1869-1872 study at the "K. u. K. slawischen Lehrerbildungsanstalt", afterwards took up teaching position for music there until 1904 and leading various choirs. 1874-1875 study at the organ school in Prague. 1876 choir master of the philharmonic association "Umělecká beseda". 1879-1880 study of piano and composition at the Leipzig Conservatory with Oscar Paul and Leo Grill and in Vienna with Franz Krenn. 1881-1888 conductor of the Philharmonic Society. 1881-1919 director of the new Brno Conservatory. 1884 founder of the first Brno magazine for music and theatre "Hudební listy" (Musical Sheets). From 1893 columnist for the daily newspaper "Lidové noviny".

From 1895 chairman of the "Moravian Working Committee for the Czechoslovak Ethnographic Exhibition in Prague". 1897 co-founder of the "Russian Circle in Brno", from 1909-1915 and 1919-1920 its chairman. From 1900 curator of the Moravian State Museum. From 1905 chairman of the "Working Committee for the Czech Folk Song in Moravia and Silesia". 1912 appointment corresponding member of the "Bohemian Academies of Science and the Arts" and chairman of the "Club of Moravian Composers" and the "State Institute of Folk Song". 1920 professor of a master class in composition. 1927 appointment member of the Preußischen Kunstakademie in Berlin.

In addition to numerous compositions, development of his theory about speech melody. Premier of his works at the Krolloper.