ind instrument.

Galant and classical eras[edit]

LaRue, Bonds, Walsh, and Wilson write in the second edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music
and Musicians that "the symphony was cultivated with extraordinary intensity" in the 18th century. [6] It
played a role in many areas of public life, including church services,[7] but a particularly strong area of
support for symphonic performances was the aristocracy. In Vienna, perhaps the most important
location in Europe for the composition of symphonies, "literally hundreds of noble families supported
musical establishments, generally dividing their time between Vienna and their ancestral estate
[elsewhere in the Empire]". [8] Since the normal size of the orchestra at the time was quite small,
many of these courtly establishments were capable of performing symphonies. The young Joseph
Haydn, taking up his first job as a music director in 1757 for the Morzin family, found that when the
Morzin household was in Vienna, his own orchestra was only part of a lively and competitive musical
scene, with multiple aristocrats sponsoring concerts with their own ensembles.[9]

LaRue, Bonds, Walsh, and Wilson's article traces the gradual expansion of the symphonic orchestra
through the 18th century.[10] At first, symphonies were string symphonies, written in just four parts:
first violin, second violin, viola, and bass (the bass line was taken by cello(s), double bass(es)
playing the part an octave below, and perhaps also a bassoon). Occasionally the early symphonists
even dispensed with the viola part, thus creating three-part symphonies. A basso continuo part
including a bassoon together with a harpsichord or other chording instrument was also possible.[10]

The first additions to this simple ensemble were a pair of horns, occasionally a pair of oboes, and
then both horns and oboes together. Over the century, other instruments were added to the
classical orchestra: flutes (sometimes replacing the oboes), separate parts for bassoons, clarinets,
and trumpets and timpani. Works varied in their scoring concerning which of these additional
instruments were to appear. The full-scale classical orchestra, deployed at the end of the century for
the largest-scale symphonies, has the standard string ensemble mentioned above, pairs of winds
(flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons), a pair of horns, and timpani. A keyboard continuo instrument
(harpsichord or piano) remained an option.

The "Italian" style of symphony, often used as overture and entr'acte in opera houses, became a
standard three-movement form: a fast movement, a slow movement, and another fast movement.
Over the course of the 18th century it became the custom to write four-movement symphonies,
[11]
along the lines described in the next paragraph. The three-movement symphony died out slowly;
about half of Haydn's first thirty symphonies are in three movements;[12] and for the young Mozart, the
three-movement symphony was the norm, perhaps under the influence of his friend Johann
Christian Bach.[13] An outstanding late example of the three-movement Classical symphony is
Mozart's Prague Symphony, from 1786.

The four-movement form that emerged from this evolution was as follows: [14][15]

I. An opening sonata or allegro

II. A slow movement, such as andante
III. A minuet or scherzo with trio
IV. An allegro, rondo, or sonata
Variations on this layout, like changing the order of the middle movements or adding a slow
introduction to the first movement, were common. Haydn, Mozart and their contemporaries restricted
their use of the four-movement form to orchestral or multi-instrument chamber music such as
quartets, though since Beethoven solo sonatas are as often written in four as in three movements. [16]
The composition of early symphonies was centred on Milan, Vienna, and Mannheim. The Milanese
school centred around Giovanni Battista Sammartini and included Antonio Brioschi, Ferdinando
Galimberti and Giovanni Battista Lampugnani. Early exponents of the form in Vienna included Georg
Christoph Wagenseil, Wenzel Raimund Birck and Georg Matthias Monn, while later significant
Viennese composers of symphonies included Johann Baptist Wanhal, Carl Ditters von
Dittersdorf and Leopold Hofmann. The Mannheim school included Johann Stamitz.[17]

The most important symphonists of the latter part of the 18th century are Haydn, who wrote at least
106 symphonies over the course of 36 years,[18] and Mozart, with at least 47 symphonies in 24 years.
[19]

Romantic era[edit]

Beethoven's Symphony No. 5

First movement: Allegro con brio
Duration: 8 minutes and 21 seconds.8:21

Second movement: Andante con moto

Duration: 9 minutes and 59 seconds.9:59

Third movement: Scherzo. Allegro

Duration: 5 minutes and 37 seconds.5:37

Fourth movement: Allegro

Duration: 11 minutes and 47 seconds.11:47
Performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra

Problems playing these files? See media help.

At the beginning of the 19th century, Beethoven elevated the symphony from an everyday genre
produced in large quantities to a supreme form in which composers strove to reach the highest
potential of music in just a few works.[20] Beethoven began with two works directly emulating his
models Mozart and Haydn, then seven more symphonies, starting with the Third
Symphony ("Eroica") that expanded the scope and ambition of the genre. His Symphony No. 5 is
perhaps the most famous symphony ever written; its transition from the emotionally stormy C
minor opening movement to a triumphant major-key finale provided a model adopted by later
symphonists such as Brahms[21] and Mahler.[citation needed] His Symphony No. 6 is a programmatic work,
featuring instrumental imitations of bird calls and a storm; and, unconventionally, a fifth movement
(symphonies usually had at most four movements). His Symphony No. 9 includes parts for vocal
soloists and choir in the last movement, making it a choral symphony.[22]

Of the symphonies by Schubert, two are core repertory items and are frequently performed. Of
the Eighth Symphony (1822), Schubert completed only the first two movements; this highly
Romantic work is usually called by its nickname "The Unfinished". His last completed symphony,
the Ninth (1826) is a massive work in the Classical idiom.[23]
Of the early Romantics, Felix Mendelssohn (five symphonies, plus thirteen string symphonies)
and Robert Schumann (four) continued to write symphonies in the classical mould, though using
their own musical language. In contrast, Berlioz favored programmatic works, including his "dramatic
symphony" Roméo et Juliette, the viola symphony Harold en Italie and the highly original Symphonie
fantastique. The latter is also a programme work and has both a march and a waltz and five
movements instead of the customary four. His fourth and last symphony, the Grande symphonie
funèbre et triomphale (originally titled Symphonie militaire) was composed in 1840 for a 200-
piece marching military band, to be performed out of doors, and is an early example of a band
symphony. Berlioz later added optional string parts and a choral finale.[24] In 1851, Richard
Wagner declared that all of these post-Beethoven symphonies were no more than an epilogue,
offering nothing substantially new. Indeed, after Schumann's last symphony,
the "Rhenish" composed in 1850, for two decades the Lisztian symphonic poem appeared to have
displaced the symphony as the leading form of large-scale instrumental music. However, Liszt also
composed two programmatic choral symphonies during this time, Faust and Dante. If the symphony
had otherwise been eclipsed, it was not long before it re-emerged in a "second age" in the 1870s
and 1880s, with the symphonies by Bruckner, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saëns, Borodin, Dvořák,
and Franck—works which largely avoided the programmatic elements of Berlioz and Liszt and
dominated the concert repertory for at least a century.[20]

Over the course of the 19th century, composers continued to add to the size of the symphonic
orchestra. Around the beginning of the century, a full-scale orchestra would consist of the string
section plus pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets, and lastly a set of timpani.
[25]
This is, for instance, the scoring used in Beethoven's symphonies numbered 1, 2, 4, 7, and 8.
Trombones, which had previously been confined to church and theater music, came to be added to
the symphonic orchestra, notably in Beethoven's 5th, 6th, and 9th symphonies. The combination of
bass drum, triangle, and cymbals (sometimes also: piccolo), which 18th-century composers
employed as a coloristic effect in so-called "Turkish music", came to be increasingly used during the
second half of the 19th century without any such connotations of genre.[25] By the time of Mahler (see
below), it was possible for a composer to write a symphony scored for "a veritable compendium of
orchestral instruments".[25] In addition to increasing in variety of instruments, 19th-century
symphonies were gradually augmented with more string players and more wind parts, so that the
orchestra grew substantially in sheer numbers, as concert halls likewise grew. [25]

Late-Romantic, modernist and postmodernist eras[edit]

Towards the end of the 19th century, Gustav Mahler began writing long, large-scale symphonies that
he continued composing into the early 20th century. His Third Symphony, completed in 1896, is one
of the longest regularly performed symphonies at around 100 minutes in length for most
performances. The Eighth Symphony was composed in 1906 and is nicknamed the "Symphony of a
Thousand" because of the large number of voices required to perform the work.

The 20th century saw further diversification in the style and content of works that composers
labeled symphonies.[26] Some composers, including Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Rachmaninoff,
and Carl Nielsen, continued to write in the traditional four-movement form, while other composers
took different approaches: Jean Sibelius' Symphony No. 7, his last, is in one movement, Richard
Strauss' Alpine Symphony, in one movement, split into twenty-two parts, detailing an eleven hour
hike through the mountains and Alan Hovhaness's Symphony No. 9, Saint Vartan—originally Op. 80,
changed to Op. 180—composed in 1949–50, is in twenty-four.[27]

A concern with unification of the traditional four-movement symphony into a single, subsuming
formal conception had emerged in the late 19th century. This has been called a "two-dimensional
symphonic form", and finds its key turning point in Arnold Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony No. 1,
Op. 9 (1909), which was followed in the 1920s by other notable single-movement German
symphonies, including Kurt Weill's First Symphony (1921), Max Butting's Chamber Symphony, Op.
25 (1923), and Paul Dessau's 1926 Symphony.[28]

Alongside this experimentation, other 20th-century symphonies deliberately attempted to evoke the
18th-century origins of the genre, in terms of form and even musical style, with prominent examples
being Sergei Prokofiev's Symphony No. 1 "Classical" of 1916–17 and the Symphony in C by Igor
Stravinsky of 1938–40.[29]

There remained, however, certain tendencies. Designating a work a "symphony" still implied a
degree of sophistication and seriousness of purpose. The word sinfonietta came into use to
designate a work that is shorter, of more modest aims, or "lighter" than a symphony, such as Sergei
Prokofiev's Sinfonietta for orchestra.[30][31]

In the first half of the century, composers including Edward Elgar, Gustav Mahler, Jean Sibelius, Carl
Nielsen, Igor Stravinsky, Bohuslav Martinů, Roger Sessions, Sergei Prokofiev, Rued Langgaard and
Dmitri Shostakovich composed symphonies "extraordinary in scope, richness, originality, and
urgency of expression".[32] One measure of the significance of a symphony is the degree to which it
reflects conceptions of temporal form particular to the age in which it was created. Five composers
from across the span of the 20th century who fulfil this measure are Jean Sibelius, Igor
Stravinsky, Luciano Berio (in his Sinfonia, 1968–69), Elliott Carter (in his Symphony of Three
Orchestras, 1976), and Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen (in Symphony/Antiphony, 1980).[33]

From the mid-20th century into the 21st there has been a resurgence of interest in the symphony
with many postmodernist composers adding substantially to the canon, not least in the United
Kingdom: Peter Maxwell Davies (10),[34] Robin Holloway (1),[35] David Matthews (9),[36] James
MacMillan (5),[37] Peter Seabourne (5),[38] and Philip Sawyers (3).[39]. British composer Derek
Bourgeois has surpassed the number of symphonies written by Haydn, with 116 symphonies.[40] The
greatest number of symphonies to date has been composed by the Finn Leif Segerstam, whose list
of works includes 352 symphonies.[41]

Symphonies for concert band[edit]

Hector Berlioz originally wrote the Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale for military band in
1840. Anton Reicha had composed his four-movement 'Commemoration' Symphony (also known
as Musique pour célébrer le Mémorie des Grands Hommes qui se sont Illustrés au Service de la
Nation Française) for large wind ensemble even earlier, in 1815, for ceremonies associated with the
reburial of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette[42][better source needed]

After those early efforts, few symphonies were written for wind bands until the 20th century when
more symphonies were written for concert band than in past centuries. Although examples exist from
as early as 1932, the first such symphony of importance is Nikolai Myaskovsky's Symphony No. 19,
Op. 46, composed in 1939.[43] Some further examples are Paul Hindemith's Symphony in B-flat for
Band, composed in 1951; Morton Gould's Symphony No. 4 "West Point", composed in 1952; Vincent
Persichetti's Symphony No. 6, Op. 69, composed in 1956; Vittorio Giannini's Symphony No. 3,
composed in 1958; Alan Hovhaness's Symphonies No. 4, Op. 165, No. 7, "Nanga Parvat", Op. 175,
No. 14, "Ararat", Op. 194, and No. 23, "Ani", Op. 249, composed in 1958, 1959, 1961, and 1972
respectively;[44] John Barnes Chance's Symphony No. 2, composed in 1972; Alfred Reed's 2nd, 3rd,
4th, and 5th symphonies, composed in 1979, 1988, 1992, and 1994 respectively; eight of the ten
numbered symphonies of David Maslanka;[45] five symphonies to date by Julie Giroux (although she
is currently working on a sixth[46]); Johan de Meij's Symphony No. 1 "The Lord of the Rings",
composed in 1988, and his Symphony No. 2 "The Big Apple", composed in 1993; Yasuhide Ito's
Symphony in Three Scenes 'La Vita', composed in 1998, which is his third symphony for wind
band; John Corigliano's Symphony No. 3 'Circus Maximus, composed in 2004; Denis Levaillant's
PachaMama Symphony, composed in 2014 and 2015,[47] and James M. Stephenson's Symphony No.
2 which was premiered by the United States Marine Band ("The President's Own") and received
both the National Band Association's William D. Revelli (2017)[48] and the American Bandmasters
Association's Sousa/Ostwald (2018)[49] awards.

Other modern usages of "symphony"[edit]

In some forms of English, the word "symphony" is also used to refer to the orchestra, the large
ensemble that often performs these works. The word "symphony" appears in the name of many
orchestras, for example, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the St.
Louis Symphony, the Houston Symphony, or Miami's New World Symphony. For some orchestras,
"(city name) Symphony" provides a shorter version of the full name; for instance, the OED gives
"Vancouver Symphony" as a possible abbreviated form of Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.[50]
[51]
Additionally, in common usage, a person may say they are going out to hear a symphony perform,
a reference to the orchestra and not the works on the program. These usages are not common
in British English.

See also[edit]
 Choral symphony
 Organ symphony
 Piano symphony
 Symphonies for concert band
 Curse of the ninth
 List of symphony composers

References[edit]
1. ^ "Symphony", Oxford English Dictionary (online version ed.)
2. ^ Jump up to:a b Brown 2001
3. ^ Marcuse 1975, p. 501.
4. ^ Bowman 1971, p. 7.
5. ^ Jump up to:a b LaRue, Bonds, Walsh, and Wilson (2001).
6. ^ LaRue, Bonds, Walsh, and Wilson (2001), §I.2, citing two scholarly catalogs listing over
13,000 distinct works: LaRue 1959 and LaRue 1988.
7. ^ LaRue, Bonds, Walsh, and Wilson (2001), §I.2.
8. ^ LaRue, Bonds, Walsh, and Wilson (2001), §I.10.
9. ^ Carpani, Giuseppe (1823). Le Haydine, ovvero Lettere su la vita e le opere del celebre
maestro Giuseppe Haydn (Second ed.). p. 66.
10. ^ Jump up to:a b LaRue, Bonds, Walsh, and Wilson (2001), §I.4.
11. ^ Hepokoski, James; Darcy, Warren (2006). Elements of Sonata Theory : Norms, Types, and
Deformations in the Late-Eighteenth-Century Sonata. Oxford University Press.
p. 320. ISBN 0198033451.
12. ^ Count taken from Graham Parkes, "The symphonic structure of Also sprach Zarathustra: a
preliminary outline," in Luchte, James (2011). Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra: Before
Sunrise. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1441118455.. Excerpts online at [1].
13. ^ The conjecture about the child Mozart's three-movement preference is made by Gärtner,
who notes that Mozart's father Leopold and other older composers already preferred four.
See Gärtner, Heinz (1994). John Christian Bach: Mozart's Friend and Mentor. Hal Leonard
Corporation. ISBN 0931340799. Excerpts online at [2].
14. ^ Jackson 1999, p. 26.
15. ^ Stein 1979, p. 106.
16. ^ Prout 1895, p. 249.
17. ^ Anon. n.d.
18. ^ Webster 2001.
19. ^ Eisen & Sadie 2001.
20. ^ Jump up to:a b Dahlhaus 1989, p. 265
21. ^ Libbey 1999, p. 40.
22. ^ Beethoven's Ninth is not the first choral symphony, though it is surely the most celebrated
one. Beethoven was anticipated by Peter von Winter's Schlacht-Sinfonie ("Battle
Symphony"), which includes a concluding chorus and was written in 1814, ten years before
Beethoven's Ninth. Source: LaRue, Bonds, Walsh, and Wilson 2001
23. ^ Rosen 1997, p. 521.
24. ^ Macdonald 2001, §3: 1831–42.
25. ^ Jump up to:a b c d LaRue, Bonds, Walsh, and Wilson (2001), II.1.
26. ^ Anon. 2008.
27. ^ Tawa 2001, p. 352.
28. ^ Vande Moortele 2013, 269, 284n9.
29. ^ BABITZ, SOL (1941). "Stravinsky's Symphony in C (1940)". The Musical
Quarterly. XXVII (1): 20–25. doi:10.1093/mq/xxvii.1.20. ISSN 0027-4631.
30. ^ Kennedy 2006.
31. ^ Temperley 2001.
32. ^ Steinberg 1995, 404.
33. ^ Grimley 2013, p. 287.
34. ^ Whittall, Arnold (14 March 2016). "Contemporary Composer – Sir Peter Maxwell
Davies". Gramophone. Retrieved 12 July 2020.
35. ^ "Prom 27: Robin Holloway, Strauss & Brahms". BBC. 4 August 2011. Retrieved 12
July 2020.
36. ^ Bratby, Richard (17 May 2018). "Natural selection". The Spectator. Retrieved 12 July 2020.
37. ^ Ashley, Tim (4 August 2015). "BBCSSO/Runnicles review – MacMillan premiere and the
raw power of Mahler". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 July 2020.
38. ^ "Peter Seabourne's Symphony of Roses is given a triumphant world premiere by the Biel
Solothurn Theatre Orchestra, Switzerland conducted by Kaspar
Zehnder". theclassicalreviewer.blogspot.com. The Classical Reviewer. 13 July 2016.
Retrieved 12 July 2020.
39. ^ Rickards, Guy. "Sawyers Symphony No 3. Songs of Loss and Regret". Gramophone.
Retrieved 12 July 2020.
40. ^ "Catalogue". www.derekbourgeois.com. Retrieved 27 October 2023.
41. ^ "The (Mis)numbering of symphonies".
42. ^ "Commemoration Symphony (Reicha)". The Wind Repertory Project (Wiki).
43. ^ Battisti 2002, p. 42.
44. ^ See List of compositions by Alan Hovhaness
45. ^ "Suspending Time and Figuring Out the Impossible—Remembering David Maslanka (1943-
2017)". NewMusicBox. 31 August 2017.
46. ^ "Julie Giroux: A Wind Band is a Box of 168 Crayons". NewMusicBox. 16 December 2020.
47. ^ Vagne, Thierry (17 February 2016). "Denis Levaillant – Pachamama
Symphony". vagnethierry.fr (in French). Retrieved 15 December 2020.
48. ^ "James Stephenson Wins 2017 NBA Revelli Award". NewMusicBox. 4 January 2018.
49. ^