Chapter 19

THE CORIOLANUS

OVERTURE

This dramatic work is of great importance, not only for its emo-
tional power and eloquence, but because it represents a type
of Program music, i.e., music with a suggestive title, which
Beethoven was the first to conceive and to establish. From
the inherent connection between the materials of music (sound
and rhythm) and certain natural phenomena (the sound and
rhythm of wind, wave and storm, the call of birds,etc.) it is
evident that the possibility for Program—or descriptive—music
has always existed.[163] That is, the imagination of musicians
has continually been influenced by external sights, sounds and
events; and to their translation into music suggestive titles have
been given, as a guide to the hearer. Thus we find Jannequin,
a French composer of the 16th century, writing two pieces—for
voices!—entitled “Les cris de Paris” and “La Bataille—défaite
des Suisses à la journée de Marignan;” in the former of which
are introduced the varied cries of street venders and in the latter,
imitations of fifes, drums, cannon and all the bustle and noises
of war. In the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book there is a Fantasie by
John Mundy of the English school, in which such natural phe-
nomena as thunder, lightning and fair weather are delineated.
There is a curious similarity between the musical portrayal of
lightning in this piece[164] of Mundy and that of Wagner in the
Valkyrie. In theBible Sonatasof the German composer Kuh-