[Footnote 338: Who lost his life on the Sussex when it was torpedoed by the Germans.]
[Footnote 339: For a comprehensive account, historical and critical, of this influence consult the volume by Carl Van Vechten _The Music of Spain_.]
Although there is no doubt of the strong musical instinct inherent in the Hungarians--witness the prevalence of Hungarian rhythms in Schubert, Liszt, Brahms and others--their country has always been so torn with political dissensions that the lack of a national artistic culture is not to be wondered at. Recently however three Hungarian composers, Dohnányi, Moor and Béla Bartok, have produced works embodying racial tendencies and yet of such significant content and sound workmanship as to attract the attention of the world outside.
Italy, also, is awakening from a long sleep, and there is now a group of young men representing New Italy (of whom Malipiero and Casella are the best known) which should accomplish results worthy of the glorious musical traditions of that country.
England is shaking off her subserviency[340] to the influence of Handel and Mendelssohn, and at last has made a promising start toward the achievement of works which shall rank with her glories in poetry, in fiction and in painting. Among the older group we have such names as Sullivan, with his inimitable series of operas, the _Mikado_, _Gondoliers_, _Iolanthe_, etc.; Parry, with some notable choral works, and Stanford--a most versatile man--Irish by birth, and with the humor and spontaneity natural to his race; his _Irish Symphony_ and his opera _Shamus O'Brien_ would give lustre to any period. The only genius of the first rank however which England has produced since the days of Purcell is Edward Elgar (1857-still living). Practically self-educated and spending his early life in his native country he escaped the influences of German training which so deadened the efforts of former composers, such as Pierson and Bennett. Elgar's music is thoroughly English in its sturdy vigor[341] and wholesome emotion. With something first-hand to say he has acquired such a technique in musical expression that his compositions rank in workmanship with those of the great continental masters. In his use of the modern orchestra Elgar need be considered second to none. His overtures _In the South_ and _Cockaigne_, his two Symphonies and his _Enigma Variations_ are universally acknowledged to be models of richly-colored and varied scoring. Although his music is English it is never parochial but has that note of universal import always found in the work of a real genius. Among the younger men there are Wallace, both composer and writer on musical subjects (his Threshold of music being particularly stimulating), Holbrook, Vaughan Williams, Roger Quilter, Arthur Hinton, Balfour Gardiner and John Ireland, a composer of genuine individuality, as is evident from his Violin Sonata in D Minor.