Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

'
mentions
'
his influence. Even before he had passed
away the new tendencies of music were stronglyapparent,
and much of the elementary work of
the modern sonata-form of art had been done on
dififerent lines from his own.
The ' Sinfonia avanjj 1' Opera ' was clearly by
this time sufficiently independent and complete
to be appreciated mthout the opera, and without
either name or programme to explain its
meaning ; and within a very short period the
demand for these sinfonias became very great.
Burney's tours in search of materials for his
History, in Fmnce, Italy, Holland, and Germany,
were made in 1770 and 1772, before
Haydn had written any of his greater symphonies,
and while Mozart was still a boy.
His allusions to independent symphonies ' ' are
very frequent. Among those whose works he
with most- favour are Stamitz, Emanuel
Bach, Christian Bach, and Abel. "Works
of the kind by these composers and many others
of note are to be seen in great numbers in sets
of part-books in the British Museum. These
furnish most excellent materials for judging
of the status of the Symphony in the early
stages of its independent existence. The two
most important points which they illustrate
are the development of instrumentation and
the definition of foi-m. They appear to have
been generally written in eight parts. Most of
them ai'e scored for two violins, viola, and
bass ; two hautboys, or two flutes, and two
'
COTS de chasse.' This is the case in the six
symphonies of op. 3 of John Christian Bach ;
the six of Abel's op. 10, the six of Stamitz's
op. 9, op. 13, and op. 16 ;
also in a set of
'Overtures in 8 parts' by Arne, which must
have been early in the field, as the licence
from George II. printed in fuU at the beginning
,
of the first violin part, is dated January 17^?.
The same orchestration is found in many symphonies
by Galuppi, Ditters, Schwindl, and
othera. "Wagenseil, who must have been the
oldest of this group of composers (having been
bom in the 17th century, within six years
after Handel, Scarlatti, and Bach), wrote
several quite in the characteristic harmonic
'
style, a 4 parties obligees avec Cors de
Chasse ad libitum.' The treatment of the
instruments in these early examples is rather
crude and stiff. The vioHns are almost always
playing, and the hautboys or fiutes are only
ised to reinforce them at times as the npieni
'
instruments did in the early concertos, whUe
the horns serve to hold on the harmonies.
stages of improvement are noticeable
The .irat
,n such details as the independent treatanent^
'
of the sta^ngs. In the symphonies before the
opera ' the violas were cared for so littie that
in many cases i not more than half-a-dozen
bars are written in, all the rest being merely
. It 1. -otorioua that Mo»rt gave tMeT^i^^ the second violin
l»cau.w o( the incompetence of the viola^pUyers.
SYMPHONY 767
'col basso.' As examples of this in works of
more or less illustrious writers may be mentioned
the ' Sinfonias ' to Jommelli's ' Passione
and ' Betulia Liberata,' Sacchini's 'CEdipus,'
and Sarti's ' Giiilio Sabino.' One of the many
honours attributed to Stamitz by his admiring
contemporaries was that he made the violas
independent of the basses. This may seem
a trivial detail, but it is only by such details,
and the way in which they struck contemporary
writers, that the character of the gradual
progress in instrumental composition can now
be understood.
The general outlines of the form were extremely
regular. The three movements as
above described were almost invariable, the
first being a vigorous broad allegro, the second
the sentimental slow movement, and the third
the lively vivace. The progress of internal
structure is at first chiefly noticeable in the
first movement. In the early examples this is
always condensed as much as possible, the
balance of subject is not very clearly realisable,
and there is hardly ever a double bar or repeat
of the first half of the movement. Tlie divisions
of key, the short working-out ' portion, and
'
the recapitulation, are generally present, but
not pointedly defined. Examples of this condition
of things are supplied by some MS.
symphonies by Paradisi in the Fitzwilliam
Museum at Cambridge, which in other respects
possess excellent and characteristically modem
traits. The first thing attained seems to have
been the relative definition and balance of the
two subjects. In Stamitz, Abel, J. C. Bach,
and Wagenseil, this is already commonly
met with. The following examples from the
first movement of the fifth symphony of
Stamitz's op. 9 illustrate both the style and
the degree of contrast between the two principal
subjects.
^
1st subject.
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