. There, he also attended composition masterclasses run by Antonín Dvořák. Despite this, or perhaps because of Dvořák’s move to the United States, Novák developed a more modernist voice while at conservatory. He would combine this with Moravian and Slovakian folk influences, bitonality, non-functional harmony, and influence of Richard Strass to create a new stream of Czech music.

Novák would achieve popular and critical success over the ensuing years up until a conflict in 1912 with anti-Dvořák critic and musicologist Zdeněk Nejedlý led Nejedlý to become incredibly critical of Novák’s music. Novák would allow this criticism to affect his compositional output, preferring to avoid rejection rather than continue to explore his intensely personal voice. Czechoslovak independence in 1918 would compound this issue, pushing Novák to compose more conservative, nationalistic music, and this was met with critical disregard. It wasn’t until Germany’s occupation of Czechoslovakia in the 1930s that Novák’s reputation would begin to recover.