Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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566 SONG
produced no effect on the musio of the country.
The Greek song-writers worthy of mention are
lamentably few ; the generality of their published
songs are with few exceptions either
trivial or sentimental. Among the Greek
composers who have won European fame, Spiro
Samara may be noted as the best. At an early
period of his career he achieved success in Paris
by his graceful little songs. Other songcomposers
scarcely known beyond their own
country are : Zacharopoulos, Sidere, Beloudion,
Lampalete, Karrere, Rodios, and. Leonardos.
The few and best exceptions to the general
average of songs are those in which either the
composer has taken the folk-song as his model,
or the actual folk-songs themselves, such as are
to be found in L. A. Bourgault-Ducoudray's
'
Trente Melodies Populaires de Greoe et
d'Orient '
; and more recently in the collection
of M. Pakhtikos, Director of the School of Music
in Constantinople, who personally noted them
down in remote districts of Thrace, Macedonia,
Crete, the Aegean Islands, etc.
BiBLIOGBAPHY AND COLLECTIONS
(The BibliogFapliT and Conections of this country are purposely
clAsaed together.)
Sulzer, F. J, Geachichte dea trantalpinitcTum Dacienl. Vienna.
1781-82, 3 vols. (Contains Greek, Wallachian, and Turkish
tunes.)
Fauiiel, C. C/ianU populaires de la Qrdce modetme (no music).
Paris. 1824.
Eiesewetter, B. Ueber die Mtaik der neueren Oriechen. Leipzig,
1888.
Banders. D. Has Tollaiiehen der JfeuffHefAen. Mannheim. 1844.
Kind, Tb. ' N'eugriechische Vollcalieder.' Leipzig, 1849.
Faasow, A. ISabes- vmd Kiagelieder dea ifeu^riechischen Votkea
(no musk:). Magdeburg, 1861; 'Bomaic Songs' (ToayovSia
PMf«oiK«). 1860.
" "^ '
Tantalldea, E. ' Collection of songs, indading nursery rhymes and
school-songs with music' Athens, 1876.
Bourgault-Ducoudray. * Trente Miilodles fVipalaires de Grgce et
d'Orient.' Paris, 1876.
Bangab^ A. B, Slatoire littSraira de la Grice mademe, Paris,
1877.
SIgala, A. ' Recneilde Chants nationaux.' Athens, 1880.
Matza, Pericles. 'SOmdlodiesgrecques.' Constantinople, 188&
Garnett, L., and Stuart-Glennie, J. Greek Polfi-Sonffa (nothing about
music). London, 1888.
Garnett, L., and Stuart-Glennie, J". Greek Folk-Poeay. London.
1896.
Abbott, G.F. Senga ttf Modvm&reeee \^nojD.vjae]. Cambridge, 1900.
Bflrchner. L. 'Griechische Volksweisen.'
I.M.O. Ui. 403.)
{aammetb&mde of the
Pemot. H., and le Flem, P. 'Mel. pop. de Chio en pays tnre.'
Appendix. Paris, 1903.
Pakhtikos, G. D. '260 Greek songs (Asia Minor, Macedonia, Cyprus,
Albania, etc.)' Athens, 1905.
Russia
No country is richer in national music than
Russia, and nowhere has it been more carefully
preserved from neglect or oblivion. For many
years the folk-songs and dances of the most
remote districts have been collected by order of
the Government : musicians and savants of the
highest rank ' have joined in folk-song research
and assisted in the task of compilation. This
was all the more necessary as civilisation is
everywhere gradually killing oral tradition, and
it is only the old people in the villages who
still sing the ancient epic songs. Moreover, the
modern school of Russian music, which holds
so important a place in art, owes, in part, its
1 Such as Balakirev, BimBky.Korsakov, Serov, MeigounoT, and
others.
strength and magnetic attraction to the ingrain
colour derived from race temperament. Though
Russian musio has only lately achieved European
renown, it has always been loved and cultivated
in its own country. Hence from birth onwards
the peculiar harmonies and rhythms of his native
la,nd have so possessed the ear of every Russian
musician, that consciously or unconsciously he
re-echoes them in his works.
The oldest form of national poetry would
seem to be the builini, of which there is evidence
that they existed 1000 years ago. They are
national epics akin to the historical romances
of great length and in unrhymed metre. ^ The
music, which is a kind of monotonous chant,
accompanies one line, or at most two lines of
the song, repeating to the end.
As it befell m the capital Kieff.^
The horovodi or choral songs belong solely to
the Slav races. They celebrate the change of
seasons and the successive festivals of the ecclesiastical
or agricnltural calendar, while some are
especially appropriate to various peasant occupations.*
These horovodi are sung in a curious
manner : the first voice sings a melody, the
other voices in succession sing variants of the
same melody, and as the voices fall in with one
another a kind of harmony is established, whilst
each voice retains its independence.
Ex. 2.
1st Voic3.
The historian Melgounov, one of the highest
authorities on Russian folk -music, contends
that from the earliest time it was essentially
polyphonic in structure, and he refutes the
general idea that folk-songs were sung in unison.'
In taking down the songs from the peasants he
carefully recorded each voice separately, and
attributed great importance to the preservation
of the popular counterpoint. His examples show
that the secondary parts (podgoloski) constitute
really a free imitation of the main melody :
2 One of the most interesting small collections of buHini was
made by B. James, an English clergyman, who spent the winter of
1619 in the far north of Russia. His MSS. are now in the Bodleian
Library.
3 Bimsky-Korsakoy.'ChantsnatlonauxBusseSi'N'o.l. (Communicated
by Moussorgsky.)
* The singers of the christening, wedding, funeral, or even conscription
songs are always elderly women, and no ceremony ia
considered properly conducted withoTzt them. They are to 'some
extent Improvisatrid '—reflecting in their ' song, paat and present,
individual and general conditions. See preface to Dioutsh LiaponnoT,
and Istomin's * Songs of the Bussian People.*
9 See pre&ce to J. MelgounoT's
'
Bussian Songs,' and see vol iii.
p. 1056.