Symphonic poem is an orchestral composition that tries to portray a nonmusical idea in music. Composers have based symphonic poems on poems, plays, stories, episodes from history, scenes from nature, paintings, and philosophical statements. The symphonic poem developed from the concert overture (see Overture ). Like the concert overture, most symphonic poems consist of one movement (section). However, symphonic poems are written more freely, and they are longer.
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Composer Franz Liszt of Hungary created the first symphonic poems about 1850. The German composer Richard Strauss expanded the form with his works Thus Spake Zarathustra (1896) and A Hero’s Life (1898). Jean Sibelius of Finland and Claude Debussy of France were the last major composers of symphonic poems.
