mood in an impassioned
manner--observe the frequency of _sf_ accents and the crashing
dissonances[169]--until a sustained note on the violins, followed by a
descending cantabile phrase, brings us to the second theme, _e.g._

[Music]

[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 Mysterieuses_ which is more suggestive when
played on the clavecin 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 ass