The transformation of programmed music from the Romantic period to the Anthropocene

Authors : Yusuf Çetinkaya

Pages : 193-203

Doi:10.48146/odusobiad.1736815

View : 87 | Download : 61

Publication Date : 2025-07-31

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :This study examines the historical, aesthetic and conceptual transformation of program music from the Romantic Period to the Anthropocene Age. Historically, program music has undertaken different functions in different periods of music history with its structure based on a specific narrative, representation or depiction of nature. In the Romantic Period, nature was represented as a sublime beauty and emotional reflection. The composers of the period conveyed the harmony, order and aesthetic expression of inner feelings between nature and humans through tonal music. In this approach, nature was depicted as both an escape and a source of inspiration. With the irreversibility of environmental crises in the Anthropocene Age, nature is no longer conceptualized as an idealized beauty but as an entity under threat. In this context, music transforms into a language that not only represents nature but also thinks with it, invites us to feel and criticizes it. The interpretive paradigm based on the qualitative research method was preferred in the study. Tonality, temporality, rhythm, extended techniques, electronic sound production, field recordings and transformations in aesthetic context were evaluated with content analysis and the works of Anthropocene Era composers were examined with an interpretive approach in terms of new forms of establishing relationships with nature. In the study, the historical transformation of programmed music was examined not only through musical forms but also together with environmental consciousness, aesthetic sensitivity and cultural change dynamics and the new role of music in the Anthropocene context was examined.
Keywords : Programlı Müzik, Romantik Dönem, Antroposen.

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