Development of the Symphony Essay - Structure

- initially lots of different numbers of movements

- 3 movement structure became most common

- sonata form developed from binary form and became most common structure

- 3 movements - fast, slow, fast

- simple sonata form in mvt 1 and 3

- binary form in mvt 2

- wrote first 4 mvt symphony that included a minuet and trio

- common plan became:

mvt 1 - fast, sonata, tonic

mvt 2 - slow, usually theme and variation, closely related key

mvt 3 - minuet and trio, tonic

mvt 4 - fast, rondo or sonata rondo, tonic

- Stamitz favoured 4 mvt plan

- used sonata form in mvt 1 and 4 and sometimes in slow mvts as importance grew

- 3 movements

- mvts increasing in length and development increasing in length but little developing, mostly sequence, imitation and tremolando

- mvt 2 combination of extended binary/ simple sonata

- experiments with sonata form by using 2nd subject in middle of development rather than in exposition

- develops main theme in recapitulation

- begins to explore use of coda and further developing of subjects within it (e.g. extra imitation of first subject)

- mvt 3 has developing of opening idea at beginning of B section of minuet and restatement of original idea is extensive which shows influence of sonata

- sonata form becoming very extended with lots of unity and developing 

- dividing line between development and recapitulation blurred with overlapping phrases

- slow introduction like a mini sonata form 

- mvt 1 has a very unified development section based on figure y 

- mvt 2 has an imaginative sturcture with combination of ternary and theme and variation and more developing of codetta in coda

- mvt 3 additional link section between trio and minuet de capo

- first example of a minuet being replaced with a scherzo, although still entitled minuet tempo and metronome marking are fast 1 in a bar feel and playful in nature

- all codas have extensive developing (mvt 1 reaches neapolitan key of Db major) 

- mvt 2 has unusual sturcture as double theme and variations 

- mvt 3 original manuscript suggests expanded 5 sections (scherzo, trio, scherzo, trio, scherzo) with final scherzo beign reworked/colourful orchestration

- overall form expanded to 5 mvts

- 4 mvts but on a larger scale than anything seen before 

- mvt 1 has a triple fugue with coda-like additional development, pushing boundaries of sonata form 

- cyclical element as quotes tempo and time changes from other mvts

- use of idee fixe (term invented by Berloiz referring to recurring theme representing an idea/character)

- 5 mvt form, all choices fully influenced by programme

- mvt 1 and 5 have slow intros and sonata form influenced but Berloiz was more concerned about musical idea than following rules

- very traditional writing 

- in No.4 all 4 mvts played without a break and lots of cyclical elements

- used traditional structure with cyclical elements

- No.4 mvt 4 written in passacaglia form (ground bass) with 30 varitions based on it  

- no programme music and sruggled with sonata form 

- lots influence of Russian folk music in No.4 mvt 4 and cyclical elements when 'fate' motif from mvt 1 is used 

- wrote very long symphonies

- depended on programmatic elements but used lots of classical concepts

- structurally complex and cyclical