surface and
strives to fathom the underlying _purpose_ of it all; not content with
the testimony of the ear alone, such hearers enlist the higher, nobler
powers of Reason, and no amount of pleasant sounds could compensate
them for the absence of well-ordered parts and their logical
justification.

This second class is made up of those listeners who recognize in music
an embodiment of artistic aims, an object of serious and refined
enjoyment _that appeals to the emotions through the intelligence_,--not
a plaything for the senses alone; and who believe that all music that
would in this sense be truly artistic, must exhibit "Form" as the end,
and "Material" only as a means to this end.

* * * * * *

Still another, and possibly the strongest argument of all for the
necessity of form in music, is derived from reflection upon the
peculiarly vague and intangible nature of its art-material--tone,
sound. The words of a language (also sounds, it is true) have
established meanings, so familiar and definite that they recall and
re-awaken impressions of thought and action with a vividness but little
short of the actual experience. Tones, on the contrary, are not and
cannot be associated with any _definite_ ideas or impressions; they are
as impalpable as they are transient, and, taken separately, leave no
lasting trace.

Therefore, whatever stability and palpability a musical composition is
to acquire, _must be derived from its form, or design_, and not from
its totally unsubstantial material. It must fall back upon the network
traced by the disposition of its points and lines upon the musical
canvas; for this it is that constitutes its real and palpable contents.

THE EVIDENCES OF FORM IN MUSIC.--The presence of form in music is
manifested, first of all, by the disposition of tones and chords in
symmetrical measures, and by the numerous methods of tone arrangement
which create and define the element of Rhythm,--the distinction of
short and long time-values, and of accented and unaccented (that is,
heavy and light) pulses.

This is not what is commonly supposed to constitute form in music, but
it is the fundamental condition out of which an orderly system of form
may be developed. As well might the carpenter or architect venture to
dispense with scale, compass and square in their constructive labors,
as that the composer should neglect beat, measure and rhythm, in his
effort to realize a w