tone poem

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noun Music.

an instrumental composition intended to portray a particular story, scene, mood, etc.

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His boss, whom he admires, is waiting to meet with him about the big project.

His boss, who he admires, is waiting to meet with him about the big project.

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Compare program music, symphonic poem.

Origin of tone poem

First recorded in 1900–05

Words nearby tone poem

tone down, tone language, toneless, toneme, tone painting, tone poem, tone policing, toner, tone row, tone-setter, tonetic

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use tone poem in a sentence

The Allegretti opens with an arabesque tone-poem of somber sweetness, under which strange and varied delights are hidden.
Bizarre|Lawton Mackall
It is perhaps a logical conclusion to the work, if we regard the whole as a sort of tone-poem on life.
Descriptive Analyses of Piano Works|Edward Baxter Perry
And there are phrases in his tone-poem that commence with all his proper rhythmic ardor and then suddenly degenerate.
Musical Portraits|Paul Rosenfeld
It is a combination of the picturesque, fantastic, and sublime, in a tone-poem dedicated to the dead.
The Standard Oratorios|George P. Upton

The opening moderato e cantabile is a tone-poem of touching pathos.
The Pianoforte Sonata|J.S. Shedlock

British Dictionary definitions for tone poem

tone poem

noun

another term for symphonic poem

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012