Absolute music is music that is composed for music sake, a type of composition that does not have any meaning or narration to it. Program music is music that narrates a story with the accompaniment of instruments. With this in mind, I question whether absolute music can really be music without any meaning behind it or is it us as the audience and listener that creates our own definition of the music. In this essay I will be investigating whether music can really be absolute or must all music have a meaning behind it even if it is our own. When I listen to a musical piece I usually try to get an understanding of what the composer is trying to express in their work by listening to the different melody’s, tones and rhythms. Until recently I thought all music was composed with a meaning to it. Why else would someone create a musical piece? That is why I have come to the theory that it may be us as the listener who gives the music we listen to a meaning of our own. Even if a composer creates a musical piece intentionally without meaning or emotion, we as the listeners sometimes infuse our own emotions and definition into the music. For example, when I listen to a sad song, the composer may have his own meaning in the music or none at all, but I sometimes put my own emotions in the music and try to make it comparable to my own situation.
It is said that Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, Op. 67 is an example of absolute music but after listening to this musical piece, with the different ranges of melody’s I question, can this piece really just be absolute music? Even if Beethoven only composed this piece to be absolute, I can feel a sense of emotion while listening to the tone and melody or maybe it is just my own interpretations. While listening to this musical piece, the emotion I sense in Beethoven’s 5th Symphony is frustration which then leads to calmness then back to anger and back and forth. I believe the main theme of this piece is Beethoven’s way of expressing this anger because there are a lot of loud and deep major notes played by horns, violins, and some drums. Whatever it is, I do not believe that this piece is absolute music because if I, the listener can interpret a definition in the music then the definition of absolute music already does not exist.
What intrigues me is that absolute music is basically the same as program music with the difference that program music includes a story with the accompaniment of voice. If you take the voice out of program music, would that be considered to be absolute music? Or if you put words in an absolute musical piece would that turn the piece into program music? Yet somehow there is a difference between the two. My belief is that absolute music is absolute until listen to, and then we as the audience interpret our own meanings into the music therefore making it program