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

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

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

Balanchine had been audacious when he tackled it; the piece is a summit of absolute music and he made it into a summit of pure ballet.

From New York Times • Feb. 19, 2010

"I was very involved in absolute music, in how certain notes react to one another," he says.

From Time Magazine Archive

Opera, as represented by Richard Wagner's music-dramas, takes its place on a level with the absolute music of which Beethoven's work is the noblest example.

From War Letters of a Public-School Boy by Jones, Henry Paul Mainwaring