program music

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program music

n.
Musical compositions intended to depict or suggest nonmusical incidents, ideas, or images, such as those drawn from literature, as Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet, or from works of art.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

pro′gram mu`sic


n.
music intended to convey an impression of a definite series of images, scenes, or events.
[1880–85]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.

program music

1. A type of music, usually instrumental in form, that is intended to evoke a scene, communicate an idea, or tell a story. Typical subjects for program music are poems, extracts from plays, well-known paintings, or particular sections of landscape.
2. A piece depicting elements of a story, scene, or philosophical ideas.
Dictionary of Unfamiliar Words by Diagram Group Copyright © 2008 by Diagram Visual Information Limited
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.program music - musical compositions intended to evoke images or remind the listener of events
musical composition, opus, piece of music, composition, piece - a musical work that has been created; "the composition is written in four movements"
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
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References in periodicals archive
Shadle also points out that the European debate regarding descriptive or narrative symphonies (program music) also influenced the compositional output of American composers.
Kayne credits, in part, the bold modern style of their routine--their short program music is Hozier's "Take Me to Church"--for their success at nationals.
Program Music and Movement for toddlers, preschoolers and their caregivers.
It discusses his personality, including his creativity, asthma, love of nature, religiosity, and commitment to radical modernism and German music; his theoretical ideas (and the ideas of the Second Viennese School) about the psychology of creation, art theory, aesthetics, philosophy and weltanschauung, program music, numerology, magical music, symmetry and palindromes, tonality, and other concepts; and how the compositional techniques of his works reflect his life, including those in Wozzeck, George Lieder, the OrchesterstEcke op.
Liszt's embrace of the dramatic symphony led to program music and symphonic poems that later became the accepted style.
One of the reasons Beethoven's work remains so popular, Botstein says, is that the German composer "defied the later reductive separation of program music"--work intended to produce a set of feelings or complement a story--"from absolute music." Some of Beethoven's pieces do contain hints of narrative, ideas, and emotions, even while they lack text.
* One way to expand the student's interpretive expression is by having her write a story about the piece, starting with a title (if it's not program music), then sentences for each phrase, sometimes even words for each note or chord.
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