What Is Symphony? Definition And Usage Of This Term
WHAT IS SYMPHONY – In this topic, we are going to know and learn the definition of this term and how is this term used in sentences.
Definition
The Oxford Dictionary defines the term as the following:
- an elaborate musical composition for full orchestra, typically in four movements, at least one of which is traditionally in sonata form.
- an orchestral interlude in a large-scale vocal work.
- something regarded, typically favorably, as a composition of different elements.
Meanwhile, the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines this term as the following:
- consonance of sounds
- a usually long and complex sonata for symphony orchestra
- a musical composition (as for organ) resembling such a symphony in complexity or variety
- consonance or harmony of color (as in a painting)
- something that in its harmonious complexity or variety suggests a symphonic composition
Synonyms
Here are some of the following synonyms:
- balance
- coherence
- concinnity
- consonance
- consonancy
- harmony
- orchestration
- proportion
- symmetry
- unity
Etymology
It is a Middle English term which is from Old French symphonie, via Latin from Greek sumphōnia, which is sumphōnos or ‘harmonious’, a combination of sun– or ‘together’; and phōnē or ‘sound’.
Examples
Here are some examples of the usage of this term:
- The musical development of the city was stimulated by the creation of a symphony orchestra.
- In his 5th symphony he introduced 3 trombones and extended both the upper and lower extremes of the windband by a piccolo and a double bassoon.
- To Thackeray her diction recalled the sound of village bells falling sweetly and softly on the ear, and it sent a shiver through John Stuart Mill, like a symphony of Haydn or Mozart.
- The various ways in which this special style could be modified by the scale of the work, and contrasted with the broader and more elaborate parts, gave the Mass (even in its merely technical aspects) a range which made it to the 16th-century composer what the symphony is to the great instrumental classics.
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