The Symphony: Defining Classical Music
Both A Work Of Art And A Genre Defining Piece of Music
This blog started with a simplified explanation of a Symphony as both a piece of music and an orchestra's name. And while a concerto, at least as a term, maybe unfamiliar to someone attending a concert for the first time, a Symphony is what we typically think of when we think of classical music. We don't say we're going to the Symphony to hear a Symphony. We simply say we're going to the Symphony. The term has become both a brand and a product in many ways. This kind of one-word identification is a rarity. We say Band-aid, although not all bandages bear the brand name. Taser, Xerox, Popsical, and Google are among other brands that have become universal with their products. Even more interesting is that this time of genericization doesn't really exist in any other art form. The words museum or gallery don't even begin to describe the works you will send inside. You wouldn't simply tell a friend you're going to the theater - it doesn't tell them what you'll be seeing. Is it a drama, a musical, a ballet, an opera, or something else entirely? While you might have to clarify which Symphony you're hearing, a friend would automatically know what type of music to expect.
To get a bit scholarly for a moment, Tom Service of The Guardian newspaper has perhaps one of the best takes on what a Symphony truly is. He writes that "it's usually how we refer to the multi-movement form that evolved...from the Baroque suite and the operatic overture as a self-contained work of purely instrumental music." The Symphony became "the single most prestigious expression of musical architecture in the late 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, the highpoint of many composers' ambition and achievement. A symphony isn't just a structure, a musical formula, or a set of containers - three or four movements of contrasting speeds and characters - that composers merely had to fill in to qualify as "symphonic" writers. The Symphony is really a way of thinking about what music actually is, what it's really for."
Service further writes that, like most art, symphonic music exists partially to "say something." Whether a commentary on world events, a place, a composer's personal experience, or something even more extraordinary, it exists both of this world and out of it. It often transcends and surpasses regular human expression. To put it another way, it is beyond words and sometimes beyond our comprehension. It is pure emotion. It is something that is felt at the deepest level, even if we can't define what it is we are feeling. If a Symphony were an emoji - it would be this one 🤯 (mind exploding). That's a lot to expect from a single piece of music and composer, isn't it? Yet, greats like Beethoven, Dvorak, Mahler, Tchaikovsky, and lesser-known but sublime talents like Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Florence Price, or Wiliam Dawson have proven it possible time and again.
Is this to say a shorter piece doesn't have the same impact or the same intent to inspire? Certainly not. Perhaps what makes a Symphony the ultimate form of classical music is the journey it takes the listener on. While a shorter work like Anna Clyne's This Midnight Hour or Ralph Vaughn William's Lark Ascending celebrates a single idea or emotion - a Symphony takes a deep dive. It's like a single newspaper article versus a multi-issue expose; Stargate versus the Star Wars trilogy; Wuthering Heights versus Jane Austen's entire canon.
As the SPhil prepares for its EPIC orchestra premiere of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 1, the composer's own words ring truest. "A symphony must be like the world,' wrote Mahler. "It must contain everything." And to Music Director finalist John Concklin, Mahler's "Titan" Symphony does just this. "A composer's first Symphony reveals so much about their psyche, intentions, belief systems, and experience," says Concklin. "In Mahler's First, it is so clear that he has built a universe of his own. You can see the beginnings of his fascination with nature, the human spirit, transformation of the soul, indescribable love, heartache, and death. Some composers build symphonies akin to houses, some build castles, and comparatively, Mahler built Hogwarts. For example, Mozart wrote mostly standard symphonies but with more elegance and lyricism than his predecessors and contemporaries. Beethoven bent the genre to his will and changed the parameters to his liking. Brahms and Tchaikovsky envisioned larger spaces, more rooms, new entryways. But Mahler added a lake, magical creatures, a hidden garden, and secret passageways. He created an entirely new symphonic universe all his own."
This is the depth and breadth of a symphony. Majestic, nuanced, and bold. Even ordinary language fails in describing it thoroughly. A symphony is genuinely something one has to experience. We hope you join us to hear your SPhil bring this incredible art form to life.
Watch A Symphony Online
See A Symphony In-Person
See More from the Joyful Novice’s Guide To The Symphony
