Editing Program music (section)

==In the Western canon==
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===18th century===
Part of the music from the Baroque and Classical eras is [[Absolute music|absolute]], as is suggested by titles which often consist simply of the type of composition, a numerical designation within the composer's oeuvre, and its key. Johann Sebastian Bach's [[Concerto for two harpsichords in C minor, BWV 1060]] and Mozart's [[Piano Sonata No. 16 (Mozart)|Piano Sonata in C major, K. 545]] are examples of absolute music.

Some composers{{which |date= December 2021}} of the Baroque era used to design titles for their music in a fashion resembling that of Romantic program music, called the ''rappresentativo'' (representative) style. Some of the most notable examples were composed by [[Antonio Vivaldi]] – some of his [[Violin concerto|violin]], [[Flute concerto|flute]] or recorder concertos bear titles inspired by human [[Doctrine of the affections|affects]] (''Il piacere'' – the pleasure), occupations (''La caccia'' – the hunting, ''La pastorella'' – the shepherdess) or, most notably, aspects of nature and meteors (''[[The Four Seasons (Vivaldi)|The Four Seasons]]'', ''La notte'' – the night, [[La tempesta di mare (flute concerto)|''La tempesta di mare'']] – the sea storm). Another well-known example is [[Heinrich Ignaz Biber]]'s ''Sonata representativa'' (for violin and [[Basso continuo|continuo]]), which depicts various animals (the nightingale, the cuckoo, the cat) in a humoristic manner. However, a distinction may be drawn between "representational" music and program music properly speaking, as well as between "imitation" and "representation. Finally, there is the question of whether a deliberate expressive character is sufficient to rank as a "program".{{sfn|Scruton|2001}}

===19th century===
Program music was quite popular during the [[Romantic music|Romantic era]]. Many mainstream "classical" works are unequivocally program music, such as [[Richard Strauss]]'s ''An Alpine Symphony'', which is a musical description of ascending and descending a mountain, with 22 section titles such as "Night", "Sunrise", "By the Waterfall", "In Thicket and Underbrush on the Wrong Path", "Summit", "Mists Rise" and "Storm and Descent". [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]]'s [[Symphony No. 6 (Beethoven)|Symphony No. 6]] is program music, too, with titled movements and instrumental depictions of bird calls, country dances, and a storm. His fifteenth string quartet, Opus 132, contains a middle movement titled "Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der lydischen Tonart" ('A Convalescent's Holy Song of Thanksgiving to the Divinity, in the Lydian Mode'), suggesting to some auditors that the entire work can be heard as a tonal evocation of sickness and recovery.

===20th century===
During the late-nineteenth and twentieth century, the increased influence of modernism and other anti-Romantic trends contributed to a decline in esteem for program music, but audiences continued to enjoy such pieces as [[Arthur Honegger]]'s depiction of a steam locomotive in ''[[Pacific 231]]'' (1923). Indeed, [[Percy Grainger]]'s incomplete orchestral fragment ''[[Train Music]]'' employs the same function. This music for large orchestra depicts a train moving in the mountains of Italy. [[Heitor Villa-Lobos]] similarly depicted a rural steam-driven train in ''[[The Little Train of the Caipira]]'' (1930).

Indeed, an entire genre sprang up in the 1920s, particularly in the Soviet Union, of picturesque music depicting machines and factories. Well-known examples include [[Alexander Mosolov]]'s ''[[Iron Foundry]]'' (1926–27) and [[Sergei Prokofiev]]'s ''[[Le pas d'acier (Prokofiev)|Le Pas d'acier]]'' (The Steel Step, 1926). An example from outside of the Soviet Union is [[George Antheil]]'s ''[[Ballet mécanique]]'' (1923–24).

===Opera and ballet===
Music that is composed to accompany a ballet is often program music, even when presented separately as a concert piece. [[Aaron Copland]] was amused when a listener said that when she listened to ''[[Appalachian Spring]]'' she "could ''see'' the Appalachians and ''feel'' Spring", the title having been a last-minute thought, but it is certainly program music. [[Film score]]s and the orchestration in operas are very often program music, and some film scores, such as [[Sergei Prokofiev|Prokofiev]]'s music for ''Alexander Nevsky'', have even found a place in the classical concert repertoire.

===Programmatic music and abstract imagery===
A good deal of program music falls in between the realm of purely programmatic and purely absolute, with titles that clearly suggest an extramusical association, but no detailed story that can be followed and no musical passages that can be unequivocally identified with specific images. Examples would include [[Antonín Dvořák|Dvořák]]'s [[Symphony No. 9 (Dvořák)|Symphony No. 9, ''From the New World'']] or Beethoven's [[Symphony No. 3 (Beethoven)|Symphony No. 3, ''Eroica'']].

===Motion picture soundtrack===
Influenced by the late Romantic work of [[Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov]], [[Ottorino Respighi]], [[Richard Strauss]], and others, motion picture soundtrack took up the banner of programmatic music following the advent of "talkies". Many film composers, including [[Paul Smith (composer)|Paul Smith]], [[Ennio Morricone]], and [[John Williams]] (whose 1977 [[Star Wars (soundtrack)|''Star Wars'' soundtrack]] redefined the symphonic movie score) have followed the programmatic model and solidified motion picture soundtrack as its own programmatic genre. Music's power for pictorial suggestion may be said to have culminated in [[Walt Disney]]'s 1940 film ''[[Fantasia (1940 film)|Fantasia]]''. Disney gave us, too, the term [[Mickey Mousing]], used to describe scores that mimic too obviously the movements of nature. The music of [[Max Steiner]], for instance, often lauded for its uncanny sound-image synchronization, has also been assailed for being too "Mickey Mouse".