How to Write a Program Note for Your Own Music

a guide for student composers

But my music speaks for itself!

Maybe… but please consider these five benefits of writing a program note:

It helps your audience. A good program note makes the audience curious and receptive. If they’re not accustomed to contemporary music, it will guide their focus as they listen.

It helps your performers. Your program note it will help them realize your vision. If you’re writing for an instrument you don’t play, this is especially true. If the percussionist knows your piece is about gentle rain on a lake, you’ll get a better result than if you just title the piece September and guess whether the score should say yarn mallets or rubber mallets.

It helps YOU write the piece… so start it early! I encourage my students to begin writing their program notes as they are writing their pieces. This forces them to consider: What am I trying to do here, artistically? What do I want the audience to experience? When we wrestle to articulate these things as we compose, we can play up certain qualities in the music or more vividly take the audience on that journey.

It increases your funding and educational opportunities. When you’re sending your score out into the world, including a program note shows that you’re thoughtful and professional. Committees will read your program note before hitting “play” or looking at the score. Good news: if a panelist doesn’t personally like your style, they may still give you high marks for successfully accomplishing your artistic aims as described in the program note.

It increases the chances your piece will get programmed. When venues program concerts, they are looking for compelling themes that will draw an audience. Perhaps your piece doesn’t have press quotes or it wasn’t written on commission… but it can still pull a crowd based on the idea that inspired it. Organizers also like intriguing program notes because it make their job easier– You’ve already written the promotional material for them.

How do I write a program note?

Below are six strategies. Some are more analytical, some more imaginative.

For each, I’ve provided examples of my own program notes. They’re about 3-6 sentences, or about 40-100 words, which is typical. Works longer than 15 minutes (not included here) will usually have longer program notes.

6 Strategies for Writing Program Notes

Analytical or Historical Program Notes

1) What is the form?

This is the easiest program note to write. It works best with simple forms like theme and variations or ABA. Balance technical details with expressive language. If you don’t know your audience yet, define any musical terms.

The piece opens with quiet, pizzicato (plucked) strings. One by one the instruments switch to bowing as the harmony becomes warmer and more intense. At the end of the piece the opening material comes back as a reverie, as one by one the instruments drop back into gentle pizzicato. (Two Lyric Pieces for String Quartet, I.)

2) Are you attempting anything unusual for this instrument or form?

If so, guide listeners in remembering what they already know about this instrument or form so they can appreciate how your piece is a departure. This is a great strategy if your piece is very unpredictable.

The piece is built around disjunct rising intervals, which appear in many guises: first as part of the idiomatic “oboe sigh,” then as a rhythmically charged outburst, and finally as a confident leap or joyous ascent. Oboes too often play laments, songs of resignation— this soloist fights. (FortEtude #1)

3) What were the circumstances of the composition process?

Mention anything unusual about how / for whom / why / where the piece was composed. For example, maybe the harmonies were shaped by the fact that your piano at the time was missing a few keys, or maybe you wrote for clarinet and accordion so you could play a duet with your roommate. In other words: program note as human interest story.

The most fun I have as a chamber musician is playing the theme, handing it off to another player, and hearing it get passed all around the ensemble like a game of frisbee. I wanted to write a piece like this that would be as fun to play as to listen to. I also wrote the piece for my counterpoint students to demonstrate various kinds of motive development. The distinctive timbres of each reed instrument help the audience trace elements of the theme as it moves around the group. (Music for Five)

Emotional or Imaginative Program Notes

4) Provide sensory imagery so that listening to your piece is an immersive experience rather than something to “follow” or “understand.”

This is especially useful for music that is highly unpredictable.

The Sonoran Desert is a place of contrasts. The vegetation is sparse, yet what does survive flourishes in both wind and heat, sometimes for over a century. The lizards and insects alternate between standstill and bursts of motion. The hottest hours of the day are cruel, but as the sun retreats the dry air soon becomes gentle, then once again sharp, this time from coldness. Each of these six songs seeks to capture a different aspect of this highly varied landscape. (Sonora: 6 Desert Songs for Clarinet and Unpitched Percussion)

5) Do the instruments act as characters?

If it’s part of your piece, describe the drama represented by instruments (or sections of an orchestra). This is another way to prompt an imaginative experience of the piece.

The central idea of this piece is a trio fighting its way through an electronic environment. The computer-generated sounds are at turns an intrusive presence, a shadow that the trio drags behind itself, or barely-there background. The trio performs as a unified front, with no one instrument taking the lead. The title is a reference to the line “the best way out is always through,” from the Robert Frost poem “Servant to Servants.” The piece contains both live-processed and pre-recorded sounds. (Best Way Out for string trio and electronics)

6) If the piece represents a person or event, what is universal about it?

The more relatable the emotion, situation, or relationship, the more relatable the piece.

Below is the first draft of a program note I wrote for my piece Music in Memory. Why do you think I changed it later?

In the early 1930s, as the Nazi party gradually took control of Germany, violist and composer Paul Hindemith came under increasing attack. His music was described as “culturally Bolshevist,” and he was criticized for performing in a trio with Jewish colleagues. Nevertheless, he remained a major composer, and in March of 1934, the Berlin Philharmonic premiered his Mathis der Maler. A bitter controversy erupted. Seeing the writing on the wall, Hindemith requested indefinite leave from the Berlin Music Academy. . . [several more paragraphs on Hindemith’s biography].

Rereading the note, I realized that the first sentence is abrupt. The audience may think, “Oh no, a story about Nazis. This is going to be really sad.” Or even, “I’ve never heard of Hindemith, so I guess he’s not an important composer.”

I needed to revise the program note to make the struggle of this particular composer living in 1930 as relevant and inspiring as possible. Here’s the new opening:

Music in Memory is a tribute to Hindemith’s adherence to his ideals in the face of persecution, his exile, and his eventual return to Europe.

When reading that new first sentence, hopefully everyone in the audience can think of someone who sticks to their ideals no matter the cost. Here is the new first paragraph:

Music in Memory is a tribute to Hindemith’s adherence to his ideals in the face of persecution, his exile, and his eventual return to Europe. The piece does not fit the traditional sonata relationship of soloist/accompanist. At first, the viola is nearly dominated by the piano, then is clearly at the forefront. The struggle continues until the central section, in which the viola plays alone, performing fragments of half-remembered melody. The piece ends with a recap of the opening material, this time with the viola clearly to the fore. (Music in Memory for viola and piano)

You can see that I’ve combined two strategies: instruments as characters and universal themes.

Program Notes vs. Catalog Notes

In a concert hall, the audience is making time to give the music their full attention. Many will read the program. On the internet, listeners are skimming for information. That’s why on my site you’ll see super-short descriptions of pieces I call catalog notes. Here are more examples from an online sheet music store. Click on a piece to see a 1-2 sentence description.

Once you’ve written a program note for your work, you can pare it down to a catalog note for internet use.

Recap: Six Strategies for Program Notes

Describe the form, if it’s simple. Include expressive words.
Describe anything unusual you are doing with this instrument/ form.
Describe anything unusual about the circumstances of creating the piece.
Provide vivid sensory descriptions to encourage an immersive experience.
Describe the instruments as characters in a drama.
Describe your inspiration for the piece in a relatable way, using universal emotions, situations, or relationships.

If your piece has been premiered, you may want to include that information in the program note as well.

Write While It’s Fresh!

What about those pieces already sitting in your portfolio without program notes? When I was a student, visiting composer Thea Musgrave gave this great advice: Finish the program note as soon as you finish the piece, even if there is no performance planned. Write while the inspiration for the piece and the process of composition are fresh in your mind. That way you won’t be scrambling later (perhaps years later) when someone asks for the score and program notes.

Further Inspiration

Look at the websites of professional composers (https://composersforum.org/members/) and read a few program notes without hitting any sound links. Read slowly, as if you were at a concert. (1) Does the program note make you want to hear the piece? Why or why not? (2) Listen to the piece. Did the program note enhance your appreciation? Why or why not?

Questions? Suggestions? Email me: info@eleanoraversa.com