Exploration

Programme Music is another significant musical genre in the Romantic era. Like Miniatures, Programme Music embodies a specific theme or emotion based on the narrative, which was usually associated with literature. The length of the work can be long or short. Commonly, the small scale or single movement of Programme music is known as Symphonic Poems. One representative example is Liszt’s orchestra opus, Les Preludes - Symphonic Poem No. 3. Through the cover page, it clearly shows that the work is a form of Miniatures. Moreover, orchestral Miniatures were involved and discussed as a topic in the conference of Nineteenth-Century Programme Music (2016), which was conducted by the Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini of Lucca. As a result, Miniatures are related to Programme Music; further, Miniatures can be seen as a form of Programme Music.

Likewise, the Characteristic Piece is a striking type of music in the Romantic period, which has similar traits of way of musical expression to Miniatures and Programme Music. The Characteristic Piece is predominately for piano solo, along with specific title to depict the idea of the work. The relationship between the Characteristic Piece and Miniatures was revealed by the opuses of Beethoven, Schubert Schumann and other composers, and the former was further developed by Chopin, Brahms, Liszt and so forth. Also, Edward Elgar’s work, Orchestral Miniatures: Three Characteristic Pieces op. 10, is a representative in terms of Characteristic Piece.