Page:The Russian Review Volume 1.djvu/44

30 under artificial surroundings and to the accompaniment of instruments that are not really popular, the songs lose their true effect. The place to hear them in their purity is in some out-of-the-way village, far from the main roads of civilization. But it is when the villagers are engaged in "communal" work, especially during harvesting-time, that the harmony between the surroundings and the people and the strains that arise, is most complete.

In Russian folk-songs, words and music are closely linked. They are an invitation to the dance; they set the peasant's feet a-dancing and make him clap his hands. It is not the words so much, as the melody that makes the songs so infectious. Far more definitely than language can do it, the melodies express the true national spirit. It is this dinstinctive quality that the great Russian composers have recognized, and they have done well in taking the Russian folk-music as the basis for the development of a native school of music.

In the great Russian musical compositions, the national song does not serve merely as a theme, a subject. It dominates, it rules, it gathers about it the best of the ornamentation that a musical genius can produce for its appropriate setting. The composer merely embellishes it, as he truthfully and skillfully makes its meaning, its aim, and its origin apparent to the listener. It is not surprising, therefore, that Russian music, when at its best, is so profoundly national, so deep, so truthful, so humanly appealing.

Take Borodin's "Song of the Dark Forest." Whoever has heard this marvelous bit of Russian music will readily understand what national music is when produced by the accumulated spiritual wealth of generations, and shaped into musical forms by the mighty genius of a great composer. The words, adapted by Borodin himself, may serve to give a glimpse into the beauty and the power of this song.

"The dark forest stood, full of noises strange, and a song he sang. Ah, an ancient song! A tale true to life, the dark forest told: How freedom bold midst its trees once dwelt; how the power and strength of a people great, gathered, mustered there; how that freedom bold played in liberty, how that power and strength gaily sported there; how that freedom bold into battle went, how that power and strength captured cities strong, scorned and mocked the foe, drank and spilled his blood; freedom bold, power, strength."