Franz Liszt Case

An antithesis, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is defined as the state of things that are directly opposite to each other. Programme music and absolute music can be viewed as antithesis to one another. Programme music can be defined as instrumental music that is descriptive or attempts to depict a narrative, poem, setting, or object directly or abstractly. With this type of music a program may be provided to audience members before or after a performance. The information that these programs contain in some cases are meant to guide a listeners’ interpretation, and provide representation for the inspirations the composer had in mind. Absolute music can be defined as what programme music is not; the listener is not presented with a set idea of what the music is meant to mean or any guidelines that they should follow while listening to it. There is no “program” and the listener is free to interpret the music as the wish. To better understand what these types of music are and how the relate to one another, a look into their histories is required.

There is some uncertainty as to when the history of programme music first began. Franz Liszt (1811-1886) introduced the term “programme” music. Most of his works, but especially his symphonic poems, are representative of programme music and include short prefaces that he intended to guide and guard a listeners’ interpretation. Beyond this though, his pieces rarely included a set narrative character or description or an object, but rather attempted to make the audience members feel a certain mindset that thee narrative or object would create. This approach provided an emotional context for listeners without having to directly have the music depict an over or describe a narrative charter. It is because of this more indirect approach that programme music becomes difficult to trace. It programme music purely representational of narratives, objects, etcetera, or does it work as an umbrella term that covers emotional concepts, expressive character, imitation, or subjective feelings in a work as well? Does a composition that has a name that depicts a town or a specific battle or war become programmatic simply by having that name, or can that depiction be more abstract or philosophical and still be programmatic?

The term programme music may have a very broad application to many compositions in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but it is ultimately first recognizable in its simplest form in 1700 when Johann Kuhnau published his Bible Sonatas. Each sonata was preceded by a preface that describes how the music relates to the stories they represent, but more importantly each sonata clearly relates to the narrative and is therefore and accurate representation of programmatic music. By the nineteenth century programme music has evolved and starts to take on those more abstract ideas of representation and expression in works by Joseph Haydn, Hector Berlioz, and Ludwig van