sing words as to Liszt's specific contributions to the
expansion of musical structure. He was an advanced leader in the
"program school," being endowed with considerably more constructive
power than Berlioz, who often fell between two stools: in that while
his subject demanded the freest treatment, he lacked the vigor to
break away from the formal routine of his classic models. In Liszt's
orchestral works, however, the term "Symphonic Poem"--one of his own
invention--is fully justified, _i.e._, they are _symphonic_ in that
they have organic unity, although this is not attained by preserving
the classic number and arrangement of themes; and they are also
_poetic_, being not a presentation of abstract tone patterns, but
illustrative of some external idea which shapes the course of the
music entirely to its own needs.[245] The distinguishing quality of
the Symphonic Poem is its unbroken continuity. Although objective
points are reached, and while there are broad lines of demarcation
with reference to the varied moods of the poem to be illustrated,
there are _no rigid stops_--everything is fused together into a
continuous whole. Liszt was an advocate of persistent development,
_i.e._, the music going out into space like a straight line instead of
returning on itself. Inner evidence shows, however, that although he
avoided many needless and conventional repetitions, he could not
entirely throw overboard the cyclical law of restatement; for there is
not one of his _Symphonic Poems_ which does not repeat, at the end,
thematic material already heard. Liszt carried the principle of theme
transformation still further than Berlioz; and, as a German, tended to
lay stress rather on the psychological aspects of character than on
those outward theatric events which appeal to French taste. The
difference is well shown by a comparison of the _Damnation of Faust_
with Liszt's _Faust_ Symphony, considered his most inspired orchestral
work. Liszt must not be forgotten as a song-writer, especially for his
settings to Goethe's poems; which, as Huneker says, are masterpieces
and contain, in essence, all the dramatic lyricism of modern writers,
Strauss included. In these songs the instrumental part is of special
import; Liszt in pianistic treatment anticipating Hugo Wolf with his
"Songs for Voice and Pianoforte," _i.e._, the voice and the instrument
are treated as coequal factors.

[Footnote 245: For stimulating comments see _The Symphony sinc