SYMPHONY

a lengthy form of musical composition for orchestra, normally consisting of several large sections, or movements, at least one of which usually employs sonata form. Symphonies in this sense began to be composed during the so-called Classical era in European music history, c. 17401820. The early part of this period and the decade immediately preceding it are sometimes called pre-Classical, as are the symphonies written before about 1750. During the 19th century, which included the Romantic era, symphonies grew longer, and composers concerned themselves with ways of unifying the movements; extramusical programs and new approaches toward tonality (the majorminor system of chord progressions) were among the solutions to the problems of large-scale symphonic form. Late in the century, symphoniesand orchestrashad grown to such an extent that reaction set in, culminating in the Neoclassical movement of the early 20th century, in which composers turned again toward principles of balance and formal discipline, using new techniques to achieve dynamic coherence. Economic considerations forced a reduction in the size of orchestras and amount of rehearsal time available to mid-20th-century composers, further justifying a return to less extravagant symphonic thinking. Throughout the 19th century, however, a number of outstanding symphonists were able to reconcile the demands of fashion with strict musical logic. These composers represent the mainstream of symphonic activity, and their works remained models for much 20th-century activity in the genre. Throughout the following article two concerns predominate: a survey of the chief symphonic works and composers and consideration of the evolution of symphonic thought. a lengthy form of musical composition for orchestra, usually consisting of several large sections, or movements, at least one of which probably employs sonata form. Before 1750 the word symphony was applied to various instrumental compositions and to instrumental preludes and interludes of some vocal compositions. In 1597 Giovanni Gabrieli published the First Book of his Sacrae Symphoniae, although it was not until the Second Book in 1615 that the instrumental parts were stylistically independent from the vocal writing. In the mid-17th century Louis Couperin used the word simphonies to describe his compositions for viols and continuo, and other composers wrote sinfonie to be played before concerts, motets, or spiritual madrigals with instruments as a prelude. Probably the most important pre-1750 use of the word sinfonia was in Italian opera. Even the earliest operas, such as Jacopo Peri's Euridice of 1600 and Claudio Monteverdi's Orfeo of 1607, contain excellent examples of instrumental introductions and recurring interludes designated in the score as sinfonie. Within a century these sinfonie had become the fairly standardized Neapolitan overture, or the sinfonia avanti l'opera, which consisted of three sections, fastslowfast. The immense popularity of these opera overtures soon resulted in their being performed as independent concert pieces. Between 1700 and 1740 the sinfonia became a four-movement form when Georg Monn and Georg Wagenseil of Vienna began inserting a minuet movement after the second, or slow, movement. Simultaneously sonata form was evolving and became the traditional structure of the first movement. The Italian Giovanni Battista Sammartini and Johann Stamitz of the Mannheim School were also influential in the standardization of the symphony as it would remain for many years to come. Joseph Haydn was undoubtedly the most prolific of all symphony writers, and his works in this genre fully span what has been called the Classical era. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Haydn were the two most important symphonists before Ludwig van Beethoven, and in their works the Classical symphony reached its apex. The first movement, in sonata form, was almost always allegro in tempo, although it may have had a slow introduction. Due to Haydn and Mozart, sonata form employed distinct lyric themes that could be manipulated and developed; easily identifiable opening, closing, and transitional melodic material; and standardized key-relationships through modulation. Especially in their later symphonies Mozart and Haydn achieved a refinement of detail, balance, and elegance never surpassed by any other symphony composer. The second movement of the Classical symphony was usually slow in tempo with a choice of the form, which was often sonata or theme-and-variations. While the third movement was the rather strict minuet form, the fourth movement, or finale, was based on sonata-form principles but was often more like a rondo, probably light-hearted in character and always fast in tempo. The orchestra of the Classical symphony consisted of the pre-Classical group of two bassoons and strings, in addition to two horns, two trumpets, drums, one or two flutes, and finally two clarinets. Beethoven, whose nine symphonies form a powerful bridge from the Classical era well into the Romantic era, was a revolutionary whose passionate involvement with the events of his time, coupled with his wealth of musical ideas and fearless independence, pushed musical composition, particularly the symphony, into new frontiers of expression. He placed new demands on the existing instruments and was the first to make symphonic use of the piccolo, the double bassoon, the triangle, the bass drum and cymbals, a third trombone, and finally a chorus and vocal soloists. He lengthened the previously less-important parts of the sonata-form movements, used more variations and fugal passages, sometimes linked movements together with no audible break in the music, and completely replaced the old minuet movement with a faster and usually more jovial scherzo. Through Beethoven's dramatic intensity, the symphony became paradoxically a means of expressing both personal emotions and universal human aspirations. In general, 19th-century symphonists, while awed by Beethoven, followed his lead in allowing themselves more freedom from fixed forms. The German/Viennese symphonic style continued through the works of such composers as Franz Schubert, Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Anton Bruckner, and Johannes Brahms, whose four symphonies show a marked return to Classical ideals while retaining the lush harmonies that characterized the mature Romantic sound. With the symphonies of Gustav Mahler the German/Viennese symphonic heritage emerged into the 20th century. Meanwhile, in 1830, shortly after Beethoven's death, the young Hector Berlioz created a remarkable composition that opened the door to a new type of symphonic style. His Symphonie fantastique was a five-movement work in which forms were relaxed, tempi changed freely and frequently, and an enormous body of instruments were employed for often unusual orchestral effects. Berlioz was not the first either to use a recurring musical theme (cyclicism) or to use instrumental music to represent a non-musical idea (programme music), but his work shows a happy combination of the two devices that influenced many composers to follow, and which definitely led to the symphonic poems of Franz Liszt and Richard Strauss. The latter half of the 19th century saw a strong rise of nationalistic expression, often characterized by a composer's drawing from the folk-music traditions of his native land. Although the symphonies of such nationalists as the Czech Antonn Dvo rk and the Russians Aleksandr Borodin, Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, and Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky are excellent media for nationalistic expressions, the symphonies were rather traditionally structured and not particularly innovative for the form itself. The symphonies of the 20th century are not easily categorized, as they range through various compositional styles including 12-tone, atonal, electronic, and Neoclassical. A few representative major composers are Arthur Honegger of France; Paul Hindemith of Germany; Nikolay Myaskovsky, Dmitry Shostakovich, and Sergey Prokofiev of the Soviet Union; Ralph Vaughan Williams, Frederick Delius, Sir William Walton, and Sir Michael Tippett of Great Britain; Sergey Rachmaninoff and Igor Stravinsky, emigrants from the Soviet Union; and Charles Ives, Walter Piston, and Roy Harris of the United States. Additional reading Friedrich Blume et al., Symphonie, in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, vol. 12, col. 180399 (1965), important historical and regional surveys of symphonic production, with extensive bibliography; Nathan Broder, The Wind-Instruments in Mozart's Symphonies, Musical Quarterly (MQ), 19:238259 (1933), a study of the changing role of winds in 18th-century orchestration; Howard Brofsky, The Symphonies of Padre Martini, MQ, 51:649673 (1965), a discussion of Martini's pre-Classical symphonic style; Barry S. Brook, La Symphonie franaise dans la seconde moiti du XVIIIe sicle, 3 vol. (1962), an important survey of over 1,200 works by 150 composers; Adam Carse, Eighteenth-Century Symphonies: A Short History . . . (1951), with emphasis on pre-Classical and early Classical forms and the overture; Malcolm S. Cole, The Vogue of the Instrumental Rondo in the Late 18th Century, Journal of the American Musicological Society (JAMS), 22:425455 (1969), evidence for the rise and passing of a formal fashion; Charles L. Cudworth, The English Symphonists of the Eighteenth Century, Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, 78:3151 (195152), a survey of a neglected national school; Philip G. Downs, Beethoven's New Way' and the Eroica, MQ, 56:585604 (1970), an examination of the symphony in the light of a crisis in Beethoven's life; Frank E. Kirby, Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony as a Sinfonia caracteristica, MQ, 56:605623 (1970), traditional pastoral elements related to Beethoven's symphonic form and content; H.C.R. Landon, The Symphonies of Joseph Haydn (1955, suppl. 1961), a thorough analysis of Haydn's evolution toward greatness; Jan LaRue, Major and Minor Mysteries of Identification in the 18th-Century Symphony, JAMS, 13:181196 (1960), on problems of authenticity and attribution, mostly among minor masters; and Significant and Coincidental Resemblance Between Classical Themes, JAMS, 14:222234 (1961), discusses and illustrates theme families and elements of melodic formation; Gordana Lazarevich, The Neapolitan Intermezzo and Its Influence on the Symphonic Idiom, MQ, 57:294313 (1971), an examination of a strong determinant of early symphonic style; Ernest Sanders, Form and Content in the Finale of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, MQ, 50:5976 (1964), a study of the structure of this famous movement; Robert Simpson (ed.), The Symphony: vol. 1, Haydn to Dvork (1966) and vol. 2, Elgar to the Present Day (1967), a collection of essays surveying the production of important symphonists; Nicholas Temperley, The Symphonie fantastique and Its Program, MQ, 57:593608 (1971), on Berlioz' music as related to its extramusical plot; Donald F. Tovey, Essays in Musical Analysis, vol. 1, Symphonies (1935), old but perceptive and well-written discussions of chief works; Homer Ulrich, Symphonic Music: Its Evolution Since the Renaissance (1961), one of the few wide-ranging histories available in English. Origins of the symphony are explored in Clive Unger-Hamilton (ed.), The Great Symphonies (1983).