Excerpt from The National Music of Russia Musorgsky and Scriabin What did this movement mean, and what were the innovations which these Russian masters introduced into music? The answer is found in their works their music is distinguishable from all others, more by the characteristic materials than by'the spirit which animates it. But to describe these particular features in words is difficult. We can say with certainty that in their works, the melody, the tonality with the harmonic super-structures, the rhythms, are all as free as in the folk-songs them selves-a music which had existed before their age. And the fact that it is impossible to find such a freedom or any equivalent richness in the productions of those modern schools which are further removed from popular art, allows us to recognise the felicitous influence of this folk ele ment. But innovations of a tangible order are few in comparison with the value of the new Spirit which the Five were the first to assert. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Excerpt from The National Music of Russia Musorgsky and Scriabin The Russian School resembles no other, either in history or in character. It suddenly blossomed forth in the middle of the nineteenth century, after a germinative period whose history can only be traced back with difficulty, but whose fruit ripened almost as soon as it appeared. Before the school was even fifty years old, it constituted a quite independent, homogeneous and extensive art. The case is so rare as to be at first disconcerting. It is not only the rapidity of growth which astonishes us, but also and especially the general excellence and the distinctive qualities which are common to nearly all the works exemplifying this school. Nationalism has often been put forward as a drawback to Russian music, and the claim of Glinka, Balakireff and Rimsky-Korsakoff, to have enriched their art-language by the inclusion of folk-songs, has been treated by some critics merely in a humorous light. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.