s of the North.
In fact, Grieg was the first popular impressionist and for his
influence in humanizing music and freeing it from academic routine his
fame will endure. We have cited in the Supplement (Nos. 68, 69) one of
his most original songs--the melody of which was used also for the
work _Im Fruehling_ for string orchestra--and a pianoforte piece which
illustrates his rhythmic life and also in certain measures that
melodic line typical of all Norwegian music: the descent from the
leading tone, _i.e._, G, F-sharp, D.

[Footnote 332: The best biography in English is that by H.T. Finck;
the work, however, is somewhat marred by fulsome praise.]

[Footnote 333: During the summer solstice it is dark for only a few
hours; and further north, in the land, so-called, of the Midnight Sun,
for a few weeks there is perpetual daylight.]

[Footnote 334: He was called by Buelow the Chopin of the North.]

For a complete appreciation therefore of national music, we must
always take into consideration the traits and environment of the
people from which it sprung. Music, to be sure, is a universal
language, but each nation has used this language in its own way. The
most striking fact in present-day music is the variety gained from a
free expression of nationalism[335] without infringing upon
universality of appeal.

[Footnote 335: An admirable treatment of the whole subject may be
found in Vol. III of _The Art of Music_.]

CHAPTER XX

THE VARIED TENDENCIES OF MODERN MUSIC

Modern music--broadly speaking, music since the beginning of the
twentieth century--is certainly manifesting the characteristics which
the preceding survey has shown to be inherent in its nature: that is,
it has grown by a course of free experimentation, it is the youngest
of the arts, and it is a human language as well as a fine art. Hence
we find that modern composers are making daring experiments in
dissonance, in rhythmic variety, in subtle blends of color and, above
all, in the treatment of the orchestra. In comparison with
achievements in the other arts music often seems in its infancy; being
limited by no practical or utilitarian considerations, and employing
the boundless possibilities of sound and rhythm, there is so much
still before it. The truth contained in the saying, that music is the
youngest as well as the oldest of the arts, becomes more apparent year
by year; for although a work which originally had imaginative life can
never die