symphony

Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn at the clavichord, as painted by Guttenbrunn. Haydn's studiously consistent arrangement of four movements within all his symphonies standardized the symphonic form.

Most important form of composition for the orchestra. It usually consists of four separate but closely related movements, although early works often have three. 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. Further modifications have since taken place, including developments such as the programme symphony that ‘tells a story’ or is descriptive in some way, for example, Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique (1830-31). Other important composers of symphonies include Johannes Brahms, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Anton Bruckner, Antonín Dvořák, Gustav Mahler, Jean Sibelius, Vaughan Williams, Walter Piston, Sergey Prokofiev, Carl Nielsen, Dmitri Shostakovich, Igor Stravinsky, and Aaron Copland. Important later composers of symphonies include Vaughan Williams, Shostakovich, Witold Lutosławski, and Peter Maxwell Davies.