Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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of the Mannheim orchestra for dealing with
purely instrumental music, and the traditions of
Stamitz, who had there effected his share in the
history of the Symphony, opened Mozart's eyes
to the possibilities of orchestral performance,
and encouraged him to a freer style of composition
and more elaborate treatment of the
orchestra than he had up to that time attempted.
The Mannheim band had in fact been long considered
the finest in Europe ; and in certain
things, such as attention to nuances (which in
early orchestral works had been looked upon as
either unnecessary or out of place), they and
their conductors had been important pioneers ;
and thusMozart mustcertainly havehad his ideas
on such heads a good deal expanded. The qualities
of the symphony produced in Paris early in
the next year were probably the first-fruits of
these circumstances ; and it happens that while
this symphony is the first of his which has
maintained a definite position among the important
landmarks of art, it is also the first in
which he uses orchestral forces approaching to
those commonly employed for symphonies since
the latter part of the 18th century.
Both Haydn and Mozart, in the course of their
respective careers, made decided progress in
managing the orehesti'a, both as regards the
treatment of individual instruments, and the
distribution of the details of musical interest
among them. It has been already pointed out
that one of the earliest expedients by which
contrast of efi'ect was attempted by writers for
combinations of instruments, was the careful
distribution of portions for ' solo and ripieno ' '
instruments, as illustrated by Scarlatti's and
later concertos. In J. S. Bach's treatment of
the orchestra the same characteristic is familiar.
The long duets for oboes, flutes, or bassoons,
and the solos for horn or violin, or viola da
gamba, which continue throughout whole reci-
SYMPHONY 771
' Ouverture
'
in major) ; and the trio consists
of a long and elaborate solo for bassoon. Haydn
early began experiments in various uses of his
orchestra, and his ways of grouping his solo instruments
for effect are often curious and original.
C. F. Pohl, in his life of him, prints from the
MS. parts a charming slow movement from a
Bfci symphony, which was probably written in
1766 or 1767. It illustrates in a singular way
how Haydn at first endeavoured to obtain a
special effect without ceasing to conform to
familiar methods of treating his strings. The
movement is scored for first and second violins,
violas, solo violoncello and bass, all con ' sordini.'
The first and second violins play in unison
throughout, and the violoncello plays the tune
with them an octave lower, while the violas play
in octaves with the bass all but two or three
bars of cadence ; so that in reality there are
scarcely ever more than two parts playing at a
time. The following example will show the
style :
and by very slow degrees. For over twenty years
of symphony-writing the same limited treatment
of strings and the same kind of solo passages are
tatives or arias, all have this same principle at commonly to be met with. But there is a growing
tendency to make the wind and the lower
bottom. Composers had still to learn the free
and yet well-balanced management of their and inner strings more and more independent,
string forces, and to attain the mean between and to individualise the style of each within
the use of wind instruments merely to strengthen proportionate bounds. A fine symphony (in E
the strings and their use as solo instruments in minor, Letter ' I '), which appears to date from
long independent passages. In Haydn's early 1772, is a good specimen of Haydn's intermediate
stage. The strings play almost inces-
symphonies the old traditions are most apparent.
The balance between the different forces of the santly throughout, and the wind either doubles
orchestra is as yet both crude and obvious. In the string parts to enrich and reinforce them,
the symphonv called Le Matin ' ' for instance, or else has long holding notes while the strings
which appear^ to have been among the earliest, play characteristic figures. The passage fi-om
the second violins play with the first, and the the last movement, given on the next page, will
violas with the basses to a very marked extent serve to illustrate pretty clearly the stage of
_in the first movement almost throughout. orchestral expression to which Haydn had at
This first movement, again, begins with a splo that time arrived.
for flute. The slow movement, which is divided In the course of the following ten years the
into adagio and andante, has no wind instruments
at all, but there is a viohn solo through-
other composers were writing symphonies besides
progress was slow but steady. No doubt many
out the middle portion. In the minuet a contrast
is attained by a long passage for wind band proving that branch of art. Unfortunately the
Haydn and Mozart, and were, like them, im-
alone (as in J. S. Bach's second Bourr^e to the difficulty of fixing the dates of their productions
—
Violini 1 & 2.
Towards a really free treatment of his forces he
seems, however, to have been led on insensibly