Program Music

A general term used for any piece of instrumental music that is somehow descriptive in nature. Instrumental music that says something extra musical. Extra musical in the way that something about the music is explicable if one talks about by describing it with words. The “program” in program music is usually supplied by the composer. It can be taken from a literary work, nature, a poem, a legend, an experience or a story. Once the program is determined by the composer the music attempts to express that program with instruments alone without a vocal line. A program symphony is multiple movement work for symphony or orchestra with a program or description behind it.