Janáček grew up in the middle of the Romantic period, but most of his best music was written in 1920s, by which time musical styles had changed. Although he never wrote music which sounded as modern as that of Stravinsky or Schoenberg his music is Romantic, combined with Moravian folksong and sometimes with ideas from French impressionist composers such as Debussy. The music he wrote for choirs often continued in his operas. His music for instruments often started as programmatic, although a lot of it can be enjoyed without knowing the story it tells. He learned to write operas by learning from the operas of Smetana, but he made many changes such as shortening the duets and ensembles and using folksong in his melodies.