Page:The Russian Review Volume 1.djvu/118

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The development of Russian music consists of a continuous struggle between the ideas of the composers of Western Europe and the peculiar genius of national music. Almost every Russian composer shows traces of such a struggle. And it is when the national spirit dominates over the foreign, that the musical art of the country rises to its sublimest heights.

Before the nineteenth century, music in Russia was introduced almost exclusively by German and Italian musicians and composers, who were brought over by the Court and the aristocracy. They did not care to study the national music of the country, but composed according to their own Western ideas. At times it happened that they did introduce into their work national motifs and tunes, but this was usually done "to order" and the result lacked all artistic value.

There were also several Russian composers during this first period of Russian music. Among these were Titov, called "the grandfather of Russian song," Varlamov, Yakovlev, Aliabiev, Donaurov, Verstovsky, and others. But the musical education of these men was not thorough, and their work was too German-Italian to be of any great service to Russian music. Verstovsky even attempted to write an opera called "Askold's Tomb," but this opera had nothing of the native flavor.

The second period in the development of Russian music begins with Glinka (1804-1857). In his earlier works he was still under the influence of the German-Italian school, and even his national opera, "Life for the Tsar," did not escape this influence. If it were not for the characteristically Russian strains in the chorus of the last act, and in the fugue, the trio, and Vania's aria, this opera would have had to be classed with his other early works, all of them foreign in their provenience.

It was only after his trip to Italy, in the thirties, that Glinka came to the conclusion that Italy had nothing to give him. He then wrote to his friend Kukolnikov, that his eyes were finally opened, and that he realized that "we Russians are different, and what we want is something different." After this, he discarded foreign ideas and came to rely upon his own original genius. It