Wagner brought the art of dramatic orchestration to its highest point of evolution. His orchestration does not deviate from well-established and approved principles, but the grouping and treatment of instruments are entirely new. He emphasized solidity, made the orchestra firm and supple, increased its melodic as well as harmonic force, and used it for two definite purposes: to render emotion and to portray action and situations. Saint-Saëns' methods emphasize the prevailing custom of his countrymen to combine French traditions and advanced German principles. Clear and compact form, comparative simplicity of thematic treatment, elaborate, rich, varied and above all scintillating orchestration constitute the cardinal features of his conspicuous attainments. The ideal representative of Greater Russia is Tschaikowsky. He secured a gloomy eloquence of instrumentation by drawing upon the lower accents of the orchestra, but was also a master of magnificent and stirring effects. Dvo[vr]ák evolved his music from the Bohemian folk-song and was a master of vivacious and refined orchestration. His scoring is appropriate, consistent, varied, warm and brilliant. It abounds in beautiful combinations. It is rich but never overburdened. Richard Strauss is proving himself a worthy successor to Wagner as a result of his marvellous insight into the specific characteristics of each individual instrument and of his genius for combining them in a bewildering network of contrapuntally interwoven melodic themes. He possesses an hitherto unheard of orchestral technique, and taxes both the executive ability and the artistic attributes of the instrumentalists to the utmost. He makes use of elaborately conceived programs necessitating vast orchestral resources, is an extremist in the realm of realism, and secures powerful dramatic effects by means of vivid orchestration.