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A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often written by composers for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning common today: a work usually consisting of multiple distinct sections or movements, often four, with the first movement in sonata form. Symphonies are scored for string (violin, viola, cello and double bass), brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments which altogether number about 30–100 musicians. Symphonies are notated in a musical score, which contains all the instrument parts. Orchestral musicians play from parts which contain just the notated music for their instrument. A small number of symphonies also contain vocal parts (e.g., Beethoven's Ninth Symphony). ==Origins== The word ''symphony'' is derived from Greek (''symphonia''), meaning "agreement or concord of sound", "concert of vocal or instrumental music", from (''symphōnos''), "harmonious". The word referred to an astonishing variety of different things, before ultimately settling on its current meaning designating a musical form. In late Greek and medieval theory, the word was used for consonance, as opposed to διαφωνία (''diaphōnia''), which was the word for dissonance. In the Middle Ages and later, the Latin form ''symphonia'' was used to describe various instruments, especially those capable of producing more than one sound simultaneously.〔 Isidore of Seville was the first to use the word symphonia as the name of a two-headed drum, and from c. 1155 to 1377 the French form ''symphonie'' was the name of the ''organistrum'' or hurdy-gurdy. In late medieval England, ''symphony'' was used in both of these senses, whereas by the 16th century it was equated with the dulcimer. In German, ''Symphonie'' was a generic term for spinets and virginals from the late 16th century to the 18th century. In the sense of "sounding together," the word begins to appear in the titles of some works by 16th- and 17th-century composers including Giovanni Gabrieli's ''Sacrae symphoniae'', and ''Symphoniae sacrae, liber secundus'', published in 1597 and 1615, respectively; Adriano Banchieri's ''Eclesiastiche sinfonie, dette canzoni in aria francese, per sonare, et cantare'', op. 16, published in 1607; Lodovico Grossi da Viadana's ''Sinfonie musicali'', op. 18, published in 1610; and Heinrich Schütz's ''Symphoniae sacrae'', op. 6, and ''Symphoniarum sacrarum secunda pars'', op. 10, published in 1629 and 1647, respectively. Except for Viadana's collection, which contained purely instrumental and secular music, these were all collections of sacred vocal works, some with instrumental accompaniment. 〔 〕 In the 17th century, for most of the Baroque period, the terms ''symphony'' and ''sinfonia'' were used for a range of different compositions, including instrumental pieces used in operas, sonatas and concertos—usually part of a larger work. The ''opera sinfonia'', or ''Italian overture'' had, by the 18th century, a standard structure of three contrasting movements: fast, slow, fast and dance-like. It is this form that is often considered as the direct forerunner of the orchestral symphony. The terms "overture", "symphony" and "sinfonia" were widely regarded as interchangeable for much of the 18th century.〔 In the 17th century, pieces scored for large instrumental ensemble did not precisely designate which instruments were to play which parts, as is the practice from the 19th century to the current period. When composers from the 17th century wrote pieces, they expected that these works would be performed by whatever group of musicians were available. To give one example, whereas the bassline in a 19th century work is scored for cellos, double basses and other specific instruments, in a 17th century work, a basso continuo part for a sinfonia would not specify which instruments would play the part. A performance of the piece might be done with a basso continuo group as small as a single cello and harpsichord. However, if a bigger budget was available for a performance and a larger sound was required, a basso continue group might include multiple chord-playing instruments (harpsichord, lute, etc.) and a range of bass instruments, including cello, double bass, bass viol or even a serpent, an early bass woodwind instrument. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Symphony」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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