Editing Program music (section)

{{Short description|Instrumental musical rendition of a narrative}}
{{distinguish|Programming (music)|Concert program}}
{{refimprove|date=July 2017 }}
{{Use American English|date=September 2020}}
'''Program music''' or '''programmatic  music''' is a type of [[instrumental]] [[art music]] that attempts to musically render an extramusical [[narrative]]. The narrative itself might be offered to the audience through the piece's title, or in the form of [[Concert program|program notes]], inviting imaginative correlations with the music. A well-known example is [[Sergei Prokofiev]]'s ''[[Peter and the Wolf]]''. 

The genre culminates in the symphonic works of [[Richard Strauss]] that include narrations of the adventures of [[Don Quixote (Strauss)|Don Quixote]], ''[[Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks|Till Eulenspiegel]]'', [[Symphonia Domestica|the composer's domestic life]], and an interpretation of [[Friedrich Nietzsche]]'s philosophy of the [[Übermensch]], [[Also sprach Zarathustra|''Also Sprach Zarathustra'']]. Following Strauss, the genre declined and new works with explicitly narrative content are rare. Nevertheless the genre continues to exert an influence on [[Film score|film music]], especially where this draws upon the techniques of 19th-century late [[romantic music]]. Similar compositional forms also exist within popular music, including the [[concept album]] and [[rock opera]].

The term is almost exclusively applied to works in the [[Classical music|European classical music]] tradition, particularly those from the [[Romantic music]] period of the 19th century, during which the concept was popular, but pieces which fit the description have long been a part of music. The term is usually reserved for purely instrumental works (pieces without singers and lyrics), and not used, for example for [[opera]] or [[lied]]er. Single-movement orchestral pieces of program music are often called [[symphonic poem]]s. [[Absolute music]], in contrast, is intended to be appreciated without any particular reference to the outside world.