program music
noun
music intended to convey an impression of a definite series of images, scenes, or events.
Origin of program music
1First recorded in 1880–85
- Compare absolute music.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use program music in a sentence
See the detailed program by the composer himself, cited in Nieck's program music.
Music: An Art and a Language | Walter Raymond SpaldingBut now they were playing their star number, a dramatic piece of program music called "A Day on the Battlefield."
The Wishing Moon | Louise Elizabeth DuttonIt stands one of the masterpieces of program-music, in equal balance of pure beauty with the graphic plan.
Symphonies and Their Meaning; Third Series, Modern Symphonies | Philip H. GoeppYet it must be yielded that Liszt's program-music was of the higher kind that dwells in symbols rather than in concrete details.
Symphonies and Their Meaning; Third Series, Modern Symphonies | Philip H. GoeppFew pieces of program music are so closely associated with the subject as this tone picture of the Devil's Round.
Symphonies and Their Meaning; Third Series, Modern Symphonies | Philip H. Goepp
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