Symphony Orchestra Analysis

The development of symphonic music during the Classical Period is greatly responsible for shaping today’s orchestral music landscape. Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is often considered to be the cornerstone of the symphony genre evolution. While his grand gem is somewhat revolutionary and unique to a certain extent, such as ‘expanding the brass section in the final movement.’ [1] On the other hand Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique is filled with minor references to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony

The symphony is in four very powerful and entertaining movements. The first movement begins in the pianissimo tone with the strings section, but quickly enters the fortissimo tone with the introduction of the woodwind, brass and percussion sections. The dynamics of the musical melody varies throughout the movement moving from crescendo to decrescendo modes. The first movement reminds you of a raging storm from soft blowing winds to thunder and lighting. The audience is mesmerized by this first movement of the sonata.

Presently we have the gift of hearing music of the past through the formation of the concert hall and sheet music. We are able to hear the styles and structures of the past as well as the feelings and individual initiatives of composers in relation to the time period. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra provides an avenue for listeners from a wide range of backgrounds to hear and hopefully enjoy the sounds of the past. The two pieces preformed are styles notable from the modern era, both originating in Russia. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s presentation of Rachmaninov’ s Piano Concerto No. 1 and Schostakovich’s symphony No. 8 gives insight to the composers and conductors, as well as personal reflection of what emotions these pieces evoke.

The Grinnell Symphony Orchestra’s concert with cowboy singer Dave Stamey was billed as an intriguing and thought-provoking junction between the genres of classical and Western. The mix of traditional cowboy music and orchestral arrangement had the potential to highlight the strengths of the performers and genres; it was certainly interesting to hear songs typically performed solo being played with a full orchestra, but a number of red flags popped out immediately and ended up spoiling the experience. Poor planning and a failure to be conscious of cultural politics ultimately left a bad taste in my mouth. Factors unrelated to this intersection of genres – rehearsal timing, audience demographics, and Dave Stamey’s racist habits and mannerisms – ended up highlighting the negative instead.

The genre is a symphony, which is a multimovement composition for orchestra lasting about twenty-five minutes in the Classical perido to nearly an hour in the Romantic era. It has

It has been around for many years. Composers used it as a way to express their feelings, forget any obstacles that they are going through, or just for pure enjoyment. Composers went through a lot of trouble sometimes just to get a piece of music recognized. The music played at the symphony had a lot of meaning. It represented the composers, and their stories behind each piece of music. Many of them hard a pretty hard life, it wasn't easy for the for them to get recognized, and for people to actually appreciate their music. For example some composers went through depression or were ill and their only salvation was music. Each piece of music has a story behind

As noted by Robert Hughes, "Beethoven was not only the embodiment of all that was before him, but also of that which was yet to come" (Hughes 486). The truth of this may be seen by comparing Beethoven's 5th Symphony in C Minor to Haydn, the father of Symphony, and his 95th in C Minor. While Haydn's symphony is both playful and dramatic, Beethoven's symphony is grander both in terms of scale and vision. He expands the size of the orchestra to incorporate the sounds swirling around, underlying, and depicting the arrival of Fate in a rhythm-driven, thematic symphony that takes Haydn's form and runs with it as though to the top of a mountain peak. This paper will analyze the symphonies by movement, according to form, size, structure, tonalities, melodies, orchestral sound and overall mood and effect.

Incredibly popular in his day, Paul Wranitzky today is all but forgotten, left overshadowed by his better-known contemporaries and friends Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven. Moravian by birth, Wranitzky moved to Vienna in 1776 and quickly established himself as a remarkable and versatile composer of operas, chamber music, and symphonies. He was also widely respected as a conductor. In 1800, he was selected by Beethoven conduct the premier performance of the composer’s first symphony. The Octet for Winds in F-major is composed in four movements, Allegro moderato in sonata-allegro form, a theme and variations, Minuet and Trio, and an exciting Allegro finale. Classical influences of form and structure permeate the work, as well as lessons learned from Wranitzky’s time studying with Franz Joseph Haydn. So similar were the composers’ styles, for many years this work was inaccurately attributed to Haydn as Divertimento, Hob.II:F7 and still appears in some publications under that same name.

Berlioz cemented his reputation in the year 1830 as a musical radical with a premiere of his symphonies fantastique. His work mainly embodied his desire to combine literature with music. Symphonies were traditionally orchestra’s abstract work that was structured around to contract musical themes. A program symphony was a new gene invented by Berlioz as a symphony that was able to tell a story. This symphony was a large orchestral work that was combined by written programs to explain its meaning.

During the 18th century when mention of Mannheim one can take note of the crescendo and the Mannheim sigh and leave it at that as to cover Mannheim in its place in musical history. However, during the 18th century one of the most profound and short lived orchestras resided in Mannheim and led by one of the most talented, but also very often forgotten composers and performers of his time in Johann Stamitz. Too often in history the orchestra, the court, and the musicians are overlooked, and merely referenced about making a crescendo and certain small ornamentations in music famous or known to the musical world at that time. However, the little time that this court

For the second and final concert report, I listened to the performance of Beethoven’s 9th symphony, as played by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Beethoven lived in Germany during the late 16th and early 17th centuries, and was an influential figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in western music. The performance requires a large number of instruments, with woodwinds, brass, percussion, strings, and even a choir during the 4th movement.

The song begins with two singers having a joyful conversation with one another. The timbre of the first singer is full, while the second singer’s timbre is full but much thinner, lost as an echo behind the powerful voice of singer one. Singer one is playing a pants role, and the character is easily gathered as being youthful and energetic. His vocals are fast in tempo. The phrases are almost breathless as they run together and reach well into an upper range. The orchestra’s accompaniment, reinforces the melody, following the main vocalists lead. The syncopated rhythms of the violin mirror the soloist’s excitement, as he races through each phrase. The song is full of dramatic pauses especially in the beginning. Just as one pause ends the soloist

Music development occurs due to many reasons and when looking at composers in Vienna we can see a vast change from the development of music in a short amount of time. By looking at some of the most influential composers in Vienna at the time, such as Mozart and Beethoven, we can derive the development of music in Vienna between 1775-1825. When we analyse some of the composer’s music we can identify certain factors to understand the way music was developed, these are due to historical events that where happening at Vienna through the time, such as French Revolution and the change constant change of power in the Habsburg Monarchy until its dissolution in 1806 from the entry of Napoleon causing the Habsburg’s to sign a peace treaty with Napoleon’s

The classical music period extends from 1740 to 1810, which includes the music of Haydn, Mozart, and the first period of Beethoven. The classical period of music combined harmony, melody, rhythm, and orchestration more effectively than earlier periods of music. With the natural evolution of music slowly changing with the culture, the baroque era had ended. That era had left a structure, articulation and periodic phrasing of music which would shape classical music.

Some of the most well known composers came to be in the in the classical music period. Ludwig van Beethoven was one of the composers, along with other greats of the time like Haydn and Mozart, which helped to create a new type of music. This new music had full rich sounds created by the new construction of the symphony orchestra.