ABSOLUTE MUSIC, is music that refers to nothing outside itself and makes no attempt to convey specific emotions, visual images, or ideas related to the objective world. It is contrasted with program music.

纯音乐，是指那种不涉及它自身以外的任何事物，并不试图传达与客观世界有关的特定情绪、视觉形象或观念的音乐。纯音乐与标题音乐相对照。

The meaning of absolute music lies in its structure alone. It does not imitate the sounds of nature, tell a story, or illustrate a text. It is almost exclusively instrumental, the exceptions being the rare cases in which the voice is used purely as a wordless instrument, as in Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas brasileiras No. 5, for voice and eight cellos.

纯音乐的意义在于它独自的结构。它不模仿自然的声响，不讲故事，或解释一个主题。除了声音被纯粹用作一种无言工具的那些罕见的情况外，它几乎完全是工具性的，就像为声部和八个大提琴而作的维拉·罗伯斯的《巴西的巴赫风格》5号作品一样。

The concertos and suites of Bach, the symphonies of Beethoven (with the exceptions of the Pastoral Symphony and the choral finale of the Ninth symphony), and the chamber music of Brahms fall into the category of absolute music, as do most of the instrumental works in the standard concert repertory. In certain instances even music associated with the theater can stand independently as absolute music. For example, the overture to Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro is a composition in sonata form and need no operatic reference to complete its meanings.

巴赫的协奏曲和组曲，贝多芬的交响曲（《田园交响曲》和《第九交响曲》合唱尾声除外），以及勃拉姆斯的室内乐都属于纯音乐的范畴，就像标准的音乐会曲目中的大多数器乐作品一样。在某些情况下，甚至与剧院相关的音乐都可以独立地作为纯音乐。例如，莫扎特的《费加罗的婚礼》序曲就是一部奏鸣曲式的作品，不需要任何歌剧介绍来完成它的意义。

Many works that cannot be defined strictly as “absolute” are nevertheless structurally complete without a “program.” The first movement of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, for example, is among the most tightly knit and economical of classical compositions; if it were not for the fact that Beethoven himself supplied a “story,” the piece could justifiably be classified as absolute music.

然而，许多无法被严格定义成“纯音乐”的作品，如果没有一个“标题”在结构上就是完整的。例如，贝多芬的《田园交响曲》的第一乐章就是一部最紧凑和简练的古典作品；如果不是因为贝多芬自己提供了一个“故事”，这部作品就能无可非议地被归类为纯音乐。

                                 SHIRLEY FLEMING, “Musical America”

                                   雪莉·弗莱明，“音乐美国”

                                       2022年6月27日译

（译者注：该词条位列《大美百科全书》1985年版，第1卷，第54页