Contents

1. Musical Instruments

4

1.1. Wide Possibilities of Folk Instruments

4

1.2. Russian Soul Mirrored in Their Art

10

1.3. Stringed Instruments

16

1.4. Wind Instruments

22

1.5. Organ

28

2. Geniusses of Russian Music

34

2.1. The Father of Russian Music

34

2.2. Opera is Always on Modern Lines

40

2.3. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

47

2.4. Sergei Rachmaninov

54

2.5. The Greatest Composer of the Mid-20th Century

61

2.6. Leading Interpreters of Music

68

3. Brilliance of German Music

75

3.1. Johann Sebastian Bach

75

3.2. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

83

3.3. Ludwig van Beethoven

92

3.4. Exponents of Romanticism in German Music

101

3.5. Richard Wagner

109

3.6. New Viennise School

116

4. English and American Music

124

4.1. From the History of English Music

124

4.2. Opera, Symphonic and Chamber Music in England

132

4.3. English Light Music of the 20th Century

139

4.4. From the History of American Music

147

4.5. The Greatest American Composers of the 20th Century

154

4.6. Stars of American Music

162

Additional Vocabulary

171