Program Music

By: Basty Tabares

 Program music
Commonly categorized as:
• A kind of art music
• An instrumental music
• Associated with an idea, poem, scene, or story
• An endeavor to depict musically an extramusical narrative
• Able to draw forth a certain experience in the audience other than sitting in
front of musicians
 Program Music
• Composers of peogram music state the extramusical element or narrative
through a title or notes in explanation called a program.
• Can elicit particular mental images of movements or sounds in nature and
therefore represent the characters and events in a particular story as well as
the mental and physicsl manifestations of feelings.
• Nineteenth-century composers of program music rely on the capacity of
music to suggest or evoke jonmusicsl ifeas, objects, images, or events.
 Forms of Program Music
• Program Symphony
-an orchestral composition that relays ideas or narrates a story.
-nineteenth-century composers employ themes such as: witchcraft, death,
mystery, and other emotions
 Forms of Program Music
• Program Symphony
-some examples of the program symphony are Don Quixote, Romeo and
Juliet, and Symphonie Fantastique (Fantastic Symphony)
 Forms of Program Music
• Symphonie Fantastique
-composed by Hector Berlioz
-composed of 5 movents:
-First movement – “Reveries, Passions”
-Second movement – “A ball”
-Third movement – “Scene in the Fields”
-Fourth movement – “March to the Scaffold”
-Fifth movement – “Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath”
 Forms of Program Music
• Symphonie Fantastique
-Berloiz used a single melody in this composition which he called idée fixe
or fixed idea to represemt the character’s loved one.
 Forms of Program Music
• Concert Overture
-an independent single-movement work, which is usually written in sonata
form.
-some examples lf concert overture are: Fingal’s Cave Overture by Felix
Mendelssohn, Academic Festival Overture by Johannes Brahms
 Forms of Program Music
• Symphonic Poem
-also known as tone poem. And is also a single-movement composition.
-some of the well known tone poems are: Les préludes by Frank Liszt,
Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky, The Sorcerrer’s
Apprentice by Paul Dukas and many more.
 Forms of Program Music
• Incidental Music
-performed before and during a play. Intended to add atmosphere to the
action.
-example of Incidental Music is the famous “Wedding March” composed
by Felix Mendelssohn