absolute music

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.

absolute music

noun

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of absolute music¹

First recorded in 1885–90

Example Sentences

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

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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.”

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When Korngold returned to absolute music, it was to slay the same old dragons, though atonality had hardly achieved popular acceptance in the interim.

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“A purist may say that music represented in film is not absolute music. Well, that may be true,” says Williams.

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Morricone is best known for his film work, but we must never forget his large catalog of “absolute” music — his classical compositions.

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