Word painting

Also known as tone painting or text painting, word painting is the musical depiction of words in text. Despite it's seeming reference to a literary / visual art, word painting is mostly known as a musical art form. The music tries to imitate the emotion, action, or natural sounds as described in the text. For example, an instrument might imitate the sound of an animal mentioned, or if the text describes a sad event, the music might be in a minor key. Ascending and descending scales can indicate the physical motion of a character or object in the text moving up or down. This device was used often in madrigals and other works of the Renaissance and Baroque. See also eye music.<br>