Classic vs Romantic, Absolute vs Program Music and the Common Practice Period
Musical Terms (updated 2/18/14)
Common Practice Period 1600-1900
Program music - music that has an extra-musical idea to go along with it. It might be a story, an idea, a picture, or a text.
Absolute music - music that has NO extra-musical idea to go along with it. It is music for its own sake, with the composer giving you NO hint as to what it might be depicting.
You may listen to any piece as if it is a work of absolute music (we did this in class the first time you heard "Spring", as I hadn't told you the birds and thunderstorm).
You may also create your own "program" to a work of absolute music if it helps you to follow along. Create a story for a piece of music, explain how the story changes as the music builds or fades, etc.
Program pieces are usually given a subtitle to hint that they are about something (Concerto in E major, Op. 8, No. 1, RV269, "Spring" from The Four Seasons)
Absolute pieces usually have no subtitles that might mean anything. Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67. This doesn't sound like it's about anything.
Classic vs. Romantic
Classic: has lasting value, ancient Greece and Rome, or in music, the period from 1750-1820.
Classical sensibility - logic, balance, symmetry.Ê Not emotionally attached to the subject matter (Mozart could write some glorious sounding music when he was at his lowest point).
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Romantic - emphasis on freedom, individuality, flexibility. Leads with "heart".