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tone painting

American

noun

musical description, by harmonic, melodic, or rhythmic means, of the words of a text or the story elements in program music.

Etymology

Origin of tone painting

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

There is experimentation with found-object percussion, and recent Glass touches including colorful texture, expressive shifts in harmony and soundtrack-like tone painting.

From New York Times • Mar. 31, 2023

And the “Pastoral,” which is easy to read as folk-inspired tone painting, was here more subtly evocative than straightforwardly illustrative.

From New York Times • Feb. 26, 2020

Instead of piling on the venom with the song, Swift's "Innocent" takes a conciliatory tone, painting him as "32, and still growing up now."

From Reuters • Oct. 15, 2010

But his approach has deepened to provide brilliant moments, poetic tone painting as well as intellect.

From Time Magazine Archive

This is a remarkable little piece of lyrical tone painting.

From Edward MacDowell by Porte, John F.

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023