Moussorgsky’s three song groups are all of the highest rank. In the Nursery Songs he has done what no other composer has ever done better, and not more than two or three have done so well. He has depicted the events and emotions of a child with the simplicity of spirit of a child. The songs, however, are not simple technically--so much the contrary that, composed in 1868 to 1870, they are prophetic of future musical procedure. This freedom and delicacy of delineation had never been seen in songs before. The four ‘Death Dances’ are tremendous songs of grim tragedy; in ‘Death and the Peasant’ the accompaniment depicts the indifference of nature at the fate of the peasant who is dying in the snow after a debauch. The most amazing product of Moussorgsky’s lyrical genius, however, is his last group of six songs--‘Where No Sun Shines.’ These, written in the later years of his life, under the influence of the deepest pessimism, are perhaps the most intense expression of spiritual despair in all song literature. The extraordinary technical method of these pieces, hardly less than that of the remarkable children’s songs, was Debussy’s chief guiding light in the early years of the development of his style. In absolute musical value these six last songs stand very high and ‘By the Water’ has few parallels in song literature. The remaining Russian song writers can be summed up briefly. Antony Arensky (born 1861) is the composer of many songs, graceful and pleasing but not highly original in style. Sergius Taneiev (born 1856) inclines to the conservative and classical, but is an able musician and capable song-writer. Alexander Glazounoff (born 1865) has worked with most success in the smaller forms and in his graceful songs has put much that is charming, though little that is genuinely inspiring. His work is marked by its extraordinary suavity and taste. Michael Ippolitoff-Ivanoff (born 1859) has composed some ninety songs, distinguished by a straightforward honesty of method and healthfulness of feeling. Sergei Rachmaninoff (born 1873) is a much greater man than those we have just named and a masterful song-writer. He is not always, however, writing in the strenuous eastern idiom. ‘Before My Garden’ and ‘Lilacs’ are excellent in the conventional way. But he has written at least one truly great song of genuine Russian inspiration. This is ‘Oh, Thou Billowy Harvest Fields,’ which deserves to rank with Borodine’s ‘Song of the Black Forest’ in daring and stark power. II