Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

ideas
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776 SYMPHONY
Haydn in the long series of his works cultivated
and relined his own powers to such an extent
that when his last symphonies had made their
appearance, the status of the symphony was
raised beyond the possibility of a return to the
old level. In fact he gave this branch of art a
stability and breadth which served as the basis
upon which the art of succeeding generations
appears to rest ; and the simplicity and clearness
of his style and structural principles
supplied an intelligible model for his successors
to follow.
One of the most important of the contempoi'ariesof
Haydn and Mozart in this department
of art was F. J. Gossec. He was born in 1733,
one year after Haydn, and lived like him to a
good old age. His chief claim to remembrance
is the good work which he did in improving
the standard of taste for instrumental music in
France. According to Fetis such things as instrumental
symphonies were absolutely unknown
in Paris before 1754, in which year Gossec published
his first, five years before Haydn's first
attempt. Gossec's work was carried on most
efifeotually by his founding, in 1770, the 'Oonoert
for whom he wrote his most im-
des Amateurs, '
portant works. He also took the management
of the famous Concerts Spirituels, with Gavini&
and Leduc, in 1773, and furthered the cause of
good instrumental music there as well. The
few symphonies of his to be found in this
country are of the same calibre, and for the
same groups of instruments, as those of J. 0.
Hach, Abel, etc., already described; but F^tia
attributes importance to him chiefly because
of the way in which he extended the dimensions
and resources of the orchestra. His
Symphony in D, No. 21, written soon after
the founding of the Concert des Amateurs, was
for a full set of strings, flutes, oboes, clarinets,
bassoons, horns, trumpets, and drums ; and
this was doubtless an astonishing force to the
Parisians) accustomed as they had been to regard
the compositions of LuUy and Rameau as the
best specimens of instrumental music. But It
is clear from other indications that Gossec had
considerable . about the ways in which
instrumental music might be improved, analogous
on a much smaller scale to the aspirations
and attempts of Berlioz at a later date. Not only
are his works carefully marked with pianos and
fortes, but in some (as the Symphonies' of op.
xii.) there are elaborate directions as to how
the movements are to be played. Some of
these are curious. For instance, over the first
violin part of the slow movement of the second
'
symphony is printed the following : La difference
du Fort au Doux dans ce morceau doit 6tre
excessive, et le mouvement modere, k I'aise,
qu'il semble se jouer avec la plus grande facility.'
Nearly all the separate movements of this set
have some such directions, either longer or
shorter ; the inference from which is that
Gossec had a strong idea of expression and style
in performance, and did not find his bands very
easily led in these respects. The movements
themselves are on the same small scale as those
of J. C. Bach, Abel, and Stamitz ; and very
rarely have the double bar and repeat in the
first movements, though these often make their
appearance in the finales. The style is to a
certain extent individual ; not so robust or so
full as that of Bach or Stamitz, but not without
attractiveness. As his works are very diflicult
to get sight of, the following quotation from
the last movement of a symphony in Bb will
serve to give some idea of his style and manner
of scoring :
Allegro balldbUe.
aa^g^
m
Violini 1 & 2.
=*-F*i^jaSp^-^^pa^S
^^1
n *^=
^
Cello e Basso.
^=^i^^m
ti t:t: t:
P^B^ii
etc.
Another composer of symphonies, who is often
heard of in juxtaposition with Haydn and
Mozart, and sometimes as being preferred to
them by the audiences of the time, is Gyrowetz.
His symphonies appear to be on a larger scale
than those of the prior generation of composers
of second rank like himself. A few of them
are occasionally to be met with in collections
of 'Periodical overtures,' 'symphonies,' etc., published
in separate orchestral parts. One in C,
scored for small orchestra, has an introductory