Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Biography, Music, The Magic Flute ...
His most famous compositions included the motet Exsultate, Jubilate, K 165 (1773), the operas The Marriage of Figaro (1786) and Don Giovanni ( ...
symphonies
“The miracle which God let be born in Salzburg” was Leopold’s description of his son, and he was keenly conscious of his duty to God, as he saw it, to draw the miracle to the notice of the world (and incidentally to profit from doing so). In mid-1763 he obtained a leave of absence from his position as deputy Kapellmeister at the prince-archbishop’s court at Salzburg, and the family set out on a prolonged tour. They went to what were all the main musical centres of western Europe—Munich, Augsburg, Stuttgart, Mannheim, Mainz, Frankfurt, Brussels, and Paris (where they remained for the winter), then London (where they spent 15 months), returning through The Hague, Amsterdam, Paris, Lyon, and Switzerland, and arriving back in Salzburg in November 1766. In most of these cities Mozart, and often his sister, played and improvised, sometimes at court, sometimes in public or in a church. Leopold’s surviving letters to friends in Salzburg tell of the universal admiration that his son’s achievements aroused. In Paris they met several German composers, and Mozart’s first music was published (sonatas for keyboard and violin, dedicated to a royal princess); in London they met, among others, Johann Christian Bach, Johann Sebastian Bach’s youngest son and a leading figure in the city’s musical life, and under his influence Mozart composed his first <anchor>symphonies</anchor>—three survive (K 16, K 19, and K 19a—K signifying the work’s place in the catalog of Ludwig von Köchel). Two more followed during a stay in The Hague on the return journey (K 22 and K 45a).
Symphony | Description, History, & Facts | Britannica
Symphony \| Description, History, & Facts \| Britannica

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[symphony](https://www.britannica.com/art/symphony-music)

Table of Contents


- [Introduction](/art/symphony-music)

- [The concept of symphony before _c._ 1750](/art/symphony-music#ref27479)

- [The early Classical period](/art/symphony-music/The-early-Classical-period)

- [The mature Classical period](/art/symphony-music/The-mature-Classical-period)



- [Haydn](/art/symphony-music/The-mature-Classical-period#ref308459)

- [Mozart](/art/symphony-music/Mozart)

- [Beethoven](/art/symphony-music/Beethoven)

- [Other composers of the mature Classical period](/art/symphony-music/Beethoven#ref308460)

- [The Romantic era](/art/symphony-music/Beethoven#ref27485)



- [Schubert](/art/symphony-music/Beethoven#ref27486)

- [Berlioz and Liszt](/art/symphony-music/Berlioz-and-Liszt)

- [Mendelssohn](/art/symphony-music/Berlioz-and-Liszt#ref27488)

- [Schumann](/art/symphony-music/Berlioz-and-Liszt#ref27489)

- [Bruckner and Brahms](/art/symphony-music/Bruckner-and-Brahms)

- [Dvořák and Tchaikovsky](/art/symphony-music/Dvorak-and-Tchaikovsky)

- [Mahler](/art/symphony-music/Dvorak-and-Tchaikovsky#ref27492)

- [The 20th century](/art/symphony-music/The-20th-century)


[References & Edit History](https://www.britannica.com/art/symphony-music/additional-info) [Related Topics](/facts/symphony-music)

[Images & Videos](https://www.britannica.com/art/symphony-music/images-videos)

[![symphony performing a concert](https://cdn.britannica.com/58/155258-004-670D77A3/Symphony-concert-Svetlanov-Hall-Moscow-International-House.jpg)](https://cdn.britannica.com/58/155258-050-2F8189A9/Symphony-concert-Svetlanov-Hall-Moscow-International-House.jpg)[![Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart](https://cdn.britannica.com/40/154340-004-815BAA93/Wolfgang-Amadeus-Mozart.jpg)](https://cdn.britannica.com/40/154340-050-3C5A71CD/Wolfgang-Amadeus-Mozart.jpg)[![Ludwig van Beethoven](https://cdn.britannica.com/78/74978-004-24F31705/portrait-Ludwig-van-Beethoven-Josef-Karl-Stieler.jpg)](https://cdn.britannica.com/78/74978-050-C7D733E8/portrait-Ludwig-van-Beethoven-Josef-Karl-Stieler.jpg)

For Students


[![Alsop, Marin; Baltimore Symphony Orchestra](https://cdn.britannica.com/25/102425-050-54A25C49/Marin-Alsop-2007.jpg?w=200&h=200&c=crop)](/summary/symphony-music)

[symphony summary](/summary/symphony-music)

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[Sound Check: Musical Vocabulary Quiz](/quiz/sound-check-musical-vocabulary-quiz)

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- [How did Franz Liszt begin his career in music?](/question/How-did-Franz-Liszt-begin-his-career-in-music)
- [What did Franz Liszt do while in Weimar, Germany?](/question/What-did-Franz-Liszt-do-while-in-Weimar-Germany)

Read Next


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[Beethoven at 245](/story/beethoven-at-245)

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Contents


[Entertainment & Pop Culture](/browse/Entertainment-Pop-Culture)[Music Theory & Compositions](/browse/Music-Theory)

# symphony

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Written by


[Laurence Elliot Libin\
\
Former Frederick P. Rose Curator of Musical Instruments, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Author of _American Musical Instruments in The Metropolitan Museum of Art._](/contributor/Laurence-Elliot-Libin/1761)

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Table of Contents


[![symphony performing a concert](https://cdn.britannica.com/58/155258-050-2F8189A9/Symphony-concert-Svetlanov-Hall-Moscow-International-House.jpg?w=400&h=300&c=crop)](https://cdn.britannica.com/58/155258-050-2F8189A9/Symphony-concert-Svetlanov-Hall-Moscow-International-House.jpg)

symphony performing a concert

[See all media](https://www.britannica.com/art/symphony-music/images-videos)

Key People: [Ludwig van Beethoven](/biography/Ludwig-van-Beethoven)[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart](/biography/Wolfgang-Amadeus-Mozart)[Joseph Haydn](/biography/Joseph-Haydn)[Franz Schubert](/biography/Franz-Schubert)[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky](/biography/Pyotr-Ilyich-Tchaikovsky)_(Show more)_

Related Topics: [musical form](/art/musical-form)[sinfonia](/art/sinfonia-music)[symphonie concertante](/art/symphonie-concertante)[symphony-cantata](/art/symphony-cantata)[classical music](/art/classical-music)_(Show more)_

[See all related content →](/facts/symphony-music)

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**symphony**, a lengthy form of [musical composition](https://www.britannica.com/art/musical-composition) for [orchestra](https://www.britannica.com/art/orchestra-music), normally consisting of several large sections, or [movements](https://www.britannica.com/art/movement-musical-composition), at least one of which usually employs [sonata form](https://www.britannica.com/art/sonata#ref27495) (also called first-movement form).

Symphonies in this sense began to be composed during the so-called [Classical period](https://www.britannica.com/art/Western-music/The-Classical-period#ref15765) in European [music](https://www.britannica.com/art/music) history, about 1740–1820. 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 period](https://www.britannica.com/art/Western-music/Vocal-music#ref15781), symphonies grew longer, and composers concerned themselves with ways of unifying the movements; extramusical programs and new approaches toward [tonality](https://www.britannica.com/art/tonality) (the major-minor system of chord progressions) were among the solutions to the problems of large-scale symphonic form. Late in the century, symphonies—and orchestras—had 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](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/discipline), using new techniques to achieve [dynamic](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dynamic) [coherence](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/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](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/reconcile) the demands of fashion with strict [musical](https://www.britannica.com/art/musical) logic. These composers represent the mainstream of symphonic activity, and their works remained models for much 20th-century activity in the [genre](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/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.

## The concept of symphony before _c._ 1750

The word _[symphōnia](https://www.britannica.com/art/sinfonia-music)_ was used by the Greeks in reference to notes sounding together in [harmony](https://www.britannica.com/art/harmony-music#ref64522) and by extension meant an “ [ensemble](https://www.britannica.com/art/ensemble-music)” or “band” rather than a [musical form](https://www.britannica.com/art/musical-form). The word implies a pleasant concord of different notes and has been used in fields other than music to denote a pleasing combination of various elements. In the [New Testament](https://www.britannica.com/topic/New-Testament) [Gospel According to Luke](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Gospel-According-to-Luke) (King James Version), _symphōnia_ is translated as “musick,” as distinct from _choroi_, “dancing.” In the [Middle Ages](https://www.britannica.com/event/Middle-Ages) the name was given to several [musical instruments](https://www.britannica.com/art/musical-instrument), among them a double-headed [drum](https://www.britannica.com/art/drum-musical-instrument), bowed [stringed instruments](https://www.britannica.com/art/stringed-instrument), a large [hurdy-gurdy](https://www.britannica.com/art/hurdy-gurdy), and [bagpipes](https://www.britannica.com/art/bagpipe). Mention is made in 1582 of _eine Symphonie_, evidently a stringed [keyboard instrument](https://www.britannica.com/art/keyboard-instrument).

[![Young girl wearing a demin jacket playing the trumpet (child, musical instruments, Asian ethnicity)](https://cdn.britannica.com/30/254330-131-1B200240/young-girl-playing-trumpet.jpg)\
\
Britannica Quiz\
\
Sound Check: Musical Vocabulary Quiz](/quiz/sound-check-musical-vocabulary-quiz)

From the mid-16th century, _symphonia_ (and related spellings) is a term often found in titles in which it simply indicated ensemble music, whether for instruments with [voices](https://www.britannica.com/art/vocal-music) or either alone. A collection of [madrigals](https://www.britannica.com/art/madrigal-vocal-music) published in [Antwerp](https://www.britannica.com/place/Antwerp-Belgium) in 1585 is entitled _Symphonia angelica…raccolta per Huberto Waelrant_. Later notable examples are the _[Sacrae symphoniae](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sacrae-symphoniae)_ of the Venetian composer [Giovanni Gabrieli](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Giovanni-Gabrieli) (Book I, 1597; Book II, 1615), collections of elaborate [instrumental](https://www.britannica.com/art/instrumental-music) and [vocal music](https://www.britannica.com/art/vocal-music), often for multiple [choirs](https://www.britannica.com/art/choir-music); and the _Symphoniae sacrae_ of his celebrated German pupil, [Heinrich Schütz](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Heinrich-Schutz) (1629, 1647, 1650). Schütz’s collection reveals his debt to the colourful and brilliantly orchestrated Italian style in works ranging from several voices to large polychoral [compositions](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/compositions) with solo parts and instruments. His countryman [Samuel Scheidt](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Samuel-Scheidt)’s _70 Symphonien auf Konzerten-Manier_ (1644) likewise combine instrumental and vocal ensembles to enrich the texture and heighten the drama of his music.

Symphonies for instruments alone during the early [Baroque era](https://www.britannica.com/art/Western-music/The-tonal-era-and-after-1600-to-the-present#ref15754) ( _c._ 1600–30) occur as independent pieces and as introductions or [interludes](https://www.britannica.com/art/interlude) in theatrical productions. The Italian Biagio Marini’s [sinfonia](https://www.britannica.com/art/sinfonia-music) _La Orlandia_ (1617) is a duet for [violin](https://www.britannica.com/art/violin) or cornetto (a [wind instrument](https://www.britannica.com/art/wind-instrument) with finger holes and cup-shaped mouthpiece) and [continuo](https://www.britannica.com/art/basso-continuo) in five brief [contiguous](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/contiguous) sections, distinguished by contrasting [metres](https://www.britannica.com/art/metre-music) and new [melodic](https://www.britannica.com/art/melody) material in each section. (The continuo is a [harmonic](https://www.britannica.com/art/harmony-music/Harmony-before-the-common-practice-period#ref64523) accompaniment improvised over the written bass line, usually played on a keyboard instrument and a bass [viol](https://www.britannica.com/art/viol) or other bass melody instrument.) Early operas often include instrumental symphonies. [Jacopo Peri](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jacopo-Peri)’s _Euridice_ (first performed 1600) includes a sinfonia for three [flutes](https://www.britannica.com/art/flute-musical-instrument); [Claudio Monteverdi’s](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Claudio-Monteverdi) lavish musical drama _Orfeo_ (1607) is punctuated with five richly scored sinfonias, while a _sinfonia da guerra_ (“sinfonia of war”) accompanies a staged battle in his _Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria_ ( _The Return of Ulysses to his Country_; 1641). Each act of Stefano Landi’s [opera](https://www.britannica.com/art/opera-music) _Il Sant’Alessio_ (1632) opens with a sectional sinfonia. Many other [opera](https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/opera) and [oratorio](https://www.britannica.com/art/oratorio) composers used short descriptive or introductory sinfonias, often of sectional form with contrasting metres and tempos.

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It remained for a Neapolitan, [Alessandro Scarlatti](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alessandro-Scarlatti) (1660–1725), to formalize the [overture](https://www.britannica.com/art/overture-music) to his operas as a fast–slow–fast _sinfonia avanti l’opera_, as in his opera _Dal male il bene_ (1681; “Good from Evil”). The so-called Italian overture of this and later works, scored for strings and continuo, has been widely considered to contain the germ of the later three-movement symphony. In contrast with the more [contrapuntal](https://www.britannica.com/art/counterpoint-music) (based on interwoven melodic lines) French overture, which begins with a pompous slow movement and continues in a [fugal](https://www.britannica.com/art/fugue) section (involving imitation of a melody among several voices), the Italian style is immediately tuneful and predominantly [homophonic](https://www.britannica.com/art/homophony-music) (chordal) in texture. The first fast movement may be trivial; its symmetrical phrasing is unexpressive. The contrasting second movement may be more lyrical, perhaps anticipating tunes heard later in the opera. The last movement, sometimes a [minuet](https://www.britannica.com/art/minuet), is an [exuberant](https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/exuberant) curtain raiser. This format spread quickly outside Italy, even to France. [Jean-Philippe Rameau’s](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-Philippe-Rameau) _Zoroastre_ (1749), for example, includes such a fast–slow–fast overture. Rameau, indeed, was considered an exponent of the Italian style, particularly in his lucid [harmonic](https://www.britannica.com/art/harmony-music/Classical-Western-harmony#ref64527) treatment. This late Baroque concern with tonal clarity prefigured the attitudes of early Classical symphonists. Among the devices used to assure clarity are melodies constructed of arpeggiated (“harplike,” or broken) [chords](https://www.britannica.com/art/chord-music) and passages in unison or in parallel thirds or sixths (sequences of harmonies formed by thirds, such as C–E or D–F, or sixths, such as C–A or D–B). These features are not common in [Baroque music](https://www.britannica.com/art/Baroque-music) that is strictly contrapuntal in texture.

While the opera overture settled into a form that eventually inspired early symphonists, the term _sinfonia_, or _symphony_, as yet had no formal definition. As late as 1771 the _Encyclopædia Britannica_, reflecting ancient Greek usage, defined symphony merely as “…a [consonance](https://www.britannica.com/art/consonance-music) or concert of several sounds agreeable to the ear, whether vocal or instrumental, called also harmony.” _Sinfonia_ was used interchangeably with _concerto_, _consort_, _overture_, _suite_, and so on. Commonly, a brief instrumental interlude, as in a [song](https://www.britannica.com/art/song), was called a symphony, even into the 19th century. In the late Baroque era ( _c._ 1700–50) the term was applied to such dissimilar pieces as [Johann Sebastian Bach](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Johann-Sebastian-Bach)’s [didactic](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/didactic) _Three-Part Inventions_ for keyboard, called _Sinfonien_ in the 1723 copy, and the orchestral “Pastoral Symphony,” a quasi-descriptive interlude in [George Frideric Handel](https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Frideric-Handel)’s _Messiah_ (composed 1741), said to have been based on an Italian shepherd bagpipe tune and very much in the tradition of earlier descriptive symphonies in opera.

Bach’s _Sinfonia VII in E Minor_ and _Sinfonia XI in G Minor_ are interesting in that in each piece the opening material recurs at the end. In _Sinfonia VII_ this repetition is merely suggested, but in _Sinfonia XI_ the last eight measures of the piece virtually duplicate the first eight. The whole intermediate body of these pieces develops the motivic material presented at the beginning, and the initial material is transformed contrapuntally and harmonically. In the closing bars the tension thus aroused resolves and the [rhythmic](https://www.britannica.com/art/rhythm-music) drive reins in. This suggestion of an expository unit moving from the home [key](https://www.britannica.com/art/key-music) to a different key, followed by an extended development that explores still more remote keys and the motivic and contrapuntal [implications](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/implications) of the beginning, concluding with a recapitulation in which the energy of the development is somewhat dissipated by a return to the opening material, prefigures the [sonata form](https://www.britannica.com/art/sonata-form) of the Classical symphonists. Bach uses this technique in some of his instrumental [concerto](https://www.britannica.com/art/concerto-music) movements; the concertos have other elements in common with early symphonies, especially in the mood of their lyric slow movements and fast duple-metre [finales](https://www.britannica.com/art/finale).

The word _sinfonia_ was applied to a [trio sonata](https://www.britannica.com/art/trio-sonata) for flute, [oboe](https://www.britannica.com/art/oboe-musical-instrument), and continuo in [Johann Joseph Fux’s](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Johann-Joseph-Fux) _Concentus Musico-instrumentalis_ (1701), a collection of [suites](https://www.britannica.com/art/suite) each [comprising](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/comprising) a number (as many as 15) of bipartite (two-section) dances and descriptive pieces. An [intellectual](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intellectual) and influential [Viennese](https://www.britannica.com/place/Vienna) court composer, Fux departed in this sinfonia from the typical 17th-century [suite](https://www.britannica.com/art/suite), which is merely a collection of contrasting dances in the same key. The work falls into two major divisions, both comprising three short movements; the key scheme is F major, D minor, F major—F major, D minor, F major, and the last three movements have [programmatic](https://www.britannica.com/art/program-music) titles. Here is not merely a collection of various dances but a conscious attempt to relate movements tonally and thereby create larger hierarchic units. F major and D minor are closely related keys, and it would not be possible to [omit](https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/omit) a single movement without destroying the symmetry of the whole (not that either group of three, or even each dance, does not sound good by itself). By means of this simple, balanced harmonic structuring, Fux advanced beyond the looser architecture of the typical suite, and, by framing a minor-key movement between two movements in the same related major key, he anticipated the overall form of many early symphonies.

Both Fux and Bach were products of the evolution of tonal [harmony](https://www.britannica.com/art/harmony-music/Classical-Western-harmony#ref64527), a system of key relations which brought with it the possibility of basing large-scale forms not only on melodic variation or counterpoint, as earlier, but on harmonic tension and [modulation](https://www.britannica.com/art/modulation-music). (Modulation, unlike simple change of key, implies the establishment of a new [tonic](https://www.britannica.com/art/tonic-music), or tonal centre, by means of progression through a number of related keys.) The wide-ranging modulations and affective harmonic progressions of German Baroque composers depended on [equal temperament](https://www.britannica.com/art/equal-temperament), a system that permits exploration of keys distant from the tonic without the necessity of retuning to accommodate the remote harmonies. Bach exploited this system to the utmost, as did many of his North German contemporaries, but their rich harmonic palette was foreign to the south, where many important symphonists arose. Concerned less with powerful emotions ( _Affekten_) and more with clarity, the southerners avoided intricate counterpoint and [convoluted](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/convoluted) harmonic progressions, preferring a restricted chord vocabulary and clear-cut symmetrical phrasing dominated by tuneful melody.

Besides the suite and opera overture, the short humorous [intermezzo](https://www.britannica.com/art/intermezzo-music-and-theater), which originated in Naples and flourished about 1685–1750, strongly influenced pre-Classical symphonists. Neapolitan composers, headed by Alessandro Scarlatti, concerned themselves in the intermezzo with dramatic, comic interplay between two singers in two or three short acts made up of [arias](https://www.britannica.com/art/aria-solo-song), [recitatives](https://www.britannica.com/art/recitative), and duets. Because the texts demanded clear articulation and careful declamation, they influenced the melodic phrase structure, giving rise to repeated-note figures and brief rhythmic or melodic motives. These phrases normally fall into two-measure units. Counterpoint was abandoned, for it tended to obscure the text, and harmonies became simple and slow-moving. Intermezzo [melodies](https://www.britannica.com/art/melody) abound in [ornaments](https://www.britannica.com/art/ornamentation-music), sudden accents, [syncopation](https://www.britannica.com/art/syncopation-music) (displaced accents), and playful leaps reflecting the text declamation and lack the broad, spun-out arch and driving rhythm of typical Baroque melodies. Rather, they are made up of short motives joined one to another and give rise to frequently [articulated](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/articulated) phrase groups. This word-derived [idiom](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/idiom) furnished the melodic impulse of the early symphonies.