JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. Wiley and The Editors and Board of Trustees of the Russian Review are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Russian Review. usic had an enormous influence on Tolstoy. What he experienced was far more complex than mere enjoyment. Music penetrated the deepest recesses of his soul, it stirred his whole being, it released in him embryonic thoughts and emotions of which he himself was not cognizant. Waves of delight, joy, fear of losing these seconds of almost divine uplift, flooded him, suffocated him. He felt like crying and laughing at once and was filled with the strongest urge to create.I remember how sometimes, after listening to some of his favorite composers, Chopin, Mozart, Hayden, Bach, Schubert, played by his friends, who were great Russian musicians, he would leave his favorite grandfather's armchair (which we called the Voltaire armchair), and would go to his study. I do not doubt that he wrote down thoughts that were inspired by this music."What is it?" he would say, "Why is it that a certain combination of sounds impresses you so much, stirs your emotions, sometimes brings out the best spiritual forces concealed in your soul? I can't explain itl"In music, as in his life, in art and literature, Tolstoy could not stand anything artificial or false. "Art is not art if it is invented. It must be natural and sincere," he wrote in his What is Art?And further on he goes even deeper into his understanding of art. "The aim of art," he writes, "is to express the highest feelings which are the result of our religious conception." "And what has become of art and music?" Tolstoy continues, "It is devoted to excite, stimulate all kinds of sexual feelings. Think of all the filthy operas, operettas, songs, romances, which 258 This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Thu, 5 Feb 2015 22:22:08 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
