[Footnote 163: A complete account of this development may be found in the first two chapters of Niecks's _Programme Music_.]
[Footnote 164: For an excellent description of this piece, as well as others of the period, see the volume by Krehbiel _The Pianoforte and Its Music_.]
[Footnote 165: A comprehensive and invaluable description of the works and style of Couperin and Rameau may be found in the _History of the Pianoforte and its Players_ by Oscar Bie. For an early example of what is now called "poetic atmosphere" everyone should know Couperin's piece _Les Barricades Mystérieuses_ which is more suggestive when played on the claveçin with its delicate tone.]
[Footnote 166: A favorite term of opprobrium is that the program is a "crutch."]
[Footnote 167: There are several essays which will help the student toward clear thinking on this important subject: the valuable essay _Program Music_ in Newman's _Musical Studies_, the article on the subject in Grove's Dictionary, and the exhaustive volume by Niecks; some of his views, however, are extreme and must be accepted with caution. Above all should be read Wagner's interpretation of Coriolanus in his essay on the Overture (English translation by W.A. Ellis).]
[Footnote 168: Twenty-five years' experience as a college teacher, however, has proved that _too much_ may be taken for granted!]
[Footnote 169: It is unfortunate that the diminished seventh chord does not sound so fierce to our modern ears as it undoubtedly did in Beethoven's time, but that is simply because we have become accustomed to more strident effects.]
This theme, in distinction from the first, typifies the appeal for mercy made by the women in the drama. No contrast could be stronger than that between these two themes--the first, impulsive, staccato, of sweeping range, and in the minor; the second, suave, legato, restrained and in the major. They show indeed how powerfully Beethoven's imagination was impressed by the subject. After an eloquent expansion of the second theme there follow several stormy measures (the deprecations of the women are at first of no avail) that lead through a crescendo to a closing theme, at measure 83, in which the mood of defiant assertion is strongly marked. The exposition closes in this mood, in measure 100, and the following Development accentuates it through several successions of restless, crescendo passages until a _ff_ descent sweeps us back to the Recapitulation, in measure 151. It is now evident that the furious intentions of the warrior have raged themselves out, for not only is the theme which represents him much shortened but it loses somewhat of its former fiery intensity. From here on, the trend of the music is largely modified by the dramatic demands of the subject. That the appeals of the women are beginning to prevail is evident from the emphasis laid on the second theme, which gives its message no less than _three_ times, instead of the single appearance which we should expect in the usual Recapitulation. The third appeal, in measures 247-253, is rendered most pathetic by being expressed in the minor mode. In the Coda there are fitful flare-ups of the relentless purpose, but that the stubborn will has been softened is evident from the slowing down of the rhythm, in measures 285-294. Finally, in the wonderful closing passage, we have a picture of broken resolves and ruined hopes. The theme disintegrates and fades away--a lifeless vision. Although much of the structure in this overture is identical with that which prevails in absolute music--for, after all, the composer must be true to the laws of his medium of expression--there is enough _purely dramatic_ treatment to justify the foregoing analysis. Beethoven, at any rate, called the overture Coriolanus, and we may be sure he meant it to _represent_ Coriolanus and to be something more than a skillful combination of sounds and rhythms.