Symphony

I

Introduction

Symphony, an extended musical composition for orchestra (or orchestra with voice), usually of more than one movement. The word comes from the Greek syn, meaning “together,” and phōnē, meaning “sound”; hence symphony is “a sounding together.” The meaning of symphony has undergone many changes in music history. The symphony in the modern sense of the term arose in Germany and Austria during the early 18th century.

II

Origins

The term symphony appeared for the first time as a title in 1597 when Venetian composer Giovanni Gabrieli published sacred works for voices and instruments under the name of Sacrae symphoniae. The use of the term at first referred specifically to the “sounding together” of voices and instruments. However, the publication of a Symphony for instruments without voices by Adriano Banchieri in 1607 indicated a significant new trend in the history of the symphony. In 1619 German theorist and composer Michael Praetorius wrote in his discussion of contemporary musical forms (Syntagma musicum, Vol. III) that a symphony was “an ensemble work for instruments alone without any vocal parts—used by the Italians at times as an opening.” The word symphony was also applied to the instrumental openings or interludes in such musical forms as the cantata, opera, and oratorio. A noteworthy example is the “Pastoral Symphony” from George Frideric Handel’s Messiah (1742).

III

Italy

As an instrumental introduction, the sinfonia (symphony) became an important part of 17th-century Italian opera, as for example, “sinfonia avanti l’opera” in the works of Alessandro Scarlatti. By about 1700 these opera overtures called sinfonias had taken the format of three sections or movements. A fast opening movement was followed by a slow second movement and a fast, dancelike third movement that was often a minuet.

Not organically related to the operas they introduced, these overtures were also performed as concert pieces, and Italian composers such as Tomaso Albinoni, Giovanni Battista Sammartini, and Antonio Vivaldi began writing independent sinfonias in the same fast-slow-fast format. The opening movement of this type of symphony soon came to use sonata form for its musical structure, and various precursors of sonata form also figured in the development of the symphony.

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Another important influence on the Italian symphony was the intermezzo (a one-act comic opera), a form developed in Naples. So that the words could be understood, melodies in the intermezzos consisted of combinations of short, clear motifs supported by uncomplicated harmonies, in contrast to the elaborate melodies and harmonically complex accompaniment often found in earlier music. This development provided the composer with raw material—the motif, or theme—to recombine, reharmonize, and otherwise develop within the sonata form.

IV

Germany and Austria

By 1740 the symphony had become the principal genre of orchestral music, and important centers of composition arose in the German cities of Mannheim and Berlin and the Austrian capital, Vienna. The Bohemian composer Johann Stamitz brought the orchestra at Mannheim to internationally acclaimed brilliance and used its resources to the fullest in his symphonies. He was one of the earliest to add a fourth movement, a rapid finale following the minuet, and in his sonata movements second themes are often of sharply contrasting character.

In Berlin the composers Johann Gottlieb Graun and C. P. E. Bach (son of J. S. Bach) wrote three-movement symphonies with few sharp thematic contrasts but with strong emphasis on development and emotional expressiveness.

Four-movement symphonies predominated in Vienna, with the first movement being given special prominence. There, composers made greater use of wind instruments and gave special care to melodic integration; for example, a transition between themes might make use of short segments from a main theme. Among important Viennese composers were Georg Matthias Monn and Georg Christoph Wagenseil. Also influential was another of J. S. Bach’s sons, Johann Christian Bach. J. C. Bach studied in Italy and worked in London, and his symphonies are full of graceful Italian melody.

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