Properly speaking, the term Programme music ought to be applied only to instrumental compositions which make a frank effort to depict scenes, incidents, or emotional processes to which the composer himself gives the clew either by means of a descriptive title or a verbal motto.  It is unfortunate that the term has come to be loosely used.  In a high sense the purest and best music in the world is programmatic, its programme being, as I have said, that “high ideal of goodness, truthfulness, and beauty” which is the content of all true art.  But the origin of the term was vulgar, and the most contemptible piece of tonal imitation now claims kinship in the popular mind with the exquisitely poetical creations of Schumann and the “Pastoral” symphony of Beethoven; and so it is become necessary to defend it in the case of noble compositions.  A programme is not necessarily, as Ambros asserts, a certificate of poverty and an admission on the part of the composer that his art has got beyond its natural bounds.  Whether it be merely a suggestive title, as in the case of some of the compositions of Beethoven, Schumann, and Mendelssohn, or an extended commentary, as in the symphonic poems of Liszt and the symphonies of Berlioz and Raff, the programme has a distinct value to the composer as well as the hearer.  It can make the perceptive sense more impressible to the influence of the music; it can quicken the fancy, and fire the imagination; it can prevent a gross misconception of the intentions of a composer and the character of his composition.  Nevertheless, in determining the artistic value of the work, the question goes not to the ingenuity of the programme or the clearness with which its suggestions have been carried out, but to the beauty of the music itself irrespective of the verbal commentary accompanying it.  This rule must be maintained in order to prevent a degradation of the object of musical expression.  The vile, the ugly, the painful are not fit subjects for music; music renounces, contravenes, negatives itself when it attempts their delineation.

A classification of Programme music might be made on these lines: 

[Sidenote:  Kinds of Programme music.]

I. Descriptive pieces which rest on imitation or suggestion of natural sounds.

II.  Pieces whose contents are purely musical, but the mood of which is suggested by a poetical title.

III.  Pieces in which the influence which determined their form and development is indicated not only by a title but also by a motto which is relied upon to mark out a train of thought for the listener which will bring his fancy into union with that of the composer.  The motto may be verbal or pictorial.

IV.  Symphonies or other composite works which have a title to indicate their general character, supplemented by explanatory superscriptions for each portion.

[Sidenote:  Imitation of natural sounds.]

[Sidenote:  The nightingale.]