sinfonia

Sinfonia is Italian for 'symphony' — both words derive from Latin symphonia, from Greek symphonia (agreement of sounds, harmony, concord), compounded from syn (together) and phone (sound, voice). The Italian sinfonia and the English symphony (from Latin via French) are thus the same word, differently routed through time. But in musical history they name different things at different periods, and understanding that difference illuminates how musical forms evolve. Sinfonia is the earlier term, and it names several distinct things: an instrumental prelude to an opera, a self-contained orchestral composition, and eventually — by the late eighteenth century — the form that became the classical symphony.

In the early seventeenth century, sinfonia was used loosely for any instrumental piece that functioned as an introduction or interlude in a primarily vocal work. Monteverdi uses the term in his operas for brief orchestral passages. As Italian opera developed in the seventeenth century, it became conventional to open a performance with an orchestral prelude — typically called a sinfonia or overture. By the early eighteenth century, the Italian overture (sinfonia avanti l'opera, sinfonia before the opera) had developed a characteristic three-movement structure: fast–slow–fast. This structure — established most influentially by Alessandro Scarlatti (1660–1725), the leading composer of Neapolitan opera — was fast, lyrical, and brief, designed to draw an audience's attention and set a mood.

The crucial development was when composers began writing sinfonias that were not attached to any opera — pieces intended for the concert hall rather than the theater. Giovanni Battista Sammartini (1700/01–1775), working in Milan, is credited with writing some of the earliest such independent sinfonias in the 1730s. The Mannheim court orchestra in Germany — famous for its extraordinary discipline and its development of new orchestral effects such as the extended crescendo — was a crucial site for the sinfonia's development into a more substantial form in the 1740s–1760s. By the time Haydn began writing his sinfonias in the 1750s (he ultimately composed 106 of them, called 'symphonies' in English), the form had expanded from three to four movements and had become the most prestigious vehicle for orchestral composition.

The relationship between Italian sinfonia and the German-Austrian symphonie is essentially the same word in different languages, with the Italian form preceding and generating the German-Austrian tradition. By the time Mozart (1756–1791) and Beethoven (1770–1827) wrote their symphonies, the form was firmly associated with the German-speaking world, and the Italian word sinfonia had receded to its historical meanings: the operatic prelude, and the Baroque and early Classical genre. The Italian word survived in its original operatic sense and is still used today for certain kinds of concert works that deliberately invoke the pre-symphonic tradition.