jan 1, 1866 - Balakirev's volume of forty arrangements of folk themes

Description:

The harmonic style of his settings--which colored not only his own music but many other compositions that came out of the school he founded--was his personal invention. It is not a oflk style; actual peasant harmonizations sound nothing like Balakirev's. But the style became instantly recognizable to connoisseurs of art music as generically Russian, thanks to its thorough assimilation into later compositional practice. Rimsky-Korsakov, who became a great and famous teacher, passed it along to his students. Although it may not be an authentically peasant or folk style, it was the distinctive style of the new Russian School.

Ironically, unlike Glinka's Kamarinskaya, Balakirev's several overtures are cast as orthodox symphonic allegros in sonata form with introductions. In other words, they followed "German" forms, which gave them another sort of prestige. It took both the Russian authenticity and the German formal heritage to achieve a "Russian School" that could compete successfully on the world stage.

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