ETYM French symphonie, Latin symphonia, Greek; syn with + phone a sound, the voice. Related to Phonetic.
A long and complex sonata for symphony orchestra; SYN. symphonic music.
Abstract musical composition for orchestra, traditionally in four separate but closely related movements. It developed from the smaller sonata form, the Italian overture, and the concerto grosso.
Haydn established the mature form of the symphony, written in slow, minuet, and allegro movements. Mozart and Beethoven (who replaced the minuet with the scherzo) expanded the form, which has since been modified and dramatized as quasi program music by Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Bruckner, Dvorák, Mahler, Sibelius, Vaughan Williams, Walter Piston, Prokofiev, Carl Nielsen, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, and Aaron Copland.