national rather than individual genius—but Russia, in the num-
ber and variety of these original melodies is most exceptional.
The Russian expresses himself spontaneously in song, and so we
find appropriate music for every activity or incident in daily life:
planting songs, reaping songs, boating songs, wedding songs, fu-
neral songs; Russian soldiers sing on the march and even enter
upon a desperate charge with songs on their lips. In certain bat-
tles of the Crimean War this fact caused much comment from
the English officers. For many centuries the bulk of the Russian
people has been downtrodden; and the country, with its end-
less steppes and gloomy climate, is hardly such as to call forth
the sparkling vivacity found in the Scandinavian and Hungar-
ian songs. The prevalent mood in Russian folk-songs is one of
melancholy or of brooding, wistful tenderness—very often in the
old Greek modes, the Aeolian, Dorian and Phrygian. From this
we see the close connection existing between the Russian and
Greek Churches. The Russian liturgy is exceedingly old, and
Russian church music, always unaccompanied, has long been
celebrated for its dignified character, especially those portions
rendered by men’s voices, which are capable of unusually low
notes,[305] as majestic as those of an organ.
[Footnote 305: In Grove’s Dictionary, under Bass, occurs this
statement: This voice, found, or at least cultivated, only in
Russia is by special training made to descend to FF [Music].]
During the entire 18th century the development of music in
Russia was in the hands of imported Italians; the beginnings of
a national type being first made in the works of Glinka, born
- By the middle of the 19th century two schools had arisen,
the Neo-Russian group of Balakireff, Borodin, Cui, Rimsky-
Korsakoff and Moussorgsky, who believed in the extreme de-
velopment of national traits in melody, rhythm and color; and
a second group which was more cosmopolitan in its tastes and
believed that Russian music, without abandoning its national
flavor, could be written in a style of universal appeal. The chief
members of this group were Rubinstein and Tchaikowsky, and
distinguished pupils of the latter, in particular Rachmaninoff
and Glazounoff. To the world at large Tchaikowsky, of them
all, has made the strongest appeal; though he himself said that
Rimsky-Korsakoff as an orchestral colorist was more able, and
certainly Moussorgsky has a more strongly marked individuality.
Tchaikowsky (1840-1893) like so many of the Russian composers,