Modern formation of the Czech identity is based, among other things, on reflection of the Hussite period, in which music took the role of the main medium for communication of new ideas. Surveys on 15th-century music, its repertory character and relationship to the European development is marked, from the 19th-century, by deliberate manipulation of historical facts and intentional dogmas about its esthetic value. This also affected descriptions of early music in Bohemia in a broader European context that is built on an insufficient, or even erroneous, understanding of a specific Central European development. General historical surveys refer to the Czech lands with terms such as “discontinuity”, “isolation”, “simplification”, or “delay”, when historical sources clearly indicate the opposite. The “myth” about the exclusive role of the Hussite tradition crucially influenced 19th- and 20th-century music composition, where pieces reflecting Hussite legacy, including those that quote erroneous reconstruction of Hussite tunes, were used to evoke Czech national feelings.
