The English have had a highly developed and sophisticated musical performance tradition. Amateur improvisation figured importantly in its early history. While this has perhaps tended toward a conservative musical atmosphere, it has also produced a high standard for performance. The French have maintained a strong sense of national identity in their performing arts. In music their concerns for orderly design, delicate expressiveness, simplicity, naturalness, and beauty of sound extend back for centuries. Articulate philosophical and structural considerations have played important roles in developing nationalistic traits in the German tradition of musical performance.
The rich folklorist traditions of Spain, Hungary, and Russia have influenced rhythm, melody, and sonority in Western musical performing traditions. The Russian schools of string and piano technique have greatly advanced the performance resources of these instruments in the past 100 years. The United States, younger and more heterogeneous, has had a shorter musical history but an abundance of great symphony orchestras and solo artists, who are in demand because of their precise execution, versatility, and breadth of repertoire.
