A History of the Symphony

The Grand Genre

Jeffrey Langford

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781351125222
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

A History of the Symphony: The Grand Genre identifies the underlying cultural factors that have shaped the symphony over the past three hundred years, presenting a unified view of the entire history of the genre. The text goes beyond discussions of individual composers and the stylistic evolution of the genre to address what constitutes a symphony within each historical period, describing how such works fit into the lives of composers and audiences of the time, recognizing that they do not exist in a vacuum but rather as the products of numerous external forces spurring their creation.

In three parts, the text proceeds chronologically, drawing connections between musical examples across regions and eras:

• The Classical Symphony
• The Romantic Symphony
• The Symphony in the Modern Era

Within this broad chronology—from the earliest Italian symphonies of the 18th century to the most experimental works of the 20th century—discussion of the development of the genre often breaks down along national lines that outline divergent but parallel paths of stylistic growth. In consideration of what is and is not a symphony, musical developments in other genres are presented as they relate to the symphony, genres such as the serenade, the tone poem, and the concert overture. Suitable for a one-semester course as well as a full-year syllabus, and with illustrative musical examples throughout, A History of the Symphony places composers and works in sociological and musical contexts while confronting the fundamental question: What is a symphony?

Part I
The Classical Symphony

1 Origins of the Genre

From Pergolesi to Early Haydn

Pergolesi and the Italian Sinfonia

The symphony has remained a vibrant part of concert life in Europe, Russia, and America for over 250 years. Over that period of time, this genre has evolved from an ancillary concert work that demanded little respect from audiences in the early 18th century to one that commands the center of attention on many orchestral programs today. In the process, nearly all of the major composers working in the Western musical tradition have contributed masterpieces to the symphonic repertoire that we enjoy today.

Like most genres, the symphony as we know it today did not spring fully formed from the imagination of a single composer at a single point in time. Rather, it emerged around 1730 in Italy where this new instrumental genre began to appear on concert programs of amateur music-making organizations known as “philharmonic societies,”¹ and at royal courts where symphonies soon became a part of the repertoire of music used to accompany such mundane social events as dinner parties and card playing. Of these two primary venues, the philharmonic societies made the greater contribution to the emergence of the symphony through their production of public concerts. Not coincidentally, the concept of the public concert and the popularity of groups of amateur players who sponsored them thrived in Italy during the era of social revolution known as the Enlightenment (c. 1720–1800). The importance of the Enlightenment to the expansion of amateur music making and the growth of the symphony cannot be overestimated. Through the writings of influential philosophers such as Voltaire, Rousseau, and John Locke, the Enlightenment promoted the concepts of human liberty and social equality that led to the rise of the middle class to a new position of political and economic power and influence. With the resultant improvement in lifestyle, large numbers of the bourgeoisie now found the leisure time and financial resources to actively pursue music (as had always been the practice of aristocrats) by learning to play an instrument and joining a philharmonic society. As the repertoire of these societies began to include various kinds of new instrumental music in the 18th century, there arose the need for ensemble music that would allow the participation of large groups of amateur players of string, woodwind, and brass instruments. The genre of the concert symphony filled this need perfectly. In addition, as the concept of the public concert took hold in the early 18th century, professional orchestras were also established in leading cultural centers to fill the needs of a newly moneyed middle class: In London the Academy of Ancient Music (1710) and the Bach-Abel Concerts (1764), and in Paris the Concert Spirituel (1725) and the Concert des Amateurs (1769).

Early Orchestras

Given the appearance of groups of amateur music makers, the need arose for music that could accommodate multiple players on a part, that is, some kind of music for a large ensemble. Today we call these large ensembles “orchestras,” but prior to the 18th century such ensembles took many different forms before evolving into the standard group of instruments that constitutes what we now understand as a “symphony orchestra.” Orchestras consisting of a fixed group of instruments existed at least as far back as 1626, when the French King Louis XIII put together an ensemble of string players at his royal court and gave them the name “24 Violins of the King” (Vingt-quatre violons du Roi). This all-string ensemble was one of the first specifically designed for the performance of music in up to five separate parts with multiple players on each part. In addition, Louis’s ensemble was frequently augmented by wind players, which created an ensemble that looked even more like a modern orchestra. Large ensembles like this were used to accompany the elaborate court ballets and operas that were popular in 17th-century France.

At about the same time in Italy, large groups of instruments provided the accompaniment for various kinds of semi-dramatic music such as the intermedio and the pastorale, as well as early operas such as Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo of 1607. But the greatest difference between these early ensembles and the orchestras of the 18th century is that prior to about 1600 composers rarely specified which instruments were meant to play which parts, leaving the distribution of the various parts to be determined in a somewhat haphazard manner, depending on the availability of specific instruments and players. By the early 17th century, however, composers began the practice of assigning specific instruments to each part in a composition intended for performance by a large ensemble, as did Giovanni Gabrieli in and his Sonata pian’ e forte (part of his Symphoniae sacrae of 1597). This practice of specifying which instruments were to play which parts in a large ensemble piece gradually replaced the earlier free distribution of instruments in large ensembles, and marked the birth of what might be called the modern orchestra.

By the time the symphony emerged on the musical scene around 1730, the basic constitution of a concert orchestra was already well established in the arrangement of instruments found in the opera orchestras of Italian theaters: Violins in two sections, violas, cellos, basses, optional wind instruments such as oboes and French horns, and harpsichord along with a bassoon serving as basso continuo. On occasion, flutes were substituted for oboes, and trumpets and timpani augmented the brass section. While the exact makeup of an “orchestra” varied widely across Europe depending mostly on the function such an ensemble might serve in church, a royal court, or a concert hall, this Italian opera orchestra of the late 17th century gradually became the standard ensemble for the concert symphony of the following century.

Of great importance in understanding orchestral performance in the early 18th century is the fact that there were no stand-up, baton-waiving conductors at the helm of any orchestra. Leadership fell either to the harpsichord player or to the concertmaster. But in either case, their duties were limited to setting the tempo and starting the performance. In addition, these early Italian orchestras varied in size from small ensembles of only about 15 players at some royal courts, to larger groups of up to 40 players in major opera houses. Amateur philharmonic societies might have fielded an orchestra anywhere between these extremes, but in general most 18th-century orchestras were far smaller than what we know today.

Musical Styles in the 18th Century

The point at which the concert symphony emerged in the first decades of the 18th century coincided with the arrival of a new musical style, which, like the birth of the symphony itself, arose at least in part from the growth of new middle-class audiences during the Enlightenment. Because J.S. Bach died in 1750, we tend to think of that date as the end of the Baroque style. But in fact, the new, less sophisticated audiences that began to shape musical styles associated with new genres such as the symphony, opera buffa, and the string quartet, had already decided that the music of Bach was hopelessly old-fashioned long before his death. That which today impresses us as the ultimate level of musical complexity and sophistication in the keyboard and vocal music of Bach, seemed to less well-educated audiences of the first half of the 18th century as needlessly artificial, cerebral, and abstract. In keeping with the Enlightenment ideals of naturalness and simplicity, composers began catering to amateur audiences with music of a far simpler style. This new style, which first appeared in Italian opera houses in the early 18th century, is today referred to with the French term “galant,” meaning “fashionable.” From a stylistic point of view, the new galant style marked a major departure from the complexity of the Baroque. Gone was the intricate counterpoint that characterized the music of Bach, replaced now with an extremely simple homophonic texture in which one melodic line was supported by chordal harmonies. Equally simple was the harmonic vocabulary of this new music, which reverted to severely diatonic progressions. In addition, the galant style featured melodies built with a new, more periodic design. Instead of the typical Baroque fortspinnung (spun forth) melodies that present a single short motive treated to continual expansion, the new instrumental music of the early 18th century offered melodies built on contrasting two- or four-measure phrases, each of which was usually repeated several times.

The overall aural impression of this new galant music was one of simplicity in texture, melody, and harmony. Equally important is the fact that the new periodic melodies in this music had what might seem to us today an extremely low melodic profile. This simply means that the melodic lines were not especially tuneful and memorable, made up, as they were, mostly of scale passages and arpeggios. A comparison of two keyboard works, one by J.S. Bach and one by Domenico Scarlatti, will help illustrate the difference between the melodic structure of the aging Baroque style and the new galant style.

Ex. 1.1 J.S. Bach, Allemande From French Suite No. 4

Ex. 1.2 D. Scarlatti Harpsichord Sonata in D Major, K. 119

In this example, the opening motive in the first half of m. 1 is twice repeated through the first half of m. 2, whereupon Bach transforms it with the addition of the tie. That subtle variation is then repeated through the first half of m. 3, where it is transformed into a new motive by developing the major or minor second found between the second and third 16th notes of the original motive. Overall, the effect is of one long, unbroken phrase of continually evolving 16th notes.

By contrast, Scarlatti’s melody consists of several repeated motives of two or four measures each. After the opening arpeggiated idea, a new motive appears in m. 6 and is repeated in m. 10. Another new figure is then presented in m. 14 and repeated in m. 16. These contrasting phrases lead to a new more periodic construction that replaced the continual growth and transformation of motives characteristic of the music of J.S. Bach.

In general all of the earliest symphonies were written in the galant style, which can be thought of as a bridge between the Baroque and Classical periods. Some aspects of this new style look back to the century before, while other aspects look ahead to the high Classical style of the late 18th century. Those elements of the galant style that were carried forward into the Classical period include the homophonic texture, the periodic phrase structure, and the slower, more regular harmonic rhythm. Aspects of the galant style that look back to the Baroque period are its terraced dynamics, motoric rhythms, and lack of tuneful melodic lines.

Early Use of the Term "Symphony"

Like the development of the orchestra, the history of the term “symphony” has a checkered past. The word “symphony” (or sinfonia in Italian) derives from the Greek syn and phone, meaning “to sound together.” As such, the term was applied throughout the 17th century to a variety of genres that involved a large group of instruments often also involving voices. Heinrich Schütz, for example, wrote a collection of Latin motets in 1619 titled Symphoniae sacrae. And Handel’s famous oratorio Messiah contains an instrumental interlude titled Pastoral Symph...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• PART I The Classical Symphony
• PART II The Romantic Symphony
• PART III The Symphony in the Modern Era
• Index