ballet music

Orchestral dance scores

Ballet music is music composed or arranged specifically to accompany ballet performances.

The genre developed its own conventions—extended passages without vocals, clear rhythmic patterns for choreography, and dramatic shifts to match narrative action.

Some ballet scores, like Tchaikovsky's *Swan Lake* or Stravinsky's *The Rite of Spring*, have become concert repertoire performed independently of dance.

Related

Tchaikovsky · minuet · Stravinsky · Nutcracker · Rite of Spring · polonaise · gavotte · Firebird · gigue · Giselle · concerto · quadrille · Romanticism · tone poem · allemande · conductor · orchestra pit · plié

Categories
Opposites
musical genre and cultural register

ballet musichip-hop

Rhythmic spoken-word music

rap · punk rock · gangsta rap · hardcore punk · heavy metal

movement and physicality

ballet musicbreakbeat

Sampled percussive rhythm pattern

club music

institutional and class associations

ballet musicstreet music

Outdoor public performances

protest songs · prison blues · work songs

Family

music, ballet, ballerina, ballets, ballerinas, balletic, ballerino

Familiarity
Top 200,000
Profile
Known to kids · Used worldwide · Timeless · Positive · Everyday, not technical · Rated G