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

One writer speaks of it as a "piece in which a series of double shakes, and the satanic laugh with which it concludes, are so dear to lovers of descriptive music."

From Among the Great Masters of Music Scenes in the Lives of Famous Musicians by Rowlands, Walter

It is descriptive music, tonal painting if you will; but the color is local or national.

From Symphonies and Their Meaning; Third Series, Modern Symphonies by Goepp, Philip H.

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)

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.