History of the Symphony Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

History of the Symphony - Essay Example The origins of symphony date way back to the early 19th century, continuing through the 20th century, and on to the 21st century. Haydn was one of the foremost composers of the symphony in the 1800’s. Mozart expanded on the symphony by composing short tone poems. Sonata form was popular in this period. Beethoven made similar pieces to Mozart—however, Beethoven was much more orderly, fond of expanded form, and liked to write symphony pieces that were more reserved, in a sense. Also in the late 1820’s, Robert Schumann attempted his first symphony, entitled â€Å"Spring.† Berlioz was fond of using expanded instrumentation and programmatic symphony. Mahler used altered symphonic form. Strauss later became a conductor. Aaron Copland was well-known for his symphonies as well, ushering in the 20th century—championing serialism, or twelve-tone music. Schoenberg ushered in the 21st century of American symphony. â€Å"[Schoenberg’s] early works, which were reminiscent of Johannes Brahms and Richard Strauss, are still disliked because they were written by his infamous hand. His twelve-tone technique is the first attempts at atonality during his era and would be never developed and explored by later composers...† William Schuman wrote eight symphonies.