Music Terminology Reference

A Brief Look at the Evolution of the Classical Symphony

By Tom Heaton

When you hear the word "symphony," what is conjured in your mind? Do you think of a serious, large-scale orchestral work, usually consisting of four distinct parts? If so, you're not alone. The word itself comes from Greek origins and it means, literally, "sounding together." In the 1600s, the term "sinfonia" was the equivalent of a modern-day overture: a short orchestral work often consisting of three short sections or movements in the fast-slow-fast form. This definition was still applicable in the early 1700s although Handel used the term to designate an orchestral interlude in oratorios (such as "Messiah"). By the mid-1700s, composers such as Johann Christian Bach, C. P. E. Bach, William Boyce and Karl Stamitz started adding a fourth movement, so that a symphony was comprised of an opening movement (usually fast), the second movement was slow, the third movement a rondo or minuet (between slow and fast) and the fourth movement, which could be a combination of slow and fast. These composers made innovations in dynamics and the exploration of themes and harmonic idioms.

The symphony was about to undergo incredible refining over the next 150 years. Franz Josef Haydn is considered the "father of the symphony," certainly not because he invented the form but because he elevated the form to a lofty level over the course of his 104+ symphonies. He was unquestionably an influence on Mozart who then took the baton and carried the form forward, as witnessed in his final three symphonies (#39, #40 in G Minor and #41, "Jupiter," all of which were composed in an astonishingly short time of six weeks in 1788). Haydn proved that he still considered himself a student because Mozart's last works influenced him to the heights of his "London" symphonies (#92-104, written for his trips to England's capitol).

Beethoven's first two symphonies exhibited the impact of the Haydn and Mozart years. Then, starting with his Third ("Eroica"), Beethoven began to break the mold, only to reform it and break it again and again! The music world had never heard the kind of symphony that he presented in his Third, Fifth, Sixth and Ninth! It was in the Ninth Symphony that human voices were added for the first time ever to a work of such serious and broad scope. The ripple of this development is still being felt today.

Franz Schubert, himself no slouch when it came to composition, felt that none of his music could be compared to that of Beethoven - yet the "Unfinished" (Sym. #8) and "Great C Major" (Sym. #9) turned heads throughout Europe and announced that the symphonic form had not been thoroughly explored.

Felix Mendelssohn and Johannes Brahms would continue the exploration with respected compositions of their own. The "Symphonie Fantastique" by Berlioz owes its existence to Beethoven's Sixth ("Pastoral"). It also smashed the then existing boudaries for what most thought a symphony could or should be. The floodgates were literally flung wide open and through those gates came Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, Vaughan Williams, Shostakovich and Gustav Mahler, the scale of whose mammoth works dwarfs the symphony of the Baroque era.

If it is anything, music is fluid and constantly changing. It should therefore be no surprise that some of its terms change over time, transforming themselves into something completely unlike what it was before - like a caterpillar changes into a butterfly. The only difference is that the symphonic butterfly may still evolve and probably will!

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