founded upon the folk-songs of that country, one should know
first of all the conditions that made such songs possible, and
one should breathe the atmosphere in which musicians who have
used such songs have worked."[316]
[Footnote 315: The most authoritative work in English is the
History of Russian Musicby Montagu-Nathan; in French there
are the EssaysMusiques de Russieby Bruneau.]
[Footnote 316: Quoted from the chapter on Russian music in
Famous Composers and Their Works(2d series).]
The first real leader after the wholesome beginnings made by
Glinka (with his operas,A Life for the CzarandLudmilla) was
Balakireff (1837-1910) who finding his country almost entirely
under the dominion of Italian and German music, proclaimed
the doctrine that Russia, with its wealth of folk-songs and its
undoubted emotional power should create its own music. Like
many of the Russians Balakireff was an amateur, but in the
true sense of that term,i.e., he loved music for its own sake.
He therefore set to work vigorously to combat foreign influences
and to manifest in original works a spirit true to his own genius
and to the tendencies of his native land. Though educated as
a lawyer he had acquired through a study of Mozart, Berlioz
and Liszt a thorough technique and so was equipped to put into
practise his watchword which was individual liberty. “I believe
in the subjective, not in the objective power of music,” he said
to his pupils. “Objective music may strike us with its brilliancy,
but its achievement remains the handiwork of a mediocre talent.
Mediocre or merely talented musicians are eager to produce ef-
fects, but the ideal of a genius is to reproduce his very self, in
unison with the object of his art. There is no doubt that art
requires technique, but it must be absolutely unconscious and
individual.... Often the greatest pieces of art are rather rude
technically, but they grip the soul and command attention for
intrinsic values. This is apparent in the works of Michelangelo,
of Shakespeare, of Turgenieff, and of Mozart. The beauty that
fascinates us most is that which is most individual. I regard
technique as a necessary but subservient element. It may, how-
ever, become dangerous and kill individuality as it has done
with those favorites of our public, whose virtuosity I despise
more than mere crudities.” Balakireff’s actual works are few in
number since he spent most of his time in organizing schools
of music and in teaching others; but in those works which we