no sounds but the
sighing of the wind through the dark pine forests. The "Vesper Hymn,"
known to every ordinary player, is a very good example of the general
character of Russian melodies. The songs of the peasants are further
distinguished by their frequent modulation from the major to the minor
key, as if not long could they be joyful, and also by the peculiar way
in which they are rendered. The tonic and the dominant are the prevalent
intervals, and the intermediate notes are slurred or slightly sounded.
Rochlitz found it impossible to convey this peculiarity by notation, but
gives the following melody as a favorite accompaniment to the serf-songs
of Northern Russia:

[Illustration: MUSIC.]

The Poles, members of this family, have had a great national existence,
and their national music echoes its history and its character. The
heartstirring strains of their mazurkas make many a bosom beat and ache
as they remind the listeners of past times. Polish music is the voice of
a light-minded, brave-hearted people who lived in a gay turmoil and
drained with eager lips and reckless spirits the cup of glory and of
joy. The Polish polkas and mazurkas, with their changing and fugitive
rhythmus and their lively, uneven time, admirably embody the light and
graceful spirit of this people.

In striking contrast to the character and music of the Slavic peoples
are the character and music of the Hungarians. Living on the confines of
the East and West, this people belong to the former by descent and to
the latter by civilization. Between two elements, they have been exposed
to the attacks of both, and their history records only a continual
struggle for existence as a nation. This prolonged warfare has made
_nationality_ the uppermost thought in the life of the Hungarian: it is
the influence controlling all his ideas, his feelings, his poetry and
his art. His music embalms a thousand years of struggle for it, and
every note of its wild, melancholy strains breathes tales of war and
sorrow, of hope and triumph. The music interpreting such an intense
nationality ought to be a peculiar one; and it is. A foreigner, having
once heard it, can never mistake its sounds for those of any other
national music.

But to understand the Magyar music you must apprehend the Magyar's
character. He is a singular mixture of East and West, habitually passive
and melancholy, yet easily roused to the wildest excitement. His step is
slow, his face pensive,