Bohuslav Martin was a prolific composer who lived throughout the twentieth century. He was born in a church tower above the Czech–Moravian Highlands. He established himself in both Prague and Paris until being compelled to escape to the United States by the Nazi invasion of France. During the 1940s, he ascended to fame in the United States, but in 1956, he moved to Europe permanently. His folk cantata, The Opening of the Wells (1955), which dealt with themes of innocence, fertility, and exile suffering, was a big success in Czechoslovakia.