A musical work, the content of which reveals a certain verbal program embedded in it by the composer, very often poetic, is what program music is. This phenomenon gives it specific features that distinguish it from non-software, which reflect the mood, feelings, emotional experiences of a person. A program can be a reflection of any phenomena of reality.
Concrete and synthesis
In theory, all music to one degree or another is programmatic, unless it is almost impossible to accurately identify either objects or concepts that evoke one or another feeling in the listener. Only speech, oral or written, has such abilities. Therefore, composers often supply their works with a program, thus forcing a verbal or literary premise to work in synthesis with all the musical means used by him.
The unity of literature and music is helped by the fact that both of these forms of art are capable of showing the development and growth of an image over time. Various types of creative activities have been combined since antiquity, as art was born and developed in a syncretic form, associated with rituals and labor. In the means it was very limited, therefore, individually and without applied tasks simply could not exist.
Demarcation
Gradually, the everyday way of life of mankind improved, art became more sophisticated, and there was a tendency to separation of its main genera and species. Reality was enriched, and the reflection of this was already achieved in all its diversity, although art was forever syncretic in ritual, spiritual, vocal-instrumental, dramatic aspects. The combined actions of music and words, however, which determine programmaticity, have also never gone far from music.
These may be the names provided by program music. Examples are in the collection of piano pieces by P. I. Tchaikovsky "Children's Album", where each piece has not only a "talking", but also a "telling" title: "Morning Prayer", "Nanny's Tale", "Doll's Disease" and all other small works. This is his own collection for children older than The Four Seasons, where Pyotr Ilyich also added a bright poetic epigraph to the title. The composer took care of the specific content of the music, thereby explaining what program music is and how to perform this work.
Music plus literature
Program music for children is especially understandable if the work has both a name and an accompanying word, which is composed by the composer or writer who inspired him, as Rimsky-Korsakov did in the symphonic suite "Antar" based on the tale of Sankovsky or Sviridov in music for Pushkin’s story " Snowstorm. "
Nevertheless, the program only complements the music, not being an exact explanation. It's just that the object of inspiration is the same for the writer and composer, but the means are still different.
Music minus literature
If the play is called “A Sad Song” (for example, Kalinnikov, Sviridov and many other composers have it), this determines only the nature of the performance, but not the specific content, which makes program and non-program music different. The specifics are “Doggy is lost”, “Clowns”, “Grandfather's clock” (which tick, indulge, and then they will certainly beat). Such is almost all program music for children, it is deeper and faster understood and better absorbed.
The musical language most often specifies the program content itself through its visualization: the sound can imitate the singing of birds ("Zharovonok", "Kukushka"), escalation of tension, fun of festivities, fair noises ("Extraordinary incident", "Shrovetide" and others. This is so called sound recording, which also clarifies what program music is.
Definition
Any work equipped with a verbal characteristic necessarily contains elements of programmability, which has many forms. And what is program music, you can understand, even while listening to or learning sketches. They themselves are called upon to develop the technical capabilities of the musician in the role of detailed exercises and may not only not contain programs, but also music as such, but still they often have the features of a program and even are absolutely programmatic. But if there is a plot in the instrumental work, and the content is consistently revealed, this is necessarily program music. Examples can be found in national folk and classical works.
"Three whales" and national features in the program
They also help to understand what program music is, certain features of applied genres: songs ("Polyushko", for example), a march in all genre diversity ("The Black Sea March" and "The Wooden Soldiers March"), as well as dance - folk, classical, fantastic . This is, with a light hand DB Kabalevsky, in music - "three whales", which determine the genre affiliation.
Characteristic features of national music also usually serve as the programmatic nature of the musical work, setting the general concept, tempo, and rhythm of the composition (“Saber Dance” by Khachaturian, for example, “Two Jews ...” and “Hopak” by Mussorgsky).
Landscape and story programming
The display of one or a series of images that do not undergo changes throughout the composition is also program music. Examples of works can be found everywhere: "In the fields" by Glier, "On the rocks and fjords" by Grieg and so on. This also includes pictures of holidays and battles, musical images of landscape and portrait.
Even composers embody the same literary plots in music in different ways: for example, Shakespeare's “Romeo and Juliet” turned into an overture in Tchaikovsky, where the programming is generalized, and that of Berlioz is consistent. Both that, and another, of course, program music. The name most often can be considered as a plot program, for example, “The Battle of the Huns” by Liszt based on the Kaulbach fresco of the same name or his sketches “Dwarf Round Dance” and “Forest Noise”. Sometimes works of sculpture, architecture, painting help to understand what program music is, because they participate in the selection of visual aids for a musical picture.
Output
Programming enriches music with new expressive means, helps in the search for new forms of work, differentiates genres. If the composer refers to the program in his composition, it brings his listener closer to reality, inspires life, and helps to comprehend the deepest spiritual principles. However, if the program dominates the rest of the tasks, then the perception of music is noticeably reduced, that is, the listener needs room for his own creative perception.
Therefore, many composers tried to refuse from programming (including Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Shtruaus and others), but, despite this, none of them succeeded in completely non-programmed music. The unity of music and the specificity of its content is never indissoluble and absolute. And the more generalized the content is reflected, the better for the listener. What is program music - it will become clear from the slightest touches in the development of musical thought: one who has ears, so to speak, will hear, despite the fact that a single definition and even the same understanding of this phenomenon in music has not yet appeared among music theorists.