A symphony is a long musical piece in Western classical music, usually written for an orchestra. The word "symphony" has had different meanings since ancient times, but by the late 1700s, it came to mean a musical work with several separate parts or movements, often four. The first movement is usually written in sonata form. Symphonies are almost always written for an orchestra that includes string instruments (violin, viola, cello, and double bass), brass instruments, woodwind instruments, and percussion instruments. These groups together include about 30 to 100 musicians. The music for a symphony is written in a musical score that shows all the parts for every instrument. Each musician plays from a separate part that only includes the notes for their own instrument. Some symphonies also include singing parts, such as Beethoven's Ninth Symphony or Mahler's Second Symphony.

Etymology and origins

The word "symphony" comes from the Greek word symphōnía, which means "sounds that match or work well together" or "music played or sung by people or instruments." This word was used for many different ideas before it became the name for a specific type of musical piece.

In late Greek and medieval times, the word symphōnía was used to describe harmonious sounds, which were the opposite of diaphōnía, meaning "clashing or unharmonious sounds." During the Middle Ages and later, the Latin word symphonia was used to describe different musical instruments, especially those that could make more than one sound at the same time. Isidore of Seville was the first person to use symphonia to name a two-headed drum. From about 1155 to 1377, the French word symphonie was used for an instrument called the organistrum or hurdy-gurdy. In late medieval England, the word symphony had both meanings, but by the 16th century, it was used to describe a dulcimer. In Germany, the word Symphonie was a general name for spinets and virginals from the late 16th century to the 18th century.

The word "symphony" began to appear in the titles of musical works in the 16th and 17th centuries. For example, Giovanni Gabrieli’s Sacrae symphoniae and Symphoniae sacrae, liber secundus were published in 1597 and 1615. Adriano Banchieri’s Eclesiastiche sinfonie was published in 1607, and Lodovico Grossi da Viadana’s Sinfonie musicali in 1610. Heinrich Schütz’s Symphoniae sacrae and Symphoniarum sacrarum secunda pars were published in 1629 and 1647. Most of these collections included sacred vocal music with instrumental accompaniment, except for Viadana’s, which had only instrumental and secular pieces.

Baroque era

During the 17th century, the words "symphony" and "sinfonia" were used to describe many different types of musical pieces, including those played in operas, sonatas, and concertos. These pieces were often part of a larger musical work. By the 18th century, the opera sinfonia, also called the Italian overture, had a standard structure with three sections: a fast section, a slow section, and a fast, dance-like section. This form is often seen as the direct ancestor of the modern orchestral symphony. Throughout much of the 18th century, the terms "overture," "symphony," and "sinfonia" were commonly used to mean the same thing.

In the 17th century, music written for large groups of instruments did not clearly state which instruments would play specific parts, unlike the practice in the 19th century and today. Composers from this time expected their works to be performed by whatever musicians were available. For example, in a 19th-century piece, the bassline is written for specific instruments like cellos and double basses. However, in a 17th-century piece, the basso continuo part for a sinfonia did not name specific instruments. A performance might use as few as a single cello and harpsichord. If more musicians were available and a fuller sound was needed, the basso continuo group might include multiple chord-playing instruments, such as harpsichord and lute, along with various bass instruments like cello, double bass, bass viol, or even a serpent, an early type of bass wind instrument.

Galant and classical eras

LaRue, Bonds, Walsh, and Wilson write in the second edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians that "the symphony was developed very intensely" in the 18th century. It was used in many parts of public life, including church services, but the aristocracy provided strong support for symphonic performances. In Vienna, one of the most important places in Europe for writing symphonies, "many noble families supported musical groups, often living part of the year in Vienna and part in their family estates elsewhere in the Empire." Because orchestras at the time were usually small, many of these aristocratic groups could perform symphonies. Joseph Haydn, who began his first job as a music director in 1757 for the Morzin family, found that when the Morzin household was in Vienna, his orchestra was part of a lively and competitive musical scene, with many aristocrats sponsoring concerts with their own ensembles.

LaRue, Bonds, Walsh, and Wilson’s article describes how the symphonic orchestra grew larger throughout the 18th century. At first, symphonies were written for strings only, with four parts: first violin, second violin, viola, and bass (the bass line was played by cellos, double basses, and sometimes a bassoon). Occasionally, early composers left out the viola part, creating three-part symphonies. A basso continuo part, including a bassoon and a harpsichord or other instrument that provided harmony, was also sometimes used.

The first additions to this small group were two horns, sometimes two oboes, or both horns and oboes together. Over the century, other instruments were added to the classical orchestra, such as flutes (sometimes replacing oboes), separate parts for bassoons, clarinets, and trumpets and timpani. The use of these instruments varied depending on the piece. By the end of the century, the full classical orchestra included the string group described above, pairs of wind instruments (flutes, oboes, clarinets, and bassoons), two horns, and timpani. A keyboard instrument (harpsichord or piano) was still an option for harmony.

The "Italian" style of symphony, often used as an overture or interlude in opera houses, became a standard three-movement form: a fast movement, a slow movement, and another fast movement. Over time, it became common to write four-movement symphonies, as described next. The three-movement symphony gradually disappeared; about half of Haydn’s first thirty symphonies had three movements. For the young Mozart, the three-movement symphony was the usual style, possibly influenced by his friend Johann Christian Bach. A famous example of a three-movement Classical symphony is Mozart’s Prague Symphony, from 1786.

The four-movement form that developed was as follows:

Variations of this structure, such as changing the order of the middle movements or adding a slow introduction to the first movement, were common. Haydn, Mozart, and their contemporaries used the four-movement form mainly in orchestral or multi-instrument chamber music, like quartets. However, Beethoven’s solo sonatas were often written in four movements as well.

Early symphonies were written mainly in Milan, Vienna, and Mannheim. The Milanese school was led by Giovanni Battista Sammartini and included composers such as Antonio Brioschi, Ferdinando Galimberti, and Giovanni Battista Lampugnani. Early composers in Vienna who wrote symphonies included Georg Christoph Wagenseil, Wenzel Raimund Birck, and Georg Matthias Monn. Later important Viennese composers were Johann Baptist Wanhal, Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, and Leopold Hofmann. The Mannheim school included Johann Stamitz.

The most important symphonists of the late 18th century were Haydn, who wrote at least 106 symphonies over 36 years, and Mozart, who composed at least 47 symphonies in 24 years.

Romantic era

At the start of the 19th century, Beethoven changed the symphony from a common type of music into a high form of art. Composers aimed to reach the greatest potential of music through only a few works. Beethoven began by writing two pieces that were similar to the works of his teachers, Mozart and Haydn. Then, he created seven more symphonies, starting with the Third Symphony ("Eroica"), which expanded the size and ambition of the genre. His Symphony No. 5 is one of the most famous symphonies ever written. It moves from a stormy opening in C minor to a triumphant ending in a major key, a structure later used by composers like Brahms and Mahler. His Symphony No. 6 includes musical sounds that imitate birds and a storm, and it has five movements, which was unusual because most symphonies had at most four. His Symphony No. 9 includes singing parts for soloists and a choir in the final movement, making it a choral symphony.

Schubert wrote two symphonies that are often performed today. His Eighth Symphony (1822) was left unfinished, with only the first two movements completed. This piece is called "The Unfinished." His last completed symphony, the Ninth (1826), is a large work that follows the Classical style.

Early Romantic composers like Felix Mendelssohn (five symphonies and thirteen string symphonies) and Robert Schumann (four symphonies) continued writing symphonies in the Classical style but used their own musical ideas. In contrast, Berlioz focused on programmatic works, such as his "dramatic symphony" Roméo et Juliette, the Harold en Italie (a viola symphony), and the Symphonie fantastique. The Symphonie fantastique includes a march, a waltz, and five movements instead of the usual four. His final symphony, the Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale (originally Symphonie militaire), was written in 1840 for a 200-piece military band to be performed outdoors. Later, Berlioz added optional string parts and a choral ending. In 1851, Richard Wagner claimed that symphonies written after Beethoven were only an ending to the tradition and did not bring major new ideas. After Schumann’s last symphony, the Rhenish (1850), symphonies seemed less important for two decades, as the symphonic poem by Liszt became more popular. However, Liszt also wrote two programmatic choral symphonies, Faust and Dante. By the 1870s and 1880s, the symphony returned as a major form, with works by composers like Bruckner, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saëns, Borodin, Dvořák, and Franck. These symphonies avoided the programmatic style of Berlioz and Liszt and became central to concert performances for many years.

Throughout the 19th century, composers expanded the size of the symphonic orchestra. At the start of the century, a full orchestra included strings and pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets, and timpani. This setup was used in Beethoven’s symphonies No. 1, 2, 4, 7, and 8. Trombones, previously used only in church and theater music, were added to symphonic orchestras, especially in Beethoven’s symphonies No. 5, 6, and 9. Instruments like the bass drum, triangle, and cymbals (sometimes including the piccolo), which 18th-century composers used for "Turkish music" effects, became more common in the second half of the 19th century without any connection to specific genres. By the time of Mahler, composers could write symphonies using nearly every type of orchestral instrument. In addition to more instruments, 19th-century symphonies included more string players and wind parts, making orchestras larger in number as concert halls also grew.

Late-Romantic, Modernist and Postmodernist eras

At the end of the 19th century, Gustav Mahler started writing long, large-scale symphonies that he continued into the early 20th century. His Third Symphony, completed in 1896, is one of the longest regularly performed symphonies, lasting about 100 minutes in most performances. His Eighth Symphony, written in 1906, is nicknamed the "Symphony of a Thousand" because it requires a very large number of singers to perform.

During the 20th century, composers created symphonies with many different styles and ideas. Some, like Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Carl Nielsen, kept using the traditional four-movement structure. Others tried new approaches: Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 7, his final work, is in one movement. Richard Strauss’s Alpine Symphony is in one movement divided into twenty-two parts, describing an eleven-hour mountain hike. Alan Hovhaness’s Symphony No. 9, Saint Vartan, originally numbered Op. 80 and later changed to Op. 180, was written between 1949 and 1950 and has twenty-four movements.

By the late 19th century, some composers began combining the four movements of a traditional symphony into one unified structure. This idea, called "two-dimensional symphonic form," became important in Arnold Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op. 9 (1909). In the 1920s, other single-movement symphonies were written, including Kurt Weill’s First Symphony (1921), Max Butting’s Chamber Symphony, Op. 25 (1923), and Paul Dessau’s Symphony (1926).

At the same time, some 20th-century symphonies tried to copy the style and structure of 18th-century symphonies. Examples include Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1 "Classical" (1916–17) and Igor Stravinsky’s Symphony in C (1938–40).

Despite these changes, the word "symphony" still meant a serious and complex work. A shorter, simpler version of a symphony was called a "sinfonietta," such as Sergei Prokofiev’s Sinfonietta for orchestra.

Other important composers from the first half of the 20th century include Edward Elgar, Bohuslav Martinů, Roger Sessions, William Walton, and Rued Langgaard. Their symphonies were known for their size, depth, and originality. A symphony’s importance can be judged by how well it reflects the ideas about time that were popular when it was written. Examples include 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).

From the mid-20th century into the 21st century, interest in symphonies grew again. Many postmodernist composers added new works to the collection of symphonies, especially in the United Kingdom. These include Peter Maxwell Davies (10 symphonies), Robin Holloway (1), David Matthews (9), James MacMillan (5), Peter Seabourne (6), and Philip Sawyers (6). British composer Derek Bourgeois has written more symphonies than Haydn, with 116 total. The composer Leif Segerstam, from Finland, has written the most symphonies to date, with 371 in his list of works. The four-movement Symphony No. 1 "The Ganesha" by Dave Soldier was performed by the Thai Elephant Orchestra, the largest orchestra by weight. Each of the fourteen members weighed up to 10,000 pounds (about 4,500 kg).

Symphonies for concert band

Hector Berlioz first wrote the Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale for a military band in 1840. Earlier, in 1815, Anton Reicha composed a four-movement symphony called Commemoration (also known as Musique pour célébrer la Mémoire des Grands Hommes qui se sont Illustrés au Service de la Nation Française) for a large wind ensemble. This piece was created for ceremonies related to the reburial of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

After these early works, few symphonies were written for wind bands until the 20th century, when more symphonies for concert bands were composed than in previous centuries. Examples of symphonies for wind bands exist from as early as 1932, but the first important one was Nikolai Myaskovsky’s Symphony No. 19, Op. 46, written in 1939. Other notable examples include Paul Hindemith’s Symphony in B-flat for Band (1951), Morton Gould’s Symphony No. 4 "West Point" (1952), Vincent Persichetti’s Symphony No. 6, Op. 69 (1956), Vittorio Giannini’s Symphony No. 3 (1958), and 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). Additional works include John Barnes Chance’s Symphony No. 2 (1972), Alfred Reed’s 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Symphonies (1979, 1988, 1992, and 1994), eight of the ten numbered symphonies by David Maslanka, six symphonies by Julie Giroux (with a seventh currently in progress), Johan de Meij’s Symphony No. 1 "The Lord of the Rings" (1988) and Symphony No. 2 "The Big Apple" (1993), Yasuhide Ito’s Symphony in Three Scenes "La Vita" (1998), John Corigliano’s Symphony No. 3 "Circus Maximus" (2004), Denis Levaillant’s PachaMama Symphony (2014–2015), and James M. Stephenson’s Symphony No. 2, which was first performed by the United States Marine Band and won awards from the National Band Association (2017) and the American Bandmasters Association (2018).

Other modern usages of "symphony"

In some types of English, the word "symphony" is also used to describe the orchestra, which is a large group of musicians that often performs these pieces. The word "symphony" is part of the names of many orchestras, such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony, the Houston Symphony, and Miami's New World Symphony. For some orchestras, "(city name) Symphony" is a shorter way to write the full name. For example, the OED lists "Vancouver Symphony" as a possible short form of Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. In everyday language, someone might say they are going to hear a symphony perform, which refers to the orchestra rather than the specific music being played. However, this way of using the word is not common in British English.