A small number of technical points, and a longer catalogue of indebtedness, must be recorded.

The term narodnost', which occurs with great frequency, requires some explanation. I have usually translated it as ‘national identity’, though ‘nationality’ and ‘people's quality’ are also conceivable; ‘nationness’ or ‘peopleness’ are starting-points for the translator. The words narod and narodnïy have sometimes been rendered ‘nation’ and ‘national’, and at other times as ‘people’ and ‘popular’; during the Soviet period they were much used as ‘People's’. This dual interpretation (‘national’, and ‘popular’ or ‘folk’) should be kept in mind. The word narodnost had a further usage, however. It was part of the slogan put forward in 1833 by the Minister of Education (actually, ‘Popular Enlightenment’!) which acted as a summary of the state's official creed: Orthodoxy, Autocracy and Nationality (often rendered into English as ‘Official Nationality’ – the Russian word is again narodnost). This highly charged political element is relevant in considering A Life for the Tsar, which Nicholas I was right to perceive as a work useful for his purposes, whatever may have been Glinka's intentions.

Two other terms in particular may occasion difficulty. Romans is the word usually employed in Russian when the equivalent of an art-song, a Lied or a mélodie, is meant. I have generally retained ‘romance’ as its translation. Deklamatsiya was an important component of the ideas developed by Dargomïzhsky, Cui and Musorgsky in relation to how words should be set to music. I have normally used ‘word-setting’ as the English equivalent, though I have tried to indicate those places where a wider meaning may be denoted.