What is a symphony?

It is one of the most pleasing sights. Go to a performance of Indian classical music in Europe and you will see many Europeans attending th...

It is one of the most pleasing sights. Go to a performance of Indian classical music in Europe and you will see many Europeans attending the show with every intention of grappling with the nuances of Tansen and Tyagaraja . It is one of the most annoying of sights. Go to a performance of Western classical music in Mumbai and you will see only a handful of Indians willing to lend a patient ear to Mozart and Mendelssohn. Where is the global Indian who can be at home with the concerto and the kriti?

Western classical music continues to be mystical and forbidding to most Indians only because terms like the symphony, sonata, concerto, allegro and A minor are not explained. But this music needn’t remain the domain of select coteries. Let’s take the symphony first which is synonymous with western classical music in India. In order to understand the symphony one has to first know what a sonata is. Like the DNA molecule, the sonata is the basic building block of most orchestral composition . It is a structure consisting of three or four sections known as movements. Of these, the first movement must follow the following norms: it must be in the speed known as allegro which means fast, happy, peppy and it must follow the sonata form.

A composition which follows the rules of exposition, development and recapitulation is conforming to the sonata form. Quite like the typical Hindi film song except that in the development section the composer is free to explore alien territory â€“ notes that do not belong to the key (raag) that he started the composition with. Once you get used to this violation of musical boundaries introduced earlier, you would be able to sense how the composer has entered the development section and has finally repeated the theme or themes he started the composition with.

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The second movement of the sonata can be the theme and variations or a slow movement while the last movement is invariably once again in the sonata form. A sonata for two instruments is a duo, for three a trio, for four a quarter and so on. A sonata for an orchestra is known as a symphony.

The typical symphony or the Viennese Symphony is in four movements: fast, slow, a dance or a march and a finale. The first movement of a symphony is in allegro and usually has two themes which are introduced and repeated so that we may identify these as the basic ideas which are going to be worked on in the development section. This ends with the reintroduction of the first or second or both themes. The second movement of the symphony is slow, usually marked largo (very slow), adagio (very slow) or andante (at a walking pace). The third movement of the symphony is either a minuet, a scherzo or a waltz depending on the period that the symphony belongs to. The minuet is a French aristocratic dance which composers like Mozart and Haydn used in the symphony as the third movement. Their successors like Beethoven, Schubert and Dvorak replaced the dainty minuet with the more folksy scherzo in their symphonic works. These movements are far more earthy but cannot really be danced as no steps have been set to the music.

Later composers like Berlioz and Tchaikovsky used the waltz in the third movement of their symphonies. The last movement is a tour de force and is quite breathtaking in its splendour. It is usually in the sonata form and is offered as a summation of the work . The symphony is a creation of the 18th century where principles of liberty, equality and fraternity dominated even music. The need was felt for a structure in which all the instruments of the orchestra were equal. The composer had to keep all four sections of the orchestra roughly 80 players in mind as he composed. It is probably the most demanding structure for composer, conductor, performer and audience alike. No wonder then that the Symphony is synonymous with western classical music.

Parag Trivedi conducts workshops on appreciation of Western classical music and hosts a radio show on the same subject.

Recommended listening:

Mozart – No: 25, 29, 39, 40, 41

* Beethoven – No: 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

* Schubert: – No: 8, 9

* Berlioz – Symphony Fantastic

* Dvorak – No 9 From the New World