Type of Submission
Performance
Keywords
absolute music, program music, Ravel, Jeux d'eau, impressionism
Proposal
Absolute music is the term that refers to music for its own sake, while programmatic music refers to music that is associated with a particular event, story, character, or idea. I will be leading a presentation on absolute and programmatic music, followed by a performance of one of Ravel's great piano works. In this presentation I will explore what constitutes both absolute and program music, and then dive into a little history of these two categories. I will discuss how these terms came about, when they were first used, and when they were popular in Western music history. Next, we will take a look at a popular Ravel piece, Jeux d'eau, and discuss which category it might fall into. Should the meaning of this piece be subjective to the performer or not? Do you perceive it as simply absolute music, or do you perceive extra-musical associations? After giving a brief description of this piece, I will leave it to each audience member to determine what it means to him/her as I perform it. My goal with this presentation is to introduce my audience to two important categories that have been used for centuries in music history. Upon hearing the performance, the question should arise: Is this absolute music or programmatic music and why would I say so?
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Absolute or Absolutely Not?
Absolute music is the term that refers to music for its own sake, while programmatic music refers to music that is associated with a particular event, story, character, or idea. I will be leading a presentation on absolute and programmatic music, followed by a performance of one of Ravel's great piano works. In this presentation I will explore what constitutes both absolute and program music, and then dive into a little history of these two categories. I will discuss how these terms came about, when they were first used, and when they were popular in Western music history. Next, we will take a look at a popular Ravel piece, Jeux d'eau, and discuss which category it might fall into. Should the meaning of this piece be subjective to the performer or not? Do you perceive it as simply absolute music, or do you perceive extra-musical associations? After giving a brief description of this piece, I will leave it to each audience member to determine what it means to him/her as I perform it. My goal with this presentation is to introduce my audience to two important categories that have been used for centuries in music history. Upon hearing the performance, the question should arise: Is this absolute music or programmatic music and why would I say so?
