A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music, in one movement, in which some extra-musical programme provides a narrative or illustrative element. This programme could come from a poem, a novel, a painting or some other source. Music based on extra-musical sources is often known as program music, while music which has no other associations is known as absolute music. A series of tone poems may be combined in a suite, in the romantic rather than the baroque sense: "The Swan of Tuonela" (1895) is a tone poem from Sibelius Lemminkäinen Suite. The Boston Pops orchestra performing on the Charles River Esplanade in Boston, Massachusetts. ... Music is a form of expression in the medium of time using the structures of tones and silence. ... Poetry (ancient Greek: poieo = create) is an art form in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. ... Daniel Defoes Robinson Crusoe; title page of 1719 newspaper edition A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended fictional narrative in prose. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... Program music is music intended to evoke extra-musical ideas, images in the mind of the listener by musically representing a scene, image or mood [1]. By contrast, absolute music stands for itself and is intended to be appreciated without any particular reference to the outside world. ... Absolute music, less often abstract music, is a term used within the classical music field to describe music that is not explicitly about anything, non-representational or non-objective. ... It has been suggested that Suite_de_Danses be merged into this article or section. ... Sibelius redirects to this article. ...

Franz Liszt largely invented the symphonic poem, in a series of single-movement orchestral works composed in the 1840s and 1850s. The immediate predecessors of the Lisztian tone poem were concert overtures, theatrical, colorful and evocative orchestral movements that were created for performance independent of any opera or theater-piece: for example, Felix Mendelssohn's Fingal's Cave or Hector Berlioz's Roman Carnival Overture. An early such independent overture is Carl Maria von Weber's Der Beherrscher der Geister ("The Ruler of the Spirits", 1811), a highly atmospheric overture without an opera. These concert pieces in turn sprung from the overtures by Ludwig van Beethoven such as those for Egmont, Coriolanus, and the Leonore No. 3, which in their musical content anticipates the story of the stage work which they introduce (plays in the case of Egmont and Coriolanus, the opera Fidelio in the case of Leonore). Even earlier orchestral mood pieces are exemplified by the 'storm' set-pieces that were an established genre that went back to the summer storm in Antonio Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, and some moody entr'actes between scenes of Baroque French operas. Franz Liszt (Hungarian: Liszt Ferenc) (October 22, 1811 – July 31, 1886) was a Hungarian virtuoso pianist and composer. ... Sydney Opera House: one of the worlds most recognisable opera houses and landmarks. ... Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy at the age of thirty Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, known generally as Felix Mendelssohn (February 3, 1809 – November 4, 1847) was a German composer of Jewish parentage of the early Romantic period. ... Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy at the age of thirty Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, known generally as Felix Mendelssohn (February 3, 1809 – November 4, 1847) was a German composer of Jewish parentage of the early Romantic period. ... Portrait of Berlioz by Signol, 1832 Louis Hector Berlioz (December 11, 1803 – March 8, 1869) was a French Romantic composer best known for the Symphonie fantastique, first performed in 1830, and for his Grande Messe des morts Requiem of 1837, with its tremendous resources that include four antiphonal brass choirs. ... Roman Carnival Overture Op. ... Carl Maria von Weber Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber (born November 18 or November 19, 1786, in Eutin near Lübeck, Germany; died June 5, 1826, of tuberculosis, in London, England) was a German composer. ... Overture is also a song by the rock band The Who Overture (French ouverture, meaning opening) in music is the instrumental introduction to a dramatic, choral or, occasionally, instrumental composition. ... Ludwig van Beethoven by Carl Jäger (date unknown). ... Egmont is a play by Goethe telling the tale of the 16th century Flemish Count of Egmont who is sentenced to death by the occupying Spaniards. ... Fidelio (Op. ... Unconfirmed portrait of Antonio Vivaldi Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (March 4, 1678, Venice – July 28 (or 27), 1741, Vienna), nicknamed Il Prete Rosso (The Red Priest), was an Italian priest and baroque music composer. ... The Four Seasons (Le quattro stagioni in the original Italian) is the name given to the four violin concertos by Antonio Vivaldi, Opus 8, No. ...

Other composers who took up the symphonic poem:

• Sergei Rachmaninoff - The Isle of the Dead
• Camille Saint-Saëns - Danse macabre
• Claude Debussy - Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune
• Jean Sibelius - Finlandia
• Bedrich Smetana - Má Vlast
• Dvorák - The Golden Spinning Wheel and The Wood Dove, among others
• Modest Mussorgsky - Night on Bald Mountain
• Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - Sadko
• Pyotr Tchaikovsky - Fatum, Romeo and Juliet (labeled "fantasy-overture")
• César Franck - Le Chasseur Maudit ("The Accursed Huntsman")
• Alexander Borodin - In the Steppes of Central Asia
• Paul Dukas - L'apprenti-sorcier ("The Sorcerer's Apprentice")
• Sergei Taneyev - Oresteia (labeled "overture", but really a symphonic poem based on themes from his opera of the same name)
• Ottorino Respighi - the trilogy of Roman symphonic poems (The Pines of Rome, The Fountains of Rome, and Roman Festivals)
• George Gershwin - An American in Paris
• Geirr Tveitt - Nykken
• Arnold Bax - Tintagel, and The Garden of Fand
• Nigel Keay - Ritual Dance of the Unappeasable Shadow
• Nick Peros - Northern Lights

From the above one can understand that the freedom of the genre of the symphonic poem allows other appellations, such as "musical picture," "overture," "fantasy," etc. Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff (Russian: , Sergej Vasilevič Rahmaninov, April 1, 1873 (N.S.) or March 20, 1873 (O.S.) – March 28, 1943) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. ... Arnold Böcklins Isle of the Dead Isle of the Dead (or Island of the Dead; Toteninsel in the original German) is one of the best known paintings by Swiss-German artist Arnold Böcklin, as well as a piece of music by Sergei Rachmaninoff, a film by Val... Charles Camille Saint-Saëns (IPA: ) (9 October 1835–16 December 1921) was a French composer and performer, best known for his orchestral work The Carnival of the Animals. ... Danse Macabre (first performed in 1874) is the name of opus 40 by French composer Camille Saint-Saëns. ... Claude Debussy Achille-Claude Debussy () (August 22, 1862 – March 25, 1918) was a French composer. ... The Prélude à laprès-midi dun faune (or Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun) is a musical composition for orchestra by Claude Debussy that was first performed in 1894. ... Sibelius redirects to this article. ... Finlandia is a symphonic poem by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... Má vlast (My Country) is a set of six symphonic poems by the Czech composer BedÅ™ich Smetana. ... Antonín Dvořák Antonín Leopold Dvořák  listen (September 8, 1841 – May 1, 1904) was a Czech composer of classical music. ... Mussorgskys celebrated portrait by Ilya Repin, painted only a few days before the composers death in 1881. ... Night on Bald Mountain is the common name for (Ivanova noch na Lisoy gore), a tone poem by Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, a Russian composer and member of The Five, Mily Balakirevs group dedicated to producing a distinctly Russian kind of music. ... Portrait of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov by Valentin Serov (1898) Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (Russian: , Nikolaj Andreevič Rimskij-Korsakov), also Nikolay, Nicolai, and Rimsky-Korsakoff, (March 6/18, 1844 – June 8/21, 1908) was a Russian composer and teacher of harmony and orchestration. ... Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский, sometimes transliterated as Piotr, Anglicised as Peter Ilich), (May 7, 1840 – November 6, 1893 (N.S.); April 25, 1840 – October 25, 1893 (O.S.)) was a Russian composer of the Romantic era. ... Romeo and Juliet is a musical work by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. ... César-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck (December 10, 1822 – November 8, 1890) was a composer and organist. ... Portrait of Borodin Alexander Porfirevich Borodin (Александр Порфирьевич Бородин in Cyrillic, Aleksandr Porfirevič Borodin in transliteration) (31 Oct. ... In the Steppes of Central Asia is the common English title for a musical tableau (or symphonic poem) by Alexander Borodin. ... Paul Dukas (October 1, 1865 – May 17, 1935) was a French composer of classical music. ... The Sorcerers Apprentice is the English name of both an 1897 symphonic poem by Paul Dukas (Lapprenti sorcier in French), and of a 1797 ballad by Goethe (Der Zauberlehrling in German), which inspired the musical work. ... Sergey I. Taneev. ... Oresteia (Орестея in Cyrillic) is an opera in three parts, eight tableaux, by Sergei Taneyev, composed during 1887-1894. ... Elsa and Ottorino Respighi in the 1920s Ottorino Respighi (July 9, 1879 - April 18, 1936) was an Italian composer, musicologist and violinist. ... George Gershwin photograph by Edward Steichen in 1927. ... An American in Paris is a symphonic composition by American composer George Gershwin which debuted in 1928. ... Geirr Tveitt (October 19, 1908–February 1, 1981) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. ... Nykken is a symphonic poem composed by Geirr Tveitt for orchestra and hardanger fiddel. ... Sir Arnold Edward Trevor Bax, KCVO (November 8, 1883 – October 3, 1953), was an English composer and poet. ... Biography Nigel Keay was born in Palmerston North, New Zealand in 1955. ... Nick Peros (born March 17, 1963) is a Canadian classical composer with an extensive catalogue of works that includes symphonic, orchestral, choral, vocal and chamber genres. ...

Richard Strauss (who preferred the term "tone poem" to "symphonic poem") was one of the most prolific late Romantic composers in the genre, with his works including Don Juan, Till Eulenspiegel, Also sprach Zarathustra, Don Quichote, and Ein Heldenleben. Strauss subtitled Don Quichote 'Introduction, Theme with Variations, and Finale' and 'Fantastic Variations for Large Orchestra on a Theme of Knightly Character.' The work could as easily be called a rhapsody as a tone poem. Richard Strauss (June 11, 1864 – September 8, 1949) was a German composer of the late Romantic era, particularly noted for his tone poems and operas. ... Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche (Till Eulenspiegels Merry Pranks), Op. ... Also sprach Zarathustra, op. ... Don Quixote de la Mancha (now usually spelled Don Quijote by Spanish-speakers; Don Quixote is an archaic spelling) (IPA: ) or El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha (The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha) is a novel by the Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. ... Ein Heldenleben (literally A Heroic Life, but usually more loosely translated as A Heros Life), op. ... The silver Anglia knight, commissioned as a trophy in 1850, intended to represent the Black Prince. ... A rhapsody in music is a one-movement work that is episodic yet integrated, free-flowing in structure, featuring a range of highly contrasted moods, color and tonality. ...

William Lloyd Webber, the father of theatrical composer/impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber, composed a symphonic poem Aurora, which has experienced a resurgence in popularity in recent years. However, some of this interest can be attributed to his association with the popularity of his son's works. William Southcombe Lloyd Webber (1914-1982) was an organist and composer, and was Director of the London College of Music from 1964 until his death. ... Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948) is a highly successful British composer of musical theatre. ... Look up Aurora, aurora in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

There are also a number of one-movement works not written for orchestra, but for some chamber ensemble or solo instrument, based on some extra-musical source. Because of their non-orchestral nature, these are not considered to be "symphonic poems", although in all aspects other than instrumentation, they resemble one. One of the best known such pieces is Arnold Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht ("Transfigured Night"), based on a poem, originally written for string sextet (though later arranged for a larger ensemble). Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. ... Arnold Schoenberg, Los Angeles, 1938 Schoenberg redirects here. ...

See also

• Symphonic poems