Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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SYMPHONIC POEMS SYMPHONY 763
as a solo instrument, is one of the most effective
members of the full orchestra, is no doubt partly
due to the sympathetic vibration reacting on
the large surface of strings that are capable of
resonance. M.
SYMPHONIC POEMS (Germ. Symphonische
DicMuTigen ;
Fr. Polities Symphoniques), a
term first applied by Liszt to his series of twelve
orchestral compositions which, freed from the
conventions of actual symphonic form, seemed
to him to require some new title. It has been
since adopted by Saint-Saeus, and many other
followers of the new ideals in music ; it apparently
is always held to imply the presence
of a programme,' '
in which the function of the
music is to illustrate the poetic material, not to
be self-subsistent, as in all classical compositions.
At present, too, it would seem that the
absence of any recognisable design in the composition
is considered essential to success, and
Liszt's device of transforming his themes and
presenting them in new disguises, rather than
developing them according to the older principles,
seems also to be a rule of the form. As
existing specimens from Liszt to Richard Strauss
in Germany, and from Saint-Saens to Debussy
in France, have so very little in common with
the design of the true symphony, the term
'
Tone-Poem ' or Tondichtung ' ' is preferred by
some composers, who very likely feel relieved of
all responsibility by the adoption of the vaguer
title. M.
SYMPHONY (SiNFONiA, Sinfonie, Symphonib).
The terms used in connection with
any briuch of art are commonly very vague and
indefinite in the early stages of its history, and
are apj^ied withoutmuoh discrimination to different
things. In course of time men consequently
find themselves in difiSoulties, and try, as far as
their opportunities go, to limit the definition of
the terms, and to confine them at least to things
which are not obviously antagonistic. In the
end, 'however, the process of sifting is rather
guided by chance and external circumstances
than' determined by the meaning which theorists
see to be the proper one ;
and the result is that
the final meaning adopted by the world in
general is frequently not only distinct from that
which the original employers of the word intended,
but also in doubtful conformity with its
derivation. In the case of the word Symphony,'
as with 'Sonata,' the meaning now
'
accepted happens to be in very good accordance
with its derivation, but it isconsiderablyremoved
from the meaning which was originally attached
to the word. It seems to have been used at
first in a very general and comprehensive way,
to express any portions of music or passages
whatever which were thrown into relief as
purely instrumental in works in which the
chief interest was centred upon the voice or
voices. Thus, in the operas, cantatas, and masses
of the early part of the 17th century, the voices
had the most important part of the work to do,
and the instruments' chief business was to
supply simple forms of harmony as accompaniment.
If there were any little portions which
the instruments played without the voices, these
were indiscriminately called Symphonies ;
and
tinder the same head were included such more
particular forms as Overtures and RitorneHi.
The first expei-imentalists in liarmonic music
generally dispensed with such independent instrumental
passages altogether. For instance,
most if not all of the cantatas of Cesti and Rossi'
are devoid of either instrumental introduction
or ritornel ; and the same appears to have been
the case with many of the operas of that time.
There were, however, a few independent little
instrumental movements even in the earliest
operas. Peri's ' Euridice,' which stands almost
at the head of the list (having been performed
at Florence in 1600, as part of the festival in
connection with the marriage of Henri IV. of
France and Marie de' Medici), contains a Sinfonia
' for three flutes, which has a definite form
'
of its own and is veiy characteristic of the time.
The use of short instrumental passages, such as
dances and introductions and ritornels, when
once fairly begun, increased rapidly. Monteverde,
who followed close upon Peri, made some
use of them, and as the century grew older, they
became a more and more important element in
dramatic works, especially operas. The indiscriminate
use of the word symphony,' to denote
'
the passages of introduction to airs and recitatives,
etc. , lasted for a very long while, and got
so far stereotyped in common usage that it was
even applied to the instrumental portions of airs,
etc., when played by a single performer. As an
example may be quoted the following passage
from a letter of Mozart's—
' Sie (meaning Strinasacohi)
spielt keine Note ohne Empfindung
sogar bei den Sinfonien spielte sie aUes mit
Expression,' etc.^ [The same use of the name
for the ritomelli between the verses of a song
was common in England down to the middle of
the 19th century.] With regard to this use of
the term, it is not necessary to do more than
point out the natural course by which the
meaning began to be resti'ioted. LuUy, Alessandro
Scarlatti, and other great composers of
operas in the l7th century, extended the appendages
of airs to proportions relatively considerable,
but there was a limit beyond which
such dependent passages could not go. The
independent instrumental portions, on the other
hand, such as overtures or toccatas, or groups
of ballet tunes, were in different circumstances,
and could be expanded to a very much greater
extent ; and as they grew in importance the
name Symphony ' ' came by degrees to have a
more special significance. The small instrumental
appendages to the various airs and so
I MSS. in the Christ Churcli Libiaiy, Oxford,
z She does not play a note without ' feeling, and even in the Symphonies
played all with expression.'