Tolstoy questions

[William Nickell]

Dear Elizabeth,

This does sound like Tolstoy.   I ran a search of the Jubilee on the words "универсальным" and "всемирным" (then also truncated) and found this passage from Что такое искусство?, where he conveys the same idea in so many words:
Ничтожные исключительные мелодии, чтобы сделать их привлекательными, загромождаются гармоническими, ритмическими и оркестровыми усложнениями и потому становятся еще исклю чительнее и делаются не только не всемирными, но даже и не народными, т. е. доступны только некоторым людям, а не всему народу.

В музыке, кроме маршей и танцев разных композиторов, приближающихся к требованиям всемирного искусства, можно указать только на народные песни разных народов от русско го до китайского.  [30:163]

Someone may be paraphrasing this idea, or perhaps it is a saying attributed to Tolstoy by someone else.  I will snoop a bit more and let you know if I find anything.

Bill Nickell


On Aug 22, 2011, at 11:21 AM, Elizabeth Skomp wrote:

> Dear SEELANGers,
> 
> A colleague has written to ask me the source of the following statement attributed to Tolstoy:
> 
> "If you want to be universal, sing your village."
> 
> I'd be grateful for any information you might be able to provide, including the original Russian phrase, as my initial searches have yielded nothing of use.
> 
> On a related note, I see that the website <http://tolstoy-nasledie.ru/> is no longer functional.  Is there another working website with a searchable Jubilee Edition?
> 
> Please reply off-list to eskomp at sewanee.edu.
> 
> Spasibo zaranee,
> 
> Elizabeth Skomp
> Sewanee: The University of the South
> 		 	   		  
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