nau (1660-1722) we have a musical description of the combat
between David and Goliath. Anyone at all familiar with the mu-
sic of Couperin and Rameau will recall the variety of fantastic
titles assigned to their charming pieces for the claveçin—almost
always drawn from the field of nature: birds, bees, butterflies,
hens, windmills, even an eel! It is but fair to state that we also
find attempts at character drawing, even in those early days,
as is indicated by such titles asLa Prude,La Diligente,La Sé-
duisante.[165] Haydn’s portrayal of Chaos, in the Prelude to
theCreation, is a remarkable mood-picture and shows a trend
in quite a different direction. All these instances corroborate
the statement that, in general, composers were influenced by
external phenomena and that their program music was of an
imitative and often frankly literal kind. From what we know of
Beethoven’s nature and genius, however, we should imagine that
he would be far more interested in the emotions and struggles
of the soul and we find that such indeed is the case. With the
exception of thePastoral Symphonywith its bird-calls and thun-
derstorm and theEgmontOverture with its graphic description
of a returning victorious army, his program music invariably
aims at the description of character and the manner in which
it is influenced by events—not, be it understood, at a musical
portrayal of the events themselves. This difference in type is
generally indicated by the termssubjectiveandobjective,i.e.,
program music is subjective, when it deals with the emotions
and moods of real or historical persons; objective, when it is
based upon incidents or objects of the actual world. It is evi-
dent that in subjective program music an adjustment must be
made, for the dramatic needs of the subject are to be considered
as well as the inherent laws of music itself. We may state that
the widening of the conception of form, so marked in modern
music, has been caused by the need of such an adjustment; for as
composers became more cultivated, more in touch with life and
of more richly endowed imagination, the arbitrary conventions
of strict form had perforce to yield to the demands of dramatic
treatment. This implies not that program music is without a
definite structure, only that theformisdifferent—modified by
the needs of the subject. As there is no other point in aesthetics
which has caused more loose thinking, a few further comments
may be pertinent. Some critics go so far as to deny the right of
existence to all program music.[166] Of course there is good as
well as bad program music, but to condemn itper seis simply to
ann
(Ann)
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