Sinfonia
Encyclopedia
Sinfonia is the Italian word for symphony
. In English it most commonly refers to a 17th- or 18th-century orchestral piece used as an introduction, interlude, or postlude to an opera
, oratorio
, cantata
, or suite
. It has also sometimes been used for other types of music (see below).
and early Baroque
, a sinfonia was an alternative name for a canzona
, fantasia
or ricercar
. These were almost always instrumental forms, all rooted however in a polyphonic
tradition. Later in the Baroque period it was more likely to be a type of sonata, especially a trio sonata
or one for larger ensemble. Still later in the Baroque era, the word was used to designate an instrumental prelude, as described in the next section.
s and oratorio
s, a sinfonia was generally an instrumental prelude
, sometimes also an interlude/intermezzo
or postlude, providing contrast with adjacent vocal or otherwise different sections.
A specific form of such kind of preluding piece, in the early 18th century, was the three-movement sinfonia which became the standard type of overture
to an Italian opera
. Most of the time these pieces were in D major (for maximizing open-string resonance on string instruments), opening and ending with a fast movement, with a slow movement in the middle. Examples of this type of Italian sinfonia are the numerous three-movement opera overtures by Alessandro Scarlatti
, all archetypical Italian overture
s.
In France however overtures had always been one-movement preluding pieces, usually in a A-B-A form, where the "A" sections had a slow tempo
with a stately (double)dotted rhythm, while the "B" middle section was comparatively fluent and fast. This musical form
became known as the French overture
. By the time this type of overture was adapted by German composers like Bach
and Handel
from the early 18th century on, it could be as well the preluding movement of a (dance) suite
, in which case overture was sometimes used as a synonym for the entire suite (e.g. Bach's French Overture
, BWV 831).
Most of Handel's operas and oratorios start with the French type of overture movement, even if he occasionally calls such movement a sinfonia (as he did for the Messiah, actually calling it a "Sinfony" []). But Handel would use the Italian type of orchestral prelude/interlude too, for instance the Introduzione to the cantate Delirio amoroso, HWV
99. Also the instrumental Pifa featuring in the Messiah did not so much derive from French examples. An interesting anecdote is that when Mozart
made a German version of the Messiah, some 30 years after Handel's death, he changed the name of the opening Sinfony to Ouvertüre, but more or less did away with its French characteristics: he softened the dotted rhythm of the "A" section with some more flowing horn melodies, and by speeding it up a bit also made it less distinct from the "B" section: the result is that the "A" part appears as not much more than a moderate preamble to a "fast" symphonic movement (the "B" section).
Meanwhile, also from the early 18th century on, the 3-movement Italian type of sinfonia had started to lead a life of its own: it could be composed as an independent concerto
-like piece (without soloists however). For instance Vivaldi
composed 3-movement independent sinfonias, not so different from some of his string concertos, as well as composing similar sinfonia preludes for his operas.
Bach
sometimes used the term sinfonia in the then-antiquated meaning of an instrumental single-movement piece, e.g. for the keyboard Inventions and Sinfonias BWV 787-801, using a three-voice polyphonic style. Note that in 20th century, publishers started to publish these sinfonias as "Three-Part Inventions", where "Part" is an independently flowing melody ("voice", but in the instrumental meaning) in a single-movement work.
If Bach opened a vocal work with one or more separate instrumental movements (which was all in all not so often), he would usually call such piece a sinfonia or alternatively a sonata. For the sinfonias the style would be rather Italian (also for the single-movement ones) than French:
Both Handel and Bach used the French type of overture to start their orchestral suites. For suites they composed for a solo instrument there often was no prelude movement. If there was, that opening movement would usually be either an Overture/Ouverture (in that case always referring to the French style), or otherwise a Prelude/Praeludium. The style of such preludes was less defined but would often emulate the style of a fast movement of an Italian sinfonia.
As the 18th century progressed, the usual name for an instrumental prelude to a vocal/theatrical work would settle on overture. Although such overtures would generally be one-movement pieces, they were no longer in the French style, but rather adapted the Italian preluding sinfonia, for instance a loud, triadic
, motto-type leading motif
, a reprise preceded with minimal thematic development, and an overall mood of expectation rather than resolution.
The idea of the Italian 3-movement sinfonia as an independent orchestral composition lived on too: the earliest symphonies of Haydn and Mozart were composed in this format. Mozart also composed divertimento
s in the Italian sinfonia format, with some ambiguity whether such divertimentos were indeed intended as independent instrumental compositions, or rather as instrumental interludes (for theatre productions etc).
But then Haydn made the Italian sinfonia/non-solistic concerto and the French type of overture/suite meet again: he took the three movements of a sinfonia, and inserted a fourth between the two last movements of the Italian model. That additional movement was a menuet, which had until then only been an almost obligatory movement of a suite. He also took some characteristics of the French style overture movement, as well as of what was the sonata in those days, amongst others the possibility to start the first movement of such a four-movement composition with a slow introductory passage. But the resulting composition was no longer called a "sinfonia" (at least not outside Italy and Spain): the symphony
was born.
, from the Romantic era
on. Often, but not always, the title "sinfonia" is used when the work is seen as, or intended to be, lighter, shorter, or more Italianate or Baroquish in character than a full-blown (romantic) symphony (with its dominantly Germanic
pedigree).
Examples of such "sinfonias" composed after the classical era include:
Symphony
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...
. In English it most commonly refers to a 17th- or 18th-century orchestral piece used as an introduction, interlude, or postlude to an opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
, oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
, cantata
Cantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
, or suite
Suite
In music, a suite is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral pieces normally performed in a concert setting rather than as accompaniment; they may be extracts from an opera, ballet , or incidental music to a play or film , or they may be entirely original movements .In the...
. It has also sometimes been used for other types of music (see below).
Late Renaissance – early Baroque
In the very late RenaissanceRenaissance music
Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance. Defining the beginning of the musical era is difficult, given that its defining characteristics were adopted only gradually; musicologists have placed its beginnings from as early as 1300 to as late as the 1470s.Literally meaning...
and early Baroque
Baroque music
Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...
, a sinfonia was an alternative name for a canzona
Canzona
In the 16th century an instrumental chanson; later, a piece for ensemble in several sections or tempos...
, fantasia
Fantasia (music)
The fantasia is a musical composition with its roots in the art of improvisation. Because of this, it seldom approximates the textbook rules of any strict musical form ....
or ricercar
Ricercar
A ricercar is a type of late Renaissance and mostly early Baroque instrumental composition. The term means to search out, and many ricercars serve a preludial function to "search out" the key or mode of a following piece...
. These were almost always instrumental forms, all rooted however in a polyphonic
Polyphony
In music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ....
tradition. Later in the Baroque period it was more likely to be a type of sonata, especially a trio sonata
Trio sonata
The trio sonata is a musical form that was popular in the 17th and early 18th centuries.A trio sonata is written for two solo melodic instruments and basso continuo, making three parts in all, hence the name trio sonata...
or one for larger ensemble. Still later in the Baroque era, the word was used to designate an instrumental prelude, as described in the next section.
Overture or early symphony
In larger vocal-instrumental forms of the 17th and 18th centuries, for example operaOpera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
s and oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
s, a sinfonia was generally an instrumental prelude
Prelude (music)
A prelude is a short piece of music, the form of which may vary from piece to piece. The prelude can be thought of as a preface. It may stand on its own or introduce another work...
, sometimes also an interlude/intermezzo
Intermezzo
In music, an intermezzo , in the most general sense, is a composition which fits between other musical or dramatic entities, such as acts of a play or movements of a larger musical work...
or postlude, providing contrast with adjacent vocal or otherwise different sections.
A specific form of such kind of preluding piece, in the early 18th century, was the three-movement sinfonia which became the standard type of overture
Overture
Overture in music is the term originally applied to the instrumental introduction to an opera...
to an Italian opera
Italian opera
Italian opera is both the art of opera in Italy and opera in the Italian language. Opera was born in Italy around the year 1600 and Italian opera has continued to play a dominant role in the history of the form until the present day. Many famous operas in Italian were written by foreign composers,...
. Most of the time these pieces were in D major (for maximizing open-string resonance on string instruments), opening and ending with a fast movement, with a slow movement in the middle. Examples of this type of Italian sinfonia are the numerous three-movement opera overtures by Alessandro Scarlatti
Alessandro Scarlatti
Alessandro Scarlatti was an Italian Baroque composer especially famous for his operas and chamber cantatas. He is considered the founder of the Neapolitan school of opera. He was the father of two other composers, Domenico Scarlatti and Pietro Filippo Scarlatti.-Life:Scarlatti was born in...
, all archetypical Italian overture
Italian overture
The Italian overture is a piece of orchestral music with which in the late 17th and early 18th centuries several operas, oratorios and other large-scale works opened....
s.
In France however overtures had always been one-movement preluding pieces, usually in a A-B-A form, where the "A" sections had a slow tempo
Tempo
In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...
with a stately (double)dotted rhythm, while the "B" middle section was comparatively fluent and fast. This musical form
Musical form
The term musical form refers to the overall structure or plan of a piece of music, and it describes the layout of a composition as divided into sections...
became known as the French overture
French overture
The French overture is a musical form widely used in the Baroque period. Its basic formal division is into two parts, which are usually enclosed by double bars and repeat signs. They are complementary in styles , and the first ends with a half-cadence that requires an answering structure with a...
. By the time this type of overture was adapted by German composers like Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
and Handel
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
from the early 18th century on, it could be as well the preluding movement of a (dance) suite
Suite
In music, a suite is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral pieces normally performed in a concert setting rather than as accompaniment; they may be extracts from an opera, ballet , or incidental music to a play or film , or they may be entirely original movements .In the...
, in which case overture was sometimes used as a synonym for the entire suite (e.g. Bach's French Overture
French overture
The French overture is a musical form widely used in the Baroque period. Its basic formal division is into two parts, which are usually enclosed by double bars and repeat signs. They are complementary in styles , and the first ends with a half-cadence that requires an answering structure with a...
, BWV 831).
Most of Handel's operas and oratorios start with the French type of overture movement, even if he occasionally calls such movement a sinfonia (as he did for the Messiah, actually calling it a "Sinfony" []). But Handel would use the Italian type of orchestral prelude/interlude too, for instance the Introduzione to the cantate Delirio amoroso, HWV
Händel-Werke-Verzeichnis
The Händel-Werke-Verzeichnis is the Catalogue of Handel's Works. It was published in three volumes by Bernd Baselt between 1978 and 1986, and lists every piece of music known to have been written by George Frideric Handel...
99. Also the instrumental Pifa featuring in the Messiah did not so much derive from French examples. An interesting anecdote is that when Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
made a German version of the Messiah, some 30 years after Handel's death, he changed the name of the opening Sinfony to Ouvertüre, but more or less did away with its French characteristics: he softened the dotted rhythm of the "A" section with some more flowing horn melodies, and by speeding it up a bit also made it less distinct from the "B" section: the result is that the "A" part appears as not much more than a moderate preamble to a "fast" symphonic movement (the "B" section).
Meanwhile, also from the early 18th century on, the 3-movement Italian type of sinfonia had started to lead a life of its own: it could be composed as an independent concerto
Concerto
A concerto is a musical work usually composed in three parts or movements, in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra.The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words...
-like piece (without soloists however). For instance Vivaldi
Antonio Vivaldi
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi , nicknamed because of his red hair, was an Italian Baroque composer, priest, and virtuoso violinist, born in Venice. Vivaldi is recognized as one of the greatest Baroque composers, and his influence during his lifetime was widespread over Europe...
composed 3-movement independent sinfonias, not so different from some of his string concertos, as well as composing similar sinfonia preludes for his operas.
Bach
Bạch
Bạch is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Bai in Chinese and Baek, in Korean.Bach is the anglicized variation of the surname Bạch.-Notable people with the surname Bạch:* Bạch Liêu...
sometimes used the term sinfonia in the then-antiquated meaning of an instrumental single-movement piece, e.g. for the keyboard Inventions and Sinfonias BWV 787-801, using a three-voice polyphonic style. Note that in 20th century, publishers started to publish these sinfonias as "Three-Part Inventions", where "Part" is an independently flowing melody ("voice", but in the instrumental meaning) in a single-movement work.
If Bach opened a vocal work with one or more separate instrumental movements (which was all in all not so often), he would usually call such piece a sinfonia or alternatively a sonata. For the sinfonias the style would be rather Italian (also for the single-movement ones) than French:
- One-movement sinfonia opening the secular cantatas Non sa che sia dolore, BWV 209, and Mer hahn en neue Oberkeet, BWV 212Mer hahn en neue Oberkeet, BWV 212Mer hahn en neue Oberkeet , BWV 212, is a secular cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. It was entitled the "Cantate burlesque" by Bach himself, but is now popularly known as the Peasant Cantata...
- Sinfonia followed by an "adagio" opening the Easter OratorioEaster OratorioThe Easter Oratorio , BWV 249, is an oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach, Kommt, eilet und laufet , first performed in Leipzig in 1725.- History :...
, BWV 249. Although the chorus joins in the third movement of that oratorio, these three successive opening movements could be seen as a 3-movement "Italian" sinfonia to the oratorio. - Some opening movements of his church cantatas were like up-beat movements of organ concertos (BWV 29, 35, 49, 169) - later Bach would rework some of these sinfonias to harpsichord concerto movements.
Both Handel and Bach used the French type of overture to start their orchestral suites. For suites they composed for a solo instrument there often was no prelude movement. If there was, that opening movement would usually be either an Overture/Ouverture (in that case always referring to the French style), or otherwise a Prelude/Praeludium. The style of such preludes was less defined but would often emulate the style of a fast movement of an Italian sinfonia.
As the 18th century progressed, the usual name for an instrumental prelude to a vocal/theatrical work would settle on overture. Although such overtures would generally be one-movement pieces, they were no longer in the French style, but rather adapted the Italian preluding sinfonia, for instance a loud, triadic
Triad (music)
In music and music theory, a triad is a three-note chord that can be stacked in thirds. Its members, when actually stacked in thirds, from lowest pitched tone to highest, are called:* the Root...
, motto-type leading motif
Motif (music)
In music, a motif or motive is a short musical idea, a salient recurring figure, musical fragment or succession of notes that has some special importance in or is characteristic of a composition....
, a reprise preceded with minimal thematic development, and an overall mood of expectation rather than resolution.
The idea of the Italian 3-movement sinfonia as an independent orchestral composition lived on too: the earliest symphonies of Haydn and Mozart were composed in this format. Mozart also composed divertimento
Divertimento
Divertimento is a musical genre, with most of its examples from the 18th century. The mood of the divertimento is most often lighthearted and it is generally composed for a small ensemble....
s in the Italian sinfonia format, with some ambiguity whether such divertimentos were indeed intended as independent instrumental compositions, or rather as instrumental interludes (for theatre productions etc).
But then Haydn made the Italian sinfonia/non-solistic concerto and the French type of overture/suite meet again: he took the three movements of a sinfonia, and inserted a fourth between the two last movements of the Italian model. That additional movement was a menuet, which had until then only been an almost obligatory movement of a suite. He also took some characteristics of the French style overture movement, as well as of what was the sonata in those days, amongst others the possibility to start the first movement of such a four-movement composition with a slow introductory passage. But the resulting composition was no longer called a "sinfonia" (at least not outside Italy and Spain): the symphony
Symphony
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...
was born.
Symphony with an alternative scope
Later sinfonia would occasionally be used as an alternative name for a symphonySymphony
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...
, from the Romantic era
Romantic music
Romantic music or music in the Romantic Period is a musicological and artistic term referring to a particular period, theory, compositional practice, and canon in Western music history, from 1810 to 1900....
on. Often, but not always, the title "sinfonia" is used when the work is seen as, or intended to be, lighter, shorter, or more Italianate or Baroquish in character than a full-blown (romantic) symphony (with its dominantly Germanic
Germanic peoples
The Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...
pedigree).
Examples of such "sinfonias" composed after the classical era include:
- Felix MendelssohnFelix MendelssohnJakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
's twelve early symphonies, most of them string symphonies in three movements and all of them composed before his five other more elaborate symphonies, are sometimes called "sinfonias", to distinguish them from the Symphonies 1 to 5 that were published during - or shortly after - the composer's lifetime. The ItalianSymphony No. 4 (Mendelssohn)The Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. 90, commonly known as the Italian, is an orchestral symphony written by German composer Felix Mendelssohn ....
is a composition of the latter series, so always called a "symphony". On the other hand Mendelssohn used the term sinfonia in the "overture" meaning for the first movement of his Lobgesang symphonySymphony No. 2 (Mendelssohn)The Symphony No. 2 in B flat major, op. 52, called the "Lobgesang" Symphony, was composed by Felix Mendelssohn. It was written in 1840 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the invention of printing, along with the less-known Festgesang "Gutenberg Cantata".The composer's description of the work...
. This can be seen as one of the many Bach reminiscences Mendelssohn inserts in his music: these references to the old master were especially thick in this "symphony-cantataCantataA cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
", as it was to be premiered in the Thomaskirche in LeipzigLeipzigLeipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
. - Vincent d'IndyVincent d'IndyVincent d'Indy was a French composer and teacher.-Life:Paul Marie Théodore Vincent d'Indy was born in Paris into an aristocratic family of royalist and Catholic persuasion. He had piano lessons from an early age from his paternal grandmother, who passed him on to Antoine François Marmontel and...
wrote a Sinfonia brevis de bello Gallico that is: "Brief sinfonia of the War in Gaul". - Richard StraussRichard StraussRichard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
chose the name Sinfonia Domestica ("Domestic Symphony") for a full scale symphony he composed 1902–1903. Maybe this symphony shows a somewhat sunnier side than most of his other orchestral compositions - but then large parts of the work also portray domestic tiffs and other tensions, ending in an elaborate fugueFugueIn music, a fugue is a compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject that is introduced at the beginning in imitation and recurs frequently in the course of the composition....
restoring coherence in the household. - Igor StravinskyIgor StravinskyIgor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
titled the first movement of his 1923 OctetOctet (Stravinsky)The Octet for wind instruments is a chamber-music composition by Igor Stravinsky, completed in 1923.Stravinsky’s Octet is scored for an unusual combination of woodwind and brass instruments: flute, clarinet in B and A, two bassoons, trumpet in C, trumpet in A, tenor trombone, and bass trombone...
"Sinfonia". - Benjamin BrittenBenjamin BrittenEdward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
wrote a Sinfonia da RequiemSinfonia da RequiemSinfonia da Requiem, Op. 20, for orchestra is a symphony written by Benjamin Britten in 1940 at the age of 26. It was one of several works commissioned from different composers by the Japanese Government to mark the 2,600th anniversary of the founding of the Japanese Empire...
in 1941. Here Sinfonia is rather an allusion to seriousness or solemnity, than to any kind of lightness. - Leon Orthel wrote also in 1941 a 'Piccola Sinfonia'. The work is in one mouvement, although it has 6 sections.
Sources
- Manfred BukofzerManfred BukofzerManfred Bukofzer was a German-American musicologist and humanist. He studied at Heidelberg University and the Stern conservatory in Berlin, but left Germany in 1933, going to Basle, where he received his doctorate. In 1939 he moved to the United States where he remained, becoming a U.S. citizen...
, Music in the Baroque Era. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1947. ISBN 0-393-09745-5 - The New Harvard Dictionary of Music, ed. Don Randel. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1986. ISBN 0-674-61525-5
- Article Sinfonia, in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN 1-56159-174-2
External links
- A selection of sinfonias (from the Mutopia projectMutopia projectThe Mutopia Project is a volunteer-run effort to create a library of free content sheet music, in a way similar to Project Gutenberg's library of public domain books.The music is reproduced from old scores that are out of copyright...
)