(And it needs all the help it can get!) :wink:
I do like Merriam Webster's definition of symphonic poem better. It's more inclusive. "Freer in form than a symphony" but not absolutely "single movement."
I brought up the definition of program music to augment what I had quoted about symphonic and tone poems, as they are related.
I had noticed that feature of Wikipedia, whereby it seems that anyone can post an entry about a topic. I tend to refer to Wikipedia quite a bit, but now I think I'm going to be a bit more discriminating about that.
I knew you were really on the right track -- there's sometimes something thrown in front of you that get's you back on course (like James Arness in "The Thing"?
) That's always the problem with definitions that tend to overdescribe. I was just a bit astonished that some poster on that site would make the mistake of limiting something and then giving a contrary example. So I made another change on my heading!
Incidentally, how about more modern symphonic or tone poems like Philip Glass?
I never really got passed Glass' minimalist works like Two Pages, Contrary Motion, Music In Fifths, etc., although he's done some music that I've liked that have been used in films, although I couldn't name it.
I like some of John Tavener's works, and Arvo Part's also.
Glass' music in Koyannisqatsi is perfect for the film, although I don't think that it could stand on its own.
It does stand up by itself, perhaps not as much as the music for "Mashima." "The Canyon" builds to crescendos that can cause goose bumps and is a piece of music that fits into this thread.
