Ripieno Concerto

The Symphony

The symphony, as we know it, started out in the 17th and 18th centuries. The most direct ancestor of the symphony would the Baroque ripieno concerto. The ripieno concerto, however, is is not really a concerto at all. A concerto would normally have a soloist or soloists play over the ensemble, but the ripieno concerto does not have any soloists at all. Oxforddictionaries.com defines “ripieno” as, “The body of instruments accompanying the concertino in baroque concerto music. ” Using that definition in the context of the ripieno concerto, the ripieno concerto is a piece consisting of only the concerto accompaniment. These pieces of music were scored for the same ensemble as early symphonies, string orchestra plus continuo, and

One of the most notable composers at the start of this time was Giovanni Battista Sammartini from Lambardy, Italy. His symphonies from 1720-1740 were still mostly of the style of the ripieno concerto, but his adoption of the rounded binary or early sonata form for the faster movements provided one of the main changes from the ripieno concerto in writing style. From Naples, several composers, like Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, began writing for a more powerful orchestra including oboes, horns, flutes, and often trumpets and timpani. They began experimenting with homophonic texture, block-like treatment of treatment of winds, slow harmonic rhythm, use of pedal point, dynamic contrast, and thematic contrast in first movements. Around mid-1740s, the court of Mannheim introduced a fourth movement by inserting a minuet and trio before the finale. However, the later Mannheim composers returned to the standard three-movement styled symphony. A style change in individual movements during this time would be the use of sonata form with only a partial recapitulation as opposed to the full until the 1770s. In Vienna, the earliest composers of this style, like Mathias Georg Monn (1717-1750), were fairly conservative, but like Sammartini, favored the use of the binary form with a full recapitulation. The next generation favored a more clarity of structure in their sonata forms. Most of the symphonies

These composers, among others, proposed the idea of a union between music and poetic content. The most innovative of this style is Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette. This used the music to tell a story with chorus and vocal soloists. However, his most technical innovation was idée fixe, which is the constant returning of an idea in every movement. These innovations, influenced Liszt’s work with Faust and Dante, and in turn, influenced the works of César Franck with his Symphony in D