ested in the emotions and struggles of the soul and we find that
such indeed is the case. With the exception of the _Pastoral Symphony_
with its bird-calls and thunderstorm and the _Egmont_ Overture 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 terms _subjective_ and _objective_, _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 evident 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 the _form_ is _different_--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 it _per se_ is simply to fly in the face of
facts, for a large proportion of the music since Beethoven is on a
poetic basis and has descriptive titles. Others claim that they cannot
understand it. But that is their loss, not the fault of the music; the
composer writes it and it is for us to acquire the state of mind to
appreciate it. Another misleading allegation, often heard, is that a
piece of program music should be so clear and self-sufficient that the
hearer needs to know nothing of the title to derive the fullest
enjoyment. But this simply begs the question. As well say that in
listening to a song we need to know nothing of the meaning of the
text. It is true that in listening to Beethoven's _Coriolanus_, for
example, any sensitive hearer will be impressed by the vitality of the
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