symphonic poem

American  

noun

Music.

1. a form of tone poem, scored for a symphony orchestra, in which a literary or pictorial “plot” is treated with considerable program detail: originated by Franz Liszt in the mid-19th century and developed especially by Richard Strauss.

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symphonic poem British  

noun

1. Also called: tone poem.  music an extended orchestral composition, originated by Liszt, based on nonmusical material, such as a work of literature or folk tale

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Etymology

Origin of symphonic poem

First recorded in 1860–65

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

symphonic poem

The five-part, 25-minute symphonic poem for a large orchestra rife with percussion follows Humboldt’s account of his journey to Venezuela in 1799.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 19, 2026

Classical music has even been composed to celebrate the pines, with the most famous being the symphonic poem for orchestra that Ottorino Respighi completed in 1924.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 20, 2021

Her widest-reaching project, the 2004 symphonic poem “Made in America,” has been performed by more than 65 orchestras in all 50 states.

From New York Times ● Nov. 9, 2018

This is where he developed the symphonic poem genre and composed some of his finest orchestral works.

From Washington Times ● Mar. 4, 2015

In its purest form, the symphonic poem style is what orchestral film music grew out of in the 1920s and ’30s, its job to support and describe something outside music.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall