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Whistler used to say that it was as ridiculous
to talk about national art as national chemistry. In saying this he failed
to see the difference between art and science. Science is the pure pursuit
of knowledge and thus knows no boundaries. Art, and especially the art
of music, uses knowledge as a means to the evocation of personal experience
in terms which will be intelligible to and command the sympathy of others.
These others must clearly be primarily those who by race, tradition, and
cultural experience are the nearest to him; in fact those of his own nation,
or other kind of homogeneous community. . . .
Ralph Vaughan Williams
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