The Wandering Madman appears in the composer's output between two seminal works, The Cunning Little Vixen (1921-23) and The Makropulos Affair (1923-25). This happy period was marked not only by artistic achievements, but also by the realization of some of the composer's fondest wishes. He had just purchased a small cottage in his native Hukvaldy, and at long last, Czechoslovakia had been made into a republic. Janacek was a politically conscious individual, and this event stimulated Janacek's creativity.

Czechoslovakia invited intellectuals and foreigners of note to its land to take part in a sort of social uplifting. One of those invited to contribute was the Bengali poetand philosopher Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore appeared in Prague in June of 1921 and read from his published poetry and participated in a question-and-answer forum. Janacek was present, and Tagore impressed him as a kind of prophet. Tagore's The Gardener formed the basis of the text of his Wandering Madman, and in November of 1922, the work, for male chorus, was completed.

The Wandering Madman has a duration of about five and a half minutes, and contains a part for boy soprano who puts forth questions to a man who has lost a precious stone. Some have drawn comparisons between this work and Janacek's Diary of One Who Disappeared, wherein members of the performing ensemble take on personae of the characters in the text. The text may be described as a ballad about a man who spends his whole life searching for a stone that will turn ordinary things into gold. One day, a country boy asks him when he came into possession of a gold necklace. The man looks down to view the necklace, realizing that it was once an iron chain. He also realizes that he must have come into contact with the stone of his desire and unknowingly tossed it away. He looks for the stone, but cannot find it.

There is an almost obsessive quality to the solo tenor part, which resembles a form of repetitious chanting. This musical feature is offset by the music of the boy soprano part, which seems to make fun of the stone-obsessed madman.

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