The Czech people began to find a voice of expression in music. Bedrich Smetana used music as an outlet of nationalistic feeling. He could express the feelings of the Czech people because he felt strongly nationalistic himself. He put intense emotion as well as a part of himself into his music. Smetana was considered a "musician of the future." Rather than model his music after previous French or German composers as many other Czechoslavakian composers had done, Smetana preferred to form his own style, which was new and uniquely Czech. He wrote operas, symphonic poems, piano pieces, and dances. His first opera was "The Brandenburgers in Bohemia," and his famous "Bartered Bride" was performed in 1866. Smetana wrote piano compositions which were both very personal and very Czechoslavakian. For him, the essence of Czech nationalistic music had to include or imitate Czech folk songs because they were such an important part of their culture and history. In contrast to Smetana, there are musicians such as Anton Dvorak who modelled their musical compositions after other styles or countries. Although Dvorak was influenced by his trip to the New World and his experiences there, and his work is less unique to Czechoslovakia than some of his contemporaries, he expresses a sense of nationalism nonetheless.

One movement which greatly encouraged the already growing sense of nationalism in Czechoslavakia was the Sokol movement. The Sokols (Sokol means falcon) were a gymnastic society founded in 1862 by Fugner and Tyrs. It was modelled after the German "Turnvereine" which played a role in German politics after the War of Liberation. The fifteen thousand men and women in this movement gathered at the Slet, an Assembly of Sokols, and performed physical drills and gymnastics. The group was promoting Czech nationalism by proposing to improve upon the physical as well as the intellectual status of its people. Tyrs wanted to revive the Fatherland "by the education of body and spirit, by physical energy, by art and science, by all moral means..." The theory was that every nation had the right to exist, but it needed to exert its own energy and show itself able to do so. The Sokols thrived on organization and a scientific method of gymnastic. Tyrs felt that the motto of the Sokols should be "eternal evolution" or "eternal discontent," and that they should not be satisfied until they have "reached such a degree of perfection as to fear no comparison with the foreigner." The Sokol movement was a movement of the middle class. Tyrs felt that soldiers needed repeated exercises in discipline, both physical and intellectual, and the gymnastics provided the physical part of this equation. He felt that, " In a word, gymnastics as conceived by the Sokols are of a higher order; they are a factor in our outlook on life, an artistic and moral expressino of the human soul, a joyous cry of mass enthusiasm" Along with teaching Czech people about democracy and equality, the Sokol movement prepared people for the struggles of politics and improved general health and well-being of the people.

The Sokol movement also played a major role in unifying the nation of Czechoslovakia. Groups of the Sokol movement were founded in Prague and in the provinces and then were spread throughout the land. It was a movement based on democratic principles, and one in which the middle class led the way, while the aristocracy stood aside. The members of the group were highly patriotic among other qualities, and this patriotism spread to other areas of Czechoslovakia. The Sokols portrayed a sense of determination, strength, and a unified national spirit, and the Czechs were proud of the physical strides made by these men and women.

In conclusion, Czech nationalism was expressed through a variety of outlets, one of the most common of which was music and the arts. Artists and musicians during this period were searching for a style which they could call their own. They wanted to create things which were truly Czech, and the Sokol movement was helpful in this search for identity. The young people involved in the movement were disciplined and patriotic, a combination which aids in the spread of new ideas and which gives the people a common name under which to unite.