To have repulsed
a Napoleon was a mighty deed, which could reveal to the Russians
of what stuff they were made. It taught them to rely upon each
other and be strong in themselves; and as the art of a nation is
invariably the outcome of its history, so the rising generation
of Russian thinkers looked inwards rather than abroad. Glinka,
Pushkin, and their followers sought no foreign aid; they represent
a Russian Renaissance. They were content, indeed, to abide by the
forms universally adopted elsewhere, but the spirit of their art
manifestation was Russian to its core. In literature, Pushkin and
Gogol were never weary of delineating their compatriots in every grade
of Sclavonic society, whilst Glinka took his musical inspirations
from his native folk-songs and dance-rhythms--from the historic
chronicles of his country or its legendary lore. In reality, the
foreign influences and environment with which he came so continuously
into contact served more and more to convince him that Russia in
her turn had as great a mission in music as any other nation. For
thirty years the idea was gradually gaining strength in his mind.
"I want," he said to a friend, "to write an essentially national
opera both as regards subject and music; something which no foreigner
can possibly accuse of being borrowed, and which shall come home
to my compatriots as a part of themselves."

His fame depends solely upon the two operas, _La Vie pour le Tsar_
and _Russlan et Ludmille_. That he should have chosen to express
himself especially in opera is a significant fact. The unerring
instinct of his genius evidently told him that in this form, rather
than in purely instrumental music, he would most truly represent
that people whose musical aspirations he wished above all else
to portray faithfully, and certainly in opera lay his surest way
towards enlisting the sympathies of his compatriots. As before
remarked, one might have imagined that opera would scarcely ally
itself to his personal individuality; it seems probable, therefore,
that various salient traits inherent in the Russians as a nation
must have led him to the choice. First and foremost, any music
which claims to proceed from the very heart of the Russian people
must contain a vocal element. So universal a love of singing as
exists throughout Russia is to be met with in no other country.

By this one does not mean to infer that Russian cultivated singing,
either solo or choral, is in any way