and one sees the lightning gleam and the rainbow reflected on the
clouds. In the theatre it is like a game of marionettes; and one feels
the impassable gulf between music and gesture. Music is a world apart.
When music wishes to depict the drama, it is not real action which is
reflected in it, it is the ideal action transfigured by the spirit, and
perceptible only to the inner vision. The worst foolishness is to
present two visions--one for the eyes and one for the spirit. Nearly
always they kill each other.

The other argument urged against the symphony with a programme is the
pretended classical argument (it is not really classical at all).
"Music," they say, "is not meant to express definite subjects; it is
only fitted for vague ideas. The more indefinite it is, the greater its
power, and the more it suggests." I ask, What is an indefinite art? What
is a vague art? Do not the two words contradict each other? Can this
strange combination exist at all? Can an artist write anything that he
does not clearly conceive? Do people think he composes at random as his
genius whispers to him? One must at least say this: A symphony of
Beethoven's is a "definite" work down to its innermost folds; and
Beethoven had, if not an exact knowledge, at least a clear intuition of
what he was about. His last quartets are descriptive symphonies of his
soul, and very differently carried out from Berlioz's symphonies. Wagner
was able to analyse one of the former under the name of "A Day with
Beethoven." Beethoven was always trying to translate into music the
depths of his heart, the subtleties of his spirit, which are not to be
explained clearly by words, but which are as definite as words--in fact,
more definite; for a word, being an abstract thing, sums up many
experiences and comprehends many different meanings. Music is a hundred
times more expressive and exact than speech; and it is not only her
right to express particular emotions and subjects, it is her duty. If