Four Centuries of Great Music August 14, 2022 The Symphony Through the Centuries

Today on Four Centuries of Great music is the first of several episodes celebrating the symphony through the centuries.

A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. The most common meaning is a work usually consisting of multiple distinct sections or movements. Symphonies are almost always scored for an orchestra consisting of a string section (violin, viola, cello, and double bass), brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments which altogether number about 30 to 100+ musicians. Symphonies are notated in a musical score, which contains all the instrument parts. Orchestral musicians play from parts which contain just the notated music for their own instrument.

The first time the word was used to describe a musical composition was in 1597 with Giovanni Gabrieli's Sacrae symphoniae.  But this was a sacred work with minimal instrumentation and voices which was really just a modified motet with mass movements.  The first truly instrumental symphony was Lodovico Grossi da Viadana's Sinfonie musicali, Op. 18, published in 1610.  This had 18 movements with dance designations so was really a suite rather than the symphony we are familiar with.

During the baroque period the term went unused with the various concerto Grossi of the period being the closest thing to what we consider a symphony to be.  These were almost always in 3 movements fast-slow-fast.

Franz Joseph Haydn in the classical period is who really developed the modern symphony which is comprised of four movements:
1.  Fast - an opening sonata usually allegro but can have sections of varying tempo
2.  Slow (andante or lento)
3.  Playful - minuet and trio which became a scherzo
4.  Fast - allegro or presto in rondo or sonata form

Franz Joseph Haydn’s Symphony #3 in G Major 

Haydn’s first and second symphonies followed the baroque 3 movement fast-slow-fast but with his 3rd symphony he began the 4 movement form we are familiar with today.  It was written between 1760 and 1762 and It is scored for 2 oboes, bassoon, 2 horns, strings and continuo.  The opening movement is in sonata form.  The winds are not used in the slow movement, but the trio of the minuet shows the first emergence of winds from their lesser position in the orchestra.  The Minuet is a canon between the higher and lower voices and the Finale is also contrapuntal. It is a fugue with two subjects that also integrates elements of sonata form.

Franz Joseph Haydn’s Symphony #104 (the London)

Of course with each subsequent symphony most keeping the 4 movement form, there was an advancement in the complexity and length of each work.  Haydn’s last numbered symphony was his 104 “London” symphony.  It was actually the last of the 12 symphonies he wrote while residing in London.  The work was composed in 1795 and end premiered to great success at the King's Theatre on 4 May 1795, in a concert featuring exclusively Haydn's own compositions and directed by the composer.  Haydn wrote in his diary "The whole company was thoroughly pleased and so was I. I made 4000 gulden on this evening: such a thing is possible only in England.”  It is in 4 movements

The first movement Marked Adagio-Allegro. After a slow and grand introduction in D minor, the main body of the sonata form movement, in D major. The movement is mono thematic with the theme first in the strings and then transposed to A major in the woodwinds. This is followed by the development which begins in B minor, using the rhythmic pattern of the second half of the theme. The development ends with the full orchestra. In the recapitulation, the first theme is heard again in D Major. It uses imitative patterns of the woodwinds in the second theme. The movement closes with a coda, also in D major.

The second movement marked Andante is in G major, opens with the main theme in the strings. After this, a brief episode highlighting A minor and D minor leads to a modified repeat of the main theme in both strings and bassoon. From here, a second section begins with modulation to various other keys, including G minor and B♭ major, but continues to feature the melody of the main theme. After arriving on the dominant of G major, the music of the first section returns. The rest of the movement consists of a modification of the first section of music, with several changes in rhythm and more prominence to the winds, especially the flute.

The third movement is a minuet and trio in D major marked allegro. The minuet section consists of a rounded binary (A,B,A') form with an opening section emphasizing the tonic, while the second section visits the relative minor (B minor) and the dominant (A major). The trio is in B♭ major, and uses the oboe and bassoon extensively. Like in the minuet, this trio's B section emphasizes the relative minor (in this case, G minor). The trio ends with a transition back to dominant of the main key in preparation for the return to the minuet.

The exuberant finale, marked Spiritoso, is in fast tempo and in sonata form.  It opens in the mode of folk music using a drone bass and a theme often claimed to have originated as a Croatian folk song. The development section settles on the dominant of the main key (which is A Major), as is typical, but the recapitulation does not occur immediately. Instead, the development is extended with a section in F♯ minor, after which the recapitulation in D major follows immediately.

Here is a performance of  the first two movement of Franz Joseph Haydn’s Symphony #104 (the London) by Sydney Lark conducting the London Festival Orchestra from the album Haydn: Symphonies #99 & 104 Point

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony #41 in C Major, The Jupiter.

Although there were several composers who composed symphonies during the classical period, the other main contributor to this literature is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart who composed what many feel is the one of the finest examples of the symphony ever written and that is his Symphony #41 in C Major, The Jupiter.  There is a wonderful discussion of this symphony by Gerard Schwarz along with a performance of the complete symphony by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra conducted by Gerard Schwarz from the album Mozart: Symphony No. 40, Symphony No. 41, Musically Speaking. Musically Speaking Records