118. Absolute music: music created for its own sake without extramusical connotation. It is characteristic of such genres as the sonata, symphony, concerto, and string quartet as well as preludes, fugues, etudes, and other works whose titles depict only form or function. Program music depicts images, moods, stories, characters, and other nonmusical associations. It includes all music with text and many instrumental forms common during the romantic period, including the symphonic poem and some symphonies that were created with programmatic associations.

119. Symphonic poem: a programmatic, one-movement work for symphony orchestra with contrasting moods. It became popular during the Romantic period.

120. Overture: a festive opening to an opera or other musical stage production. It sets the tone, sometimes identifies principal themes and characters, and prepares an audience for the opening scene. Overtures have become popular concert pieces, sometimes achieving popularity and subsequent performances where the stage production did not. Because of this popularity, many composers have composed overtures as independent concert pieces. In the Baroque period, the French overture was a popular instrumental genre, and in the Romantic period, the concert overture assumed even greater popularity.

121. Libretto: the words to an opera or other musical stage production. The person who writes the story is the librettist.

122. Ballet: a stage production featuring formal, stylized dance performances with story or unified theme. It has, at times, been part of opera, but also developed popularity as in independent genre in the nineteenth century.

123. Miniature: a small-scale composition that became popular in the Romantic period, perhaps as an alternative to the massive size and sounds of the symphony orchestra. It includes the art song (a solo song with piano accompaniment) and the character piece (a one-movement work for solo piano). The art song (commonly known by the German word, lied, or its plural, lieder) is exemplified by the songs of Schubert that he set to German poetry. The character piece is exemplified by the works of Chopin, such as his impromptus, nocturnes, mazurkas, etudes, polonaises, and preludes.