Tone poem

A single-movement orchestral work associated with a literary, pictorial, or other extramusical subject. It uses musical form and orchestral color to suggest that subject without relying on words.

Program music: Instrumental music associated with a story, image, scene, or other subject beyond sound itself. Tone poems are a prominent orchestral form of music shaped by an extramusical subject.
Franz Liszt: A Hungarian composer and pianist who helped establish the symphonic poem in the nineteenth century. Liszt composed influential examples and promoted the genre’s name and ambitions.
Les Préludes: Franz Liszt’s 1854 symphonic poem, loosely associated with a text by Alphonse de Lamartine. It became one of the most widely cited models of Liszt’s tone-poem approach.
Symphony: An extended orchestral composition, usually organized into multiple movements with contrasting characters. A tone poem is typically one continuous movement rather than a multi-movement cycle.
Symphonic poem: A single-movement orchestral composition that develops a poetic or descriptive subject. This near-synonym became the standard name for the genre in the nineteenth century.
Weimar: A German city that became a major cultural and political center in the nineteenth century. Liszt developed the symphonic poem during his years as a conductor in Weimar.
Don Juan (Strauss): Richard Strauss’s 1888 tone poem based on the Don Juan legend. Its vivid orchestral characterization made it a defining early work in Strauss’s genre.
Concert overture: A standalone orchestral work, often in one movement, shaped by an overture’s dramatic or descriptive character. Its compact design can resemble a tone poem, though its form and historical role differ.
Orchestral music: Music written for an ensemble of instruments organized into orchestral sections. The tone poem’s characteristic medium is the orchestra.
New German School: A group of nineteenth-century composers associated with progressive musical ideas and Liszt’s circle. Its aesthetic debates helped frame the tone poem’s expressive aims.

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