musical compositions intended to evoke images or remind the listener of events

music that attempts to depict nonmusical ideas

music that depicts a story or scene

instrumental music endowed with literary or pictorial associations which are usually suggested by the title or the composer’s explanatory notes.

Instrumental music associated with a story or other musical idea. Bottom

A musical piece that tells a story, often with the mimicking of everyday sounds.

A piece that conveys a picture or story, in contrast to absolute music.

Program music is music intended to evoke extra-musical ideas, images in the mind of the listener by musically representing a scene, image or mood http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/p1/progrmus.asp. By contrast, absolute music stands for itself and is intended to be appreciated without any particular reference to the outside world. The term is almost exclusively applied to works in the European classical music tradition, particularly those from the Romantic music period of the 19th century, during which the concept was popular, but pieces which fit the description have long been a part of music.