regions of Europe. He wrote complex fugues, ornate operatic arias, galant-style dances, baroque recitatives, Palestrina-like chorales, and virtuosic concertos. Zelenka's musical language is closest to Bach's, especially in its richness of contrapuntal harmonies and ingenious usage of fugal themes. Nevertheless, Zelenka's language is idiosyncratic in its unexpected harmonic twists, obsession with chromatic harmonies, large usage of syncopated and tuplet figures, and unusually long phrases full of varied musical ideas. He is sometimes considered Bach's Catholic counterpart. Zelenka's music is influenced by Czech folk music. In this respect, he continues the tradition of the production of specific Czech national music initiated by Adam Michna z Otradovic and brought to its culmination by Bedřich Smetana and Antonín Dvořák in the nineteenth century and Leoš Janáček and Bohuslav Martinů in the twentieth century. In regard to his masses, Zelenka was not afraid to challenge the established traditions of his time. Furthermore, from his unorthodox, disjointed, and "bizarre" sounding fugal subjects (such as the Kyrie Eleison from ZWV 48) to his fiery orchestration, he presents fresh interpretations of established liturgical mass texts Reception Appreciation by his contemporaries Despite his posthumous neglect, Zelenka was highly regarded during his own career and was respected by significant composers of the day, such as Telemann, Bach (as aforementioned), and Graupner. His music's innovative counterpoint (such as in the Miserere in D Minor, ZWV 56), clarity, and part-writing (especially in his fugues) earned him the respect of some of the most renowned contrapuntists (composers and performers who practice the art of counterpoint). Between the years 1716 and 1719, Zelenka studied under the guidance J.J. Fux, the author of Gradus ad Parnassum (1660-1741) in Vienna and accepted J.J. Quantz (1697-1773) as one of his students. Zelenka also met A. Caldara (1671-1736) as well as F.B. Conti (c. 1681–1732) in Vienna, Austria. Rediscovery The rediscovery of Jan Dismas Zelenka's work is attributed to Bedřich Smetana, who rewrote some scores from the archives in Dresden and introduced one of the composer's orchestral suites in Prague's New Town Theatre festivals in 1863. It was mistakenly assumed that many of Zelenka's autograph scores were destroyed during the firebombing of Dresden in February 1945. However, the scores were not kept in the Katholische Hofkirche but in the basement of the Japanese Palace, north of the river Elbe. Some are certainly missing, but this probably happened gradually – and the lost scores represent only a small