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Program music is often confused with descriptive
music, which attempts to imitate natural sounds such as those
of waves, rain, thunder, wind, or animals by means of special
instrumental effects. Program music, which often contains
descriptive touches, is a kind of instrumental composition
in which form and content is dictated by a preexistent program.
This program may be a poem, a prose passage, part of a play,
or some visual sequence of events. Although program music,
in its broadest sense, had been written for centuries, programmatic
qualities in music became most evident in the 19th century.
Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony is often cited as an early example.
Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique embodied his notion of the
idee fixe, a recurring musical theme representing an element
in a narrative. The Wagnerian leitmotiv carried this device
even further in describing growth and change in a character,
an ideal, or a feeling.
Franz Liszt coined the term program music, and believed that
such music could not be truly understood unless the listener
in some way perceived its underlying program. Music with no
programmatic content is often called ABSOLUTE MUSIC, although
this distinction is made, usually, only with reference to
program music.
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