programme music
Instrumental music that tells a story or depicts a scene, as opposed to absolute music.
In Depth
Programme music uses purely instrumental forces to narrate a story, depict a scene, or express a literary or visual idea. The programme (the extra-musical content) is usually communicated through a title, preface, or printed description. Famous examples include Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique, and Strauss's tone poems.
The debate between programme music and absolute music (music that exists purely for its own sake, without external reference) was one of the great aesthetic controversies of the 19th century. Liszt and Berlioz championed programme music, while Brahms and Hanslick defended absolute music. In practice, most music falls somewhere between the two extremes.
Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique is a musical autobiography — the programme describes an artist's opium dream about his obsessive love for an actress. Berlioz really was obsessed with an actress.