What does symphony mean?

Definitions for symphony
ˈsɪm fə nisym·pho·ny

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word symphony.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. symphony, symphonic musicnoun

    a long and complex sonata for symphony orchestra

  2. symphony orchestra, symphony, philharmonicnoun

    a large orchestra; can perform symphonies

    "we heard the Vienna symphony"

Wiktionary

  1. symphonynoun

    an extended piece of music of sophisticated structure, usually for orchestra

  2. symphonynoun

    harmony in music or colour, or a harmonious combination of elements

  3. Etymology: From συμφωνία.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. SYMPHONYnoun

    Concert of instruments; harmony of mingled sounds.

    Etymology: symphonie, French; σὺν and φωνὴ.

    A learned searcher from Pythagoras’s school, where it was a maxim that the images of all things are latent in numbers, determines the comeliest proportion between breadths and heights, reducing symmetry to symphony, and the harmony of sound to a kind of harmony in sight. Henry Wotton.

    Speak ye who best can tell, ye sons of light,
    Angels! for ye behold him, and with songs
    And choral symphonies, day without night,
    Circle his throne rejoicing. John Milton, Par. Lost.

    The trumpets sound,
    And warlike symphony is heard around;
    The marching troops through Athens take their way;
    The great earl-marshal orders their array. Dryden.

Wikipedia

  1. Symphony

    A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often 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 almost always scored for an orchestra consisting of a string section (violin, viola, cello, and double bass), brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments which altogether number about 30 to 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 own instrument. Some symphonies also contain vocal parts (e.g., Beethoven's Ninth Symphony).

ChatGPT

  1. symphony

    A symphony is a lengthy composition for full orchestra, usually composed in four movements with the first movement typically in sonata form. It is a large-scale musical piece that became popular during the classical period of western music. Commonly, a symphony features contrasting moods and themes. It is primarily an orchestral composition that is characterized by complexity and unity of structure.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Symphonynoun

    a consonance or harmony of sounds, agreeable to the ear, whether the sounds are vocal or instrumental, or both

  2. Symphonynoun

    a stringed instrument formerly in use, somewhat resembling the virginal

  3. Symphonynoun

    an elaborate instrumental composition for a full orchestra, consisting usually, like the sonata, of three or four contrasted yet inwardly related movements, as the allegro, the adagio, the minuet and trio, or scherzo, and the finale in quick time. The term has recently been applied to large orchestral works in freer form, with arguments or programmes to explain their meaning, such as the "symphonic poems" of Liszt. The term was formerly applied to any composition for an orchestra, as overtures, etc., and still earlier, to certain compositions partly vocal, partly instrumental

  4. Symphonynoun

    an instrumental passage at the beginning or end, or in the course of, a vocal composition; a prelude, interlude, or postude; a ritornello

  5. Etymology: [F. symphonie (cf. It. sinfonia), L. symphonia, Gr. ; sy`n with + a sound, the voice. See Phonetic.]

Wikidata

  1. symphony

    A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle. Many symphonies are tonal works in four movements with the first in sonata form, which is often described by music theorists as the structure of a "classical" symphony, although many symphonies by the acknowledged classical masters of the form, Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven do not conform to this model.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Symphony

    sim′fō-ni, n. an agreeing together in sound: unison, consonance, or harmony of sound: a musical composition for a full band of instruments: an instrumental introduction or termination to a vocal composition.—n. Symphō′nia, concord in Greek music: a medieval name for the bagpipe, the virginal.—adj. Symphon′ic, relating to, or resembling, a symphony: symphonious.—n. Symphō′nion, a combination of pianoforte and harmonium, the precursor of the orchestrion.—adj. Symphō′nious, agreeing or harmonising in sound: accordant: harmonious.—n. Sym′phonist, a composer of symphonies. [Gr. symphōniasyn, together, phōnē a sound.]

The Nuttall Encyclopedia

  1. Symphony

    an elaborate orchestral composition consisting usually of four contrasted and related movements; began to take distinctive shape in the 17th century, and was for long merely a form of overture to operas, &c., but as its possibilities were perceived was elevated into an independent concert-piece, and as such exercised the genius of Mozart and Haydn, reaching its perfection of form in the symphonies of Beethoven.

Anagrams for symphony »

  1. hyponyms

  2. physnomy

How to pronounce symphony?

How to say symphony in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of symphony in Chaldean Numerology is: 7

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of symphony in Pythagorean Numerology is: 9

Examples of symphony in a Sentence

  1. Alan B. Watts:

    No one imagines that a symphony is supposed to improve in quality as it goes along, or that the whole object of playing it is to reach the finale. The point of music is discovered in every moment of playing and listening to it. It is the same, I feel, with the greater part of our lives, and if we are unduly absorbed in improving them we may forget altogether to live them.

  2. Amit Ray:

    Symphony starts when you walk together, feel the heart beats and understand the unspoken words.”

  3. Martin Tobias Lithner:

    In the symphony of numbers, each prime plays a distinct, unyielding note, composing a harmony that resonates through the corridors of infinity

  4. Gail Vance Civille:

    Just on the texture side, [ the chocolate chip cookie ] has a lot going for it, every bite will be interesting. ... You will hit the cookie, which has crispness due to air pockets in the cookie crumb, and then the chocolate, which is dense and uniform when you bite through it. It's like a symphony orchestra playing together. ... It's very harmonious.

  5. Yvonne Padmos:

    In a society brimming with empathy and compassion, the concept of homelessness would cease to exist; for it is through the genuine sharing and caring for one another that we eradicate the silence of suffering and build the symphony of a harmonious humanity.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

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Translations for symphony

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"symphony." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Mar. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/symphony>.

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