Janacek's Moravian heritage was one of the most powerful and pervasive influences on his creative development. Though the influence of Moravian music and literature echoes throughout the composer's oeuvre, it is nowhere so plainly evident as in his works for the voice, which range from important operas like The Cunning Little Vixen (1921 - 23) to hundreds of folksong settings. Like Bartók, Janacek actually collected and transcribed folk music in the field, both editing voluminous collections of authentic Moravian songs and using them as a source of inspiration (and often, as a direct source of musical material) for his own works. The collection Moravian Folk Poetry in Songs consists of 52 songs collected and transcribed between 1892 and 1901, the period when the composer was most deeply absorbed in and directly influenced by his studies of folk music.

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