Program music or programmatic music is a type of instrumental music that attempts to musically render an extramusical narrative or description of some aspect of world.

But the development of music with a pervasive program, like the term program music itself, is a uniquely 19th-century phenomenon, beginning precisely with Beethoven, for he unified the …

Dec 10, 2021 · You may well ask, doesn’t all music do that? But the answer is no. Much of early classical music is what musicians call ‘abstract.’ All it has to do is create an atmosphere. …

Feb 20, 2024 · In Western classical music, program music refers to a piece (usually instrumental rather than vocal) that is about something or that has some kind of extra-musical meaning. …

Jun 17, 2025 · Program music is a genre in classical music that utilizes instrumental sounds to tell stories, depict scenes, or convey emotions. It aims to represent extra-musical ideas through …

Program music is music that is based on a specific narrative and, as such, is intended to evoke extra-musical ideas or images in the mind of the listener, by musically depicting a scene, …

Apr 6, 2025 · Program music is a type of instrumental music that tells a story or depicts a scene, idea, or literary text. It is a contrasting genre to absolute music, which is purely abstract and …

Jan 22, 2025 · Unlike absolute music, which focuses solely on musical form and internal relationships, program music utilizes musical devices to depict or evoke specific extramusical …

Program music is instrumental music that tells a story, illustrates a scene, or conveys a specific idea without using words. Unlike absolute music, which exists for its own sake, programmatic …

Jun 12, 2024 · Program music is a type of instrumental music that tries to tell a story or depict a scene without the use of words. This extramusical narrative is often communicated through …