Word.ws English Dictionary

Gebrauchsmusik

Gebrauchsmusik noun: music composed for a specific, identifiable purpose, not just for its own sake.

Noun

Gebrauchsmusik (uncountable)

  1. Music composed for a specific, identifiable purpose, not just for its own sake.
    • Copland's own criticism of Gebrauchsmusik as a “contaminated” musical style can also be read as a rebuke of its ties to musical styles associated with the culture industry.2009, Elizabeth B. Crist, Music for the Common Man: Aaron Copland during the Depression and War, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 76

Origin of Gebrauchsmusik

Borrowed from German Gebrauchsmusik (literally “utility music”).

Questions about Gebrauchsmusik

What does Gebrauchsmusik mean?
Gebrauchsmusik means music composed for a specific, identifiable purpose, not just for its own sake.
What part of speech is Gebrauchsmusik?
Gebrauchsmusik is a noun.

Words near Gebrauchsmusik in the dictionary

  1. gebiids
  2. Gebio-an
  3. Gebo
  4. Gebos
  5. Gebran
  6. Gebrauchsmusik
  7. Gebre
  8. Gebrehiwot
  9. Gebrekidan
  10. Gebremariam
  11. Gebremariams

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Gebrauchsmusik (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “Gebrauchsmusik.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gebrauchsmusik. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.