Program music orprogrammatic music is a type ofinstrumentalart music that attempts to musically render an extramusicalnarrative. The narrative itself might be offered to the audience through the piece's title, or in the form ofprogram notes, inviting imaginative correlations with the music. A well-known example isSergei Prokofiev'sPeter and the Wolf.

The genre culminates in the symphonic works ofRichard Strauss that include narrations of the adventures ofDon Quixote,Till Eulenspiegel,the composer's domestic life, and an interpretation ofFriedrich Nietzsche's philosophy of theÜbermensch,Also Sprach Zarathustra. Following Strauss, the genre declined and new works with explicitly narrative content are rare. Nevertheless the genre continues to exert an influence onfilm music, especially where this draws upon the techniques of 19th-century lateromantic music. Similar compositional forms also exist within popular music, including theconcept album androck opera.

The term is almost exclusively applied to works in theEuropean classical music tradition, particularly those from theRomantic music period of the 19th century, during which the concept was popular, but pieces which fit the description have long been a part of music. The term is usually reserved for purely instrumental works (pieces without singers and lyrics), and not used, for example foropera orlieder. Single-movement orchestral pieces of program music are often calledsymphonic poems.Absolute music, in contrast, is intended to be appreciated without any particular reference to the outside world.

Composers and some theorists argue that there is indeed no such thing as true "absolute (ars gratia artis) music" and that music always at least conveys or evokes emotions. While non-professional listeners often claim that music has meaning (to them),"new" musicologists, such asSusan McClary,^{[1][incomplete short citation]} argue that so-called "abstract" techniques and structures are actually highly politically and socially charged, specifically, even gendered. This may be linked to a more general argument against abstraction, such asMark Johnson's argument that it is, "necessary...for abstract meaning...to have a bodily basis".^[2] However, a more specific definition of absolute music is: music which was composed without programmatic intent, or narrative.

More traditional listeners often reject these views sharply, asserting that music can be meaningful, as well as deeply emotional, while being essentially about itself (notes, themes, keys, and so on), and without any connection to the political and societal conflicts of our own day, but consciously associated with non-musical ideas, images, or events (poems, art works, etc.)

Composers of theRenaissance wrote a fair amount of program music, especially for theharpsichord, including works such asMartin Peerson'sThe Fall of the Leafe andWilliam Byrd'sThe Battell. For the latter work, the composer provided this written description of the sections: "Souldiers sommons, marche of footemen, marche of horsmen, trumpetts, Irishe marche, bagpipe and the drone, flute and the droome, marche to the fighte, the battels be joyned, retreat, galliarde for the victorie."^{[This quote needs a citation]}

In the Baroque era, Vivaldi'sThe Four Seasons has poetic inscriptions in the score referring to each of the seasons, evoking spring, summer, autumn, and winter. While manycantatas by J. S. Bach contain programmatic elements, an example of outright program music is hisCapriccio on the departure of a beloved brother, BWV 992.^{[citation needed]}

Program music was perhaps less often composed in theClassical era. At that time, perhaps more than any other, music achieved drama from its own internal resources, notably in works written insonata form. It is thought,^{[weasel words]} however, that a number ofJoseph Haydn's earlier symphonies may be program music; for example, the composer once said that one of his earlier symphonies represents "a dialogue between God and the Sinner".^{[This quote needs a citation]} It is not known which of his symphonies Haydn was referring to. HisSymphony No. 8 also includes a movement named "La tempesta" that represents a storm. A minor Classical-era composer,Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, wrote a series of symphonies based onOvid'sMetamorphoses (not to be confused with twentieth-century composerBenjamin Britten'sSix Metamorphoses after Ovid), which falls into this category. German composerJustin Heinrich Knecht'sLe portrait musical de la nature, ou Grande sinfonie (Musical Portrait of Nature or Grand Symphony) from 1784–1785 is another 18th century example, anticipating Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony by twenty years.

Program music particularly flourished in theRomantic era. As it can invoke in the listener a specific experience other than sitting in front of a musician or musicians, it is related to the purely Romantic idea of theGesamtkunstwerk describing Wagner's Operas as a fusion of many arts (set design, choreography, poetry and so on), although it relies solely on musical aspects to illustrate a multi-faceted artistic concept such as a poem or a painting. Composers believed that the dynamics of sound that were newly possible in the Romantic orchestra of the era allowed them to focus on emotions and other intangible aspects of life much more than during the Baroque orClassical eras.

Ludwig van Beethoven felt a certain reluctance in writing program music, and said of his 1808Symphony No. 6 (Pastoral) that the "whole work can be perceived without description – it is more an expression of feelings rather than tone-painting".^[3]. Yet the work clearly contains depictions of bird calls, a babbling brook, a storm, and so on. Beethoven later returned to program music with hisPiano Sonata Op. 81a,Les Adieux, which depicts the departure and return of his close friend theArchduke Rudolf.

Hector Berlioz'sSymphonie fantastique was a musical narration of a hyperbolically emotional love story, the main subject being an actress with whom he was in love at the time.Franz Liszt did provide explicit programs for many of his piano pieces and he was also the inventor of the termsymphonic poem. In 1874,Modest Mussorgsky composed for piano a series of pieces describing seeing a gallery of ten of his friend's paintings and drawings in hisPictures at an Exhibition, later orchestrated by many composers includingMaurice Ravel. The French composerCamille Saint-Saëns wrote many short pieces of program music which he calledTone Poems. His most famous are probably theDanse Macabre and several movements fromthe Carnival of the Animals. The composerPaul Dukas is perhaps best known for his tone poemThe Sorcerer's Apprentice, based on a tale fromGoethe.

Possibly the most adept at musical depiction in his program music was German composerRichard Strauss. His symphonic poems includeDeath and Transfiguration (portraying a dying man and his entry into heaven),Don Juan (based on the ancient legend ofDon Juan),Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks (based on episodes in the career of the legendary German figureTill Eulenspiegel),Don Quixote (portraying episodes in the life ofMiguel de Cervantes' character,Don Quixote),A Hero's Life (which depicts episodes in the life of an unnamed hero often taken to be Strauss himself) andSymphonia Domestica (which portrays episodes in the composer's own married life, including putting the baby to bed). Strauss is reported to have said that music can describe anything, even a teaspoon.^[4]

Another composer of programmatic music isNikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, whose colorful "musical pictures" include "Sadko", Op. 5, after the Russian Bylina, about the minstrel who sings to the Tsar of the Sea, the very famous "'Scheherazade", Op. 35, after the Arabian Nights entertainments (where the heroine is depicted by a violin and whose stories include "Sinbad the Sailor") and any number of orchestral suites from his operas, includingThe Tale of Tsar Saltan (which also contains "Flight of the Bumblebee"),The Golden Cockerel,Christmas Eve,The Snow Maiden, andThe Legend of The Invisible City of Kitezh.

In Scandinavia, Sibelius explored theKalevala legend in several tone poems, most famously inThe Swan of Tuonela.

One of the most famous programs, because it has never been definitively identified, is the secret non-musical idea or theme – the "Enigma" – that underliesEdward Elgar'sVariations on an Original Theme (Enigma) of 1899. The composer disclosed it to certain friends, but at his request they never made it public.

Ottorino Respighi composed a number of tone poems in the 1910s and 1920s, notably three works on different aspects of the city of Rome.Gustav Holst'sThe Planets is another well-known example, as is Russian composerSergei Rachmaninoff'sIsle of the Dead.Alban Berg'sLyric Suite was thought for years to be abstract music, but in 1977 it was discovered that it was in fact dedicated toHanna Fuchs-Robettin.^[5] Importantleitmotifs are based on the melodic series A–B–H–F, which is their combined initials. The last movement also contains a setting of a poem byCharles Baudelaire, suppressed by the composer for publication. Although written originally for the filmDangerous Moonlight, British composerRichard Addinsell'sWarsaw Concerto is another famous example of programme music, and was one of the first pieces of orchestral music composed for a film to achieve popularity in concert halls as well.

The term "program music" is not generally used with regard topopular music, although some popular music does have aspects in common with program music. The tradition of purely orchestral program music is continued in pieces forjazz orchestra, most notably several pieces byDuke Ellington. Instrumental pieces in popular music often have a descriptive title which suggests that they could be categorized as program music, and several instrumental albums are completely devoted to some programmatic idea (for example,China byVangelis orThe Songs of Distant Earth byMike Oldfield). Some of the genres of popular music are more likely than others to involve programmatic elements; these includeambient,new-age,space music,surf rock,black metal,jazz fusion,progressive rock,art rock and various genres oftechno music. Bluegrass has at least one outstanding bit of program music calledOrange Blossom Special.

Progressive rock groups and musicians during the 1970s in particular experimented with program music, among which wasRush's "Jacob's Ladder" (1980), which shows clear influences ofSmetana'sMá vlast ("My Homeland") (1874–1879). In addition, Rush's songs "Xanadu", "La Villa Strangiato" "Red Barchetta", and "YYZ" also show their experimentalism with program music, as do parts of "2112", particularly the discovery scene.

Part of the music from the Baroque and Classical eras isabsolute, as is suggested by titles which often consist simply of the type of composition, a numerical designation within the composer's oeuvre, and its key. Johann Sebastian Bach'sConcerto for two harpsichords in C minor, BWV 1060 and Mozart'sPiano Sonata in C major, K. 545 are examples of absolute music.

Some composers^[which?] of the Baroque era used to design titles for their music in a fashion resembling that of Romantic program music, called therappresentativo (representative) style. Some of the most notable examples were composed byAntonio Vivaldi – some of hisviolin,flute or recorder concertos bear titles inspired by humanaffects (Il piacere – the pleasure), occupations (La caccia – the hunting,La pastorella – the shepherdess) or, most notably, aspects of nature and meteors (The Four Seasons,La notte – the night,La tempesta di mare – the sea storm). Another well-known example isHeinrich Ignaz Biber'sSonata representativa (for violin andcontinuo), which depicts various animals (the nightingale, the cuckoo, the cat) in a humoristic manner. However, a distinction may be drawn between "representational" music and program music properly speaking, as well as between "imitation" and "representation. Finally, there is the question of whether a deliberate expressive character is sufficient to rank as a "program".^[6]

Program music was quite popular during theRomantic era. Many mainstream "classical" works are unequivocally program music, such asRichard Strauss'sAn Alpine Symphony, which is a musical description of ascending and descending a mountain, with 22 section titles such as "Night", "Sunrise", "By the Waterfall", "In Thicket and Underbrush on the Wrong Path", "Summit", "Mists Rise" and "Storm and Descent".Beethoven'sSymphony No. 6 is program music, too, with titled movements and instrumental depictions of bird calls, country dances, and a storm. His fifteenth string quartet, Opus 132, contains a middle movement titled "Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der lydischen Tonart" ('A Convalescent's Holy Song of Thanksgiving to the Divinity, in the Lydian Mode'), suggesting to some auditors that the entire work can be heard as a tonal evocation of sickness and recovery.

During the late-nineteenth and twentieth century, the increased influence of modernism and other anti-Romantic trends contributed to a decline in esteem for program music, but audiences continued to enjoy such pieces asArthur Honegger's depiction of a steam locomotive inPacific 231 (1923). Indeed,Percy Grainger's incomplete orchestral fragmentTrain Music employs the same function. This music for large orchestra depicts a train moving in the mountains of Italy.Heitor Villa-Lobos similarly depicted a rural steam-driven train inThe Little Train of the Caipira (1930).

Indeed, an entire genre sprang up in the 1920s, particularly in the Soviet Union, of picturesque music depicting machines and factories. Well-known examples includeAlexander Mosolov'sIron Foundry (1926–27) andSergei Prokofiev'sLe Pas d'acier (The Steel Step, 1926). An example from outside of the Soviet Union isGeorge Antheil'sBallet mécanique (1923–24).

Music that is composed to accompany a ballet is often program music, even when presented separately as a concert piece.Aaron Copland was amused when a listener said that when she listened toAppalachian Spring she "couldsee the Appalachians andfeel Spring", the title having been a last-minute thought, but it is certainly program music.Film scores and the orchestration in operas are very often program music, and some film scores, such asProkofiev's music forAlexander Nevsky, have even found a place in the classical concert repertoire.

A good deal of program music falls in between the realm of purely programmatic and purely absolute, with titles that clearly suggest an extramusical association, but no detailed story that can be followed and no musical passages that can be unequivocally identified with specific images. Examples would includeDvořák'sSymphony No. 9,From the New World or Beethoven'sSymphony No. 3,Eroica.

Influenced by the late Romantic work ofNikolai Rimsky-Korsakov,Ottorino Respighi,Richard Strauss, and others, motion picture soundtrack took up the banner of programmatic music following the advent of "talkies". Many film composers, includingPaul Smith,Ennio Morricone, andJohn Williams (whose 1977Star Wars soundtrack redefined the symphonic movie score) have followed the programmatic model and solidified motion picture soundtrack as its own programmatic genre. Music's power for pictorial suggestion may be said to have culminated inWalt Disney's 1940 filmFantasia. Disney gave us, too, the termMickey Mousing, used to describe scores that mimic too obviously the movements of nature. The music ofMax Steiner, for instance, often lauded for its uncanny sound-image synchronization, has also been assailed for being too "Mickey Mouse".

• Character piece
• Figurative art
• Film music
• Incidental music
• List of program music
• List of symphonic poems
• Mickey Mousing
• Representation (arts)
• Sakadas of Argos
• Word painting

Sources

• Beethoven, Ludwig van (1905). “On His Own Works”. InBeethoven, the Man and the Artist, as Revealed in His own Words, edited by Friedrich Kerst. London: Gay and Bird. (archive from 5 March 2016; accessed 11 May 2020).
• Gifford, Katya (2012)."Richard Strauss: Biography".HumanitiesWeb.org. Retrieved28 April 2021.
• McClary, Susan (1991).Feminine Endings: Music, Gender, and Sexuality, p. 24. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.ISBN 0-8166-1898-4.
• McClary, Susan (1999).^{[full citation needed]}.
• Perle, George (1985).The Operas of Alban Berg: Volume Two, Lulu. California: University of California Press. pp. 18–29.ISBN 0-520-06616-2.
• Scruton, Roger (2001). "Programme music".Grove Music Online.doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.22394.

• Junod, Philippe. "The NewParagone: Paradoxes and Contradictions of Pictorial Musicalism", inThe Arts Entwined: Music and Painting in the Nineteenth Century, eds. M. L. Morton and P. L. Schmunk, p. 28–29
• Pérez-Sobrino, Paula B. 2014."Meaning construction in verbomusical environments: Conceptual disintegration and metonymy" inJournal of Pragmatics v. 70: 130–151

• "Program music", Encyclopedia.com
• Composers: Vivaldi, Essentials of Music
• Cleveland Baroque Orchestra: Program note for: Beethoven & Schubert in Vienna, Apollo's Fire
• James Reel.Alban Berg:Lyric Suite, for string quartet atAllMusic
• Alban Berg:Lyric Suite,Kronos Quartet withDawn Upshaw, review by Robert Levine
• Programmatic programmatic works by American composers, Art of the States
• Information onThe Kaidan Suite, a musical interpretation of Japanese ghost stories by theKitsune Ensemble