absolute music

American  

noun

1. instrumental music, as a concerto or string quartet, that draws no inspiration from or makes no reference to a text, program, visual image, or title and that exists solely in terms of its musical form, structure, and elements.

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absolute music British  

noun

1. music that is not designed to depict or evoke any scene or event Compare programme music

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Etymology

Origin of absolute music

First recorded in 1885–90

Compare meaning

How does absolute-music compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• program music vs. absolute music

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

absolute music

Korngold admitted that listeners might hear the terrors of Nazism in it, but still insisted that it should be seen as “pure, absolute music, with no program whatsoever.”

From New York Times ● Nov. 10, 2022

Is it a piece of absolute music, a symphony in the tradition of Bruckner and Mahler?

From New York Times ● Nov. 10, 2022

Besides his film music, Morricone wrote more than 150 concert works, which he considered absolute music, many avant-garde.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 7, 2020

Arcana was completed by 1927, but it still sounds avantgarde, because it makes "absolute music" with a heckelphone, coconuts and more than 120 other instruments.

From Time Magazine Archive

The good wife breathed deeply, and went on with her work, sending out absolute music from her needles.

From Silent Struggles by Stephens, Ann S. (Ann Sophia)