GRADE 9 MUSIC REVIEWER

MUSIC
PROGRAM MUSIC

It has been observed that the nineteenth century or the Romantic period is the Golden Age of
program music. In some form, program music could also be seen in the previous eras, but in only rose to
eminence during this period when the art of music was closely linked with the art of literature.

Program - The state of the extra musical elements or narrative through a title or notes in
explanation.
Absolute music is also known as non-program music.

Main form of Program Music Written for Orchestra

1. Program Symphony - It is an orchestral composition that relays ideas or narrates story.

a. Symphonie Fantastique was composed by Hector Berlioz who was a French composer. It
is composed of five movement.
1. First movement – “Reveries, Passions”
2. Second Movement – “A Ball”
3. Third Movement – “Scene in the Fields”
4. Fourth Movement – “March to the Scaffold”
5. Fifth Movement – “Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath”
2. Concert Overture – It is an independent single-movement work, which is usually written
in sonata form.
3. Symphonic Poem – This is a new orchestral form and is also a single-movement
composition

Some of the well-known tone poems

a. Les Preludes by Franz Liszt

b. Night on Bald Moutain by Modest Mussorgsky
c. The Sorcere’s Apprentice by Paul Dukas
d. Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saens
e. In the Steppes of central Asia by Alexander Borodin
f. Isle of the Dead by Sergie by Rachmaninoff
g. atill aeulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks by Richard Strauss
h. The Moldau by Bedrich Smetana
i.
4. Incidental Music – performed before and during a play is the Incidental Music.