Absolute Music
Music without subject
Absolute Music is a kind of music without a subject, also called as "Abstract Music".
"Absolute Music" is often discussed in opposition to "Program Music". The latter (Program Music) contains an extramusical narrative, such as a story.
Absolute Music usually refers to works that are "played purely on instruments or ensembles", and are rarely included in the category of vocal music because the lyrics (or words) would obviously give (or limit) the work some kind of emotional expression.
Example of Absolute Music
Writer: Frankie Chan
Dictionary
Other Musical Terms
Tutor's Video (Miss So)
Articles
Common Practice Guide
Canon in D
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer, the predominant musical figure during the transition between the Classical to Romantic eras. He occupies an unprecedented dominance in the history of Western music history, and has been widely regarded as the greatest, most influential and most popular musician who ever lived.
Beethoven's music inherited the artistic atmosphere of Haydn and Mozart, penetrated the desire for dignity, vented the anger tortured by fate, and demonstrated his determination to fight with fate.
Compared to other musicians, Beethoven is effectively to interact the philosophy of life with audience through music. Although he was not a romantic, he had become the object followed by other romantics.
As a musician, Beethoven suffered from ear diseases. However, he was unwilling to succumb to fate, vowing to take fate by the throat, and continue to complete his career. In the last ten years of his life, without hearing any sound, his compositions influenced the development of music for nearly two hundred years.