[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.
[166] A favorite term of opprobrium is that the program is a "crutch."
[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).
[168] Twenty-five years' experience as a college teacher, however, has proved that too much may be taken for granted!
[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.
[170] See, however, the octave leaps of the kettle-drums in the Scherzo of the Ninth Symphony.
[171] Suggestive comments from a literary point of view may also be found in these works: Studies in the Seven Arts, Symonds; Beethoven by Romain Rolland—with an interesting though ultra-subjective introduction by Carpenter; The Development of Symphonic Music by T.W. Surette; Beethoven by Walker; Beethoven by Chantavoine in the series Les Maîtres de la Musique. As to the three successive "styles" under which Beethoven's works are generally classified there is an excellent account in Pratt's History of Music, p. 419.
[172] This passage is to be found in the Life in Grove's Dictionary.
[173] For a more complete historical account see the article "Romantic" in Grove's Dictionary and the introduction to Vol. VI of The Oxford History of Music. Rousseau and Romanticism by Professor Irving Babbitt presents the latest investigations in this important field.
[174] Some very sane comments may be found in Pratt's History of Music, pp. 427, 501, 502.