or spiritual, which is usually expressed in terms other than
music? How far afield can music go and keep honest as well as
reasonable or artistic? Is it a matter limited only by the
composer's power of expressing what lies in his subjective or
objective consciousness? Or is it limited by any limitations of
the composer? Can a tune literally represent a stonewall with
vines on it or with nothing on it, though it (the tune) be made
by a genius whose power of objective contemplation is in the
highest state of development? Can it be done by anything short of
an act of mesmerism on the part of the composer or an act of
kindness on the part of the listener? Does the extreme
materializing of music appeal strongly to anyone except to those
without a sense of humor--or rather with a sense of humor?--or,
except, possibly to those who might excuse it, as Herbert Spencer
might by the theory that the sensational element (the sensations
we hear so much about in experimental psychology) is the true
pleasurable phenomenon in music and that the mind should not be
allowed to interfere? Does the success of program music depend
more upon the program than upon the music? If it does, what is
the use of the music, if it does not, what is the use of the
program? Does not its appeal depend to a great extent on the
listener's willingness to accept the theory that music is the
language of the emotions and ONLY that? Or inversely does not
this theory tend to limit music to programs?--a limitation as bad
for music itself--for its wholesome progress,--as a diet of
program music is bad for the listener's ability to digest
anything beyond the sensuous (or physical-emotional). To a great
extent this depends on what is meant by emotion or on the
assumption that the word as used above refers more to the
EXPRESSION, of, rather than to a meaning in a deeper sense--which