descriptive music

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Though not overtly descriptive music, its four movements, playing for a little under 20 minutes, imaginatively evoke the feeling of four distinct times in the passage of a day.

From Seattle Times • Oct. 3, 2012

I knew enough of the legend to be able to follow, and moreover I had always heard that Wagner's descriptive music was so wonderful that one understood everything without any text, etc.

From Italian Letters of a Diplomat's Life January-May, 1880; February-April, 1904 by Waddington, Mary Alsop King

It should be clearly understood that word-painting is not descriptive music.

From Old Scores and New Readings Discussions on Music & Certain Musicians by Runciman, John F.

The notes are reprinted in Nottebohm's "Zweite Beethoveniana," but I borrow Sir George Grove's translation: Beethoven's notes on descriptive music.

From How to Listen to Music, 7th ed. Hints and Suggestions to Untaught Lovers of the Art by Krehbiel, Henry Edward

A god in such delineation is twice the size of the ordinary man, and so it is in descriptive music.

From Critical and Historical Essays Lectures delivered at Columbia University by Baltzell, W. J. (Winton James)