Symphonic Poem
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Main Period: Romantic

Composers


Liszt


Rimsky-Korsakov


Mussorgsky


Prokofiev


Saint-Saëns


Richard Strauss


Holst


Smetana

Wanderer above the sea of fog (c. 1818) Caspar David Friedrich, Kunsthalle, Hamburg

Programme music / Symphonic poem
Music in which the composer describes a topic from prose, poetry, or any non-musical idea. Unlike absolute music, presented to the listener as it is, programme music represents something external. The height of programme music was the romantic period. Liszt was the first to offer a programme to his work which is the guide to the symphonic poem (his own term for programme music), rather than the sheer musical form. Beethoven also attached descriptions and explanations to his Symphony No. 6 "Pastoral"1st movement from Symphony No. 6 in F Opus 68, 'Pastoral' - Beethoven, yet he meant it as an effect rather than a real programme. Programme music often presents a clear musical imitation of extra-musical elements (Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee"'Flight of the Bumblebee' - Rimsky-Korsakov), and sometimes only gives clues to the subject ("The Sea" ("La mer") by Debussy, "Pictures at an Exhibition"'Ballet of Chickens' from 'Pictures at an Exhibition' - Mussorgsky by Mussorgski, "The Carnival of the Animals"'The swan' from 'The Carnival of the Animals' - Rimsky-Korsakov ("Le Carnival des Animaux") by Saint-Saëns).
Other known programme works are Smetana's "My Country"The Moldau' (Vltava) from Symphonic Poem, 'My Fatherland' (Má Vlast) - Smetana ("Ma vlast"), Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade"'Scheherazade' - Rimsky-Korsakov and Holst's "The Planets"'Mars, the bringer of war' from 'The Planets' - Holst.
A leading 20th century composer who brought symphonic poem to an unrivalled level of expressiveness was Richard Strauss. With works like the "Thus Spoke Zarathustra"The Introduction from 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra' , Op.30 - Richard Strauss ("Also sprach Zarathustra") and "Till Eulenspiegel", he is considered to be most important in this form.





Examples of programme works

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'Also Sprach Zarathustra', Op.30
by Richard Strauss
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'Morning Mood' from 'Peer Gynt'
by Grieg
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'The Sorcerer's Apprentice'
by Dukas


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