Dictionary of Music - Birding America

324 principal(first oboe, first flute, first horn, etc.) is to play a passage.Often abbreviated Imo or I° or I. —tempoprimo (tem′pô prē′ mô). A direction to resume thetempo used at the start of a composition or section.(See also come prima, under PRIMA.) —primouomo (prē′mô wô′ mô). The leading male singer inan opera.principal 1 In organs, the name for an importantstop that controls certain of the open diapason pipes.In American and British organs, the term is used fora four-foot open diapason on the manuals and aneight-foot open diapason on the pedals, each soundingan octave higher than the pitch of the key orpedal depressed. In German and Italian organs theterm is used for any open diapason, no matter whatsize. (See also ORGAN.) 2 Another term for LEADER,def. 3.Prix de Rome (prē d ə rôm′) French: “prize ofRome.” A famous award, given by the French governmentto musicians, as well as to artists in otherfields. The winner, who is judged on the basis ofexaminations, is given a course of study in Rome forseveral years. The first Prix de Rome in music wasawarded in 1803, the last in 1968. Among the composerswho won it are Halévy, Berlioz, Gounod,Bizet, Massenet, Debussy, and Ibert.processional antiphonSee under ANTIPHON.program music Also, descriptive music. A generalterm for music that tells a story without usingwords. Some program music tells a story veryspecifically, as, for example, Prokofiev’s musicalfairy tale, Peter and the Wolf, in which differentinstruments “act out” the narrator’s words. Otherworks are descriptive in a more general way, suggestingemotions (Liszt’s Les Préludes, based on apoem by Lamartine), or describing nature(Debussy’s La Mer, depicting the sea; the last movementof Beethoven’s Symphony no. 6, portraying athunderstorm). Some compositions follow a fairlycomplicated plot, which is usually described in programnotes by the composer; an outstanding exampleis Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, about thestrange dreams of a young musician who falls into adrugged sleep. The opposite of program music iscalled ABSOLUTE MUSIC. Some use the term “programmusic” only for instrumental music; others useit also for songs in which the music is highly appropriateto the meaning and mood of the words, as inthe lieder of Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms.Actually, both “absolute” and “program” music are amatter of degree, and to what extent (if any) aBeethoven string quartet, for example, “tells a story”is really a matter of opinion. Certainly such musicexpresses feelings, and listeners would probably findit easy to agree as to whether the feelings expressedare sad or happy. On this basis, a Beethoven quartetmight be said to be more “programmatic” than aquartet by Boccherini or a fugue by Bach. In general,however, the terms “program music” and “programmatic”are best confined to music that describessomething specific—a particular feeling or mood, ascene, a story, an idea—which is recognizable bothfrom the music itself and from the titles or othernotes provided by the composer.The earliest program music fitting this descriptiondates from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.In the early sixteenth century the French composerJanequin wrote songs descriptive of nature (withimitations of birdcalls) and of battles (with fanfaresand other sounds of battle). In the late seventeenthcentury the German composer Johann Kuhnau wrotea series of sonatas for harpsichord (entitled BiblischeHistorien, or “Biblical Stories”) that describe, purelythrough the music, such events as David’s fight withthe giant Goliath. Although attempts along theselines continued, it was not until the nineteenth centurythat program music became really significant.Many of the romantic composers wrote more programmusic than any other kind, particularly orchestralmusic in four important forms: the program symphony,symphonic poem, suite, and concert overture.Berlioz invented the PROGRAM SYMPHONY, a work inseveral movements with a written description (the“program”) explaining the story the music is supposedto tell. To help the listener follow the story,Berlioz used repeated motifs (short themes), whichhe called idées fixes (“fixed ideas”). Liszt inventedanother form, the SYMPHONIC POEM, a long work inone movement. A shorter form that became popularwas the one-movement CONCERT OVERTURE (a well-