Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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SYMPHONY 765
former used crudely enough, but the latter
with d, good deal of perception of tone and
appropriateness of style ; sometimes with the
addition of wind instruments. Early in the
18th century several wind instruments, such
as oboes, bassoons, horns, trumpets, and flutes
were added, though not often all together
;
and they served, for the most part, chiefly to
strengthen the strings and give contrasting
degrees of full sound rather than contrasts of
colour and tone. Equally important was the
rapid improvement which took place simultaneously
in internal straoture ; and in this
case the development followed that of certain
other departments of musical form. In fact
the progress of the ' Sinfonia avanti 1' Opera
in this respect was chiefly parallel to the
development of the Clavier Sonata, which at
this time was beginning to attain to clearness
of outline and a certain maturity of style. It
will not be necessary here to repeat what has
elsewhere been discussed from different points
of view in the articles on Form, Sonj^ta, and
SuiTB ; but it is important to realise that in
point of time the form of this ' Sinfonia avanti
r Opera ' did not lag behind in definition of
outline and mastery of treatment ; and it
might be difScult to decide in which form
(whether orchestral or clavier) the important
detail first presents itself of defining the first and
second principal sections by subjects decisively
distinct. A marked improvement in various
respects appears about the time when the
symphony first began to be generally played
apart from the opera ; and the reasons for this
are obvious. In the first place, as long as
it was merely the appendage to a drama, less
stress was laid upon it ; and, what is more
to the point, it is recorded that audiences were
not by any means particularly attentive to the
instrumental portion of the work. The description
given of the behaviour of the public at
some of the most important theatres in Europe
in the middle of the 18th century seems to
correspond to the descriptions which are given
of the audience at the Italian Operas in England
in the latter half of the 19th. Burney, in the
account of his tour, refers to this more than
The music
once. In the first volume he says,
'
at the theatres in Italy seems but an excuse
for people to assemble together, their attention
being chiefly placed on play and conversation,
even during the performance of a serious opera.'
In another place he describes the card-tables,
and the way in which the 'people of quality
reserved their attention for a favourite air or
two or the perfomance of a favourite singer
The rest, including the overture, they did not
regard as of much consequence, and hence the
composers had but httle inducement to put out
the best of their powers. It may have been
partly on this account that they took very little
pains to connect these overtures or symphonies
with the opera, either by character or feature.
They allowed it to become almost a settled
principle that they should be independent in
matter ;
and consequently there was very little
difficulty in accepting them as independent
instrumental pieces. It naturally followed as
it did later with another form of overture.
The ' Symphonies ' which had more attractive
qualities were played apart from the operas,
in concerts ; and the precedent being thereby
established, the step to writing independent
works on similar lines was but short ; and it
was natural that, as undivided attention would
now be given to them, and they were no more
in a secondary position in connection with the
opera, composers should take more pains both
in the structure and in the choice of their
musical material. The Symphony had, however,
reached a considerable pitch of development
before the emancipation took place ; and this
development was connected with the progress
of certain other musical forms besides the
Sonata, already referred to.
It will accordingly be convenient, before
proceeding farther with the direct history of
the Symphony, to consider some of the more
important of these early branches of Musical
Art. In the early harmonic times the relationships
of nearly all the different branches of
composition were close. The Symphony was
related even to the early Madrigals, through
the 'Sonate da Chiesa,' which adopted tlie
Canzona or instrumental version of the Madrigal
as a second movement. It was also closely
related to the early Fantasias, as the earliest
experiments in instrumental music, in which
some of the technical necessities of that department
were grappled with. It was directly
connected with the vocal portions of the early
operas, such as airs and recitatives, and derived
from them many of the mechanical forms of
cadence and haiinony which for a long time
were a necessary part of its form. The solo
Clavier Suite had also something to do with it,
but not so much as might be expected. As
has been pointed out elsewhere, the suite-form,
being very simple in its principle, attained to
definition very early, while the sonata-form,
which characterised the richest period of harmonic
music, was still struggling in elementary
stages. The ultimate basis of the suite-form
is a contrast of dance-tunes ; but in the typical
early Symphony the dance-tunes are almost invariably
avoided. When the Symphony was
expanded by the addition of the Minuet and
Trio, a bond of connection seemed to be established
; but still this bond was not at all a
vital one, for the Minuet is one of the least
characteristic elements of £he suite-form proper,
being clearly of less ancient lineage and type
than the Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, or
Gigue, or even the Gavotte and Bourree, which
were classed with it, as Intermezzi or Galan-