Rootless

Rootless

For centuries the 'national' element in music has been a crucial tool for composers. It does not necessarily need to mean loud patriotism or nationalism but it is the soul of a nation's culture, its language, its ancient folkloric melodism. In the music of Finland's Sibelius and Russia's Rimsky-Korsakov, for example, the melody and rhythm of their native languages and the essence of their tradition were absorbed into highly innovative music; their homeland became their music.

Now the epidemic of what I call 'Mid-European avant-garde' is spreading. Folklore is dying; hardly anyone collects it. Atheism is spreading, killing ancient church music (another huge source for national schools of composition). Europeans have become just that - 'Europeans', not Swedes, Norwegians, Finns, Slavs. But a composer without a national element in his music is like a homeless man.

Folklore truly is dying and this is a tragedy no less important than climate change or pollution

Mid-European avant-garde is a living corpse and a clichéd style of music that was finished by the 1980s. Great composers always looked forward and many manage(d) to be highly innovative yet keep their nation's voice. They had land under their feet, not hot air.

I am lucky and proud to have two fatherlands: Russia and England. Both inspire me - from Russia's expansive northern forests to England's Chiltern Hills. But folklore truly is dying and this is a tragedy no less important than climate change or pollution. We have a duty to preserve our culture for the future. In England and all of Western Europe, except the Celtic countries, it is too late. In Scandinavia there is a chance and in most Slavic countries folklore is still a living tradition. But there too it is dying.

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