Sinfonietta (symphony)

A sinfonietta is a symphony that is smaller in scale or lighter in approach than a standard symphony. Although of Italian form, the word is not genuine in that language and has seldom been used by Italian composers. It appears to have been coined in 1874 by Joachim Raff for his Op. 188, but became common usage only in the early 20th century (Temperley 2001).

A number of composers have written works in this format:

• William Alwyn's Sinfonietta for strings (1970)
• Malcolm Arnold's Sinfonietta No. 1, Op. 48 (1954), Sinfonietta No. 2, Op. 65 (1958), and Sinfonietta No. 3, Op. 81 (1964)
• Jürg Baur's Triton-Sinfonietta: 3 Grotesken für Kammerorchester (1974)
• Arnold Bax's Sinfonietta (1932)
• Lennox Berkeley's Sinfonietta, Op. 34 (1950)
• Herbert Blendinger's Sinfonietta, Op. 30 (1976)
• Eugène Bozza's Sinfonietta for string orchestra, Op. 61 (1944)
• Benjamin Britten's Sinfonietta, Op. 1 (1932)
• Henry Cowell's Sinfonietta for chamber orchestra (1928)
• Ingolf Dahl's Sinfonietta for concert band
• Peter Maxwell Davies's Sinfonietta accademica (1987)
• Louis Durey's Sinfonietta for strings, Op. 105 (1966)
• Ulvi Cemal Erkin's Sinfonietta for string orchestra (1951–59)
• Iván Erőd's Minnesota Sinfonietta, Op. 51
• Peggy Glanville-Hicks's Sinfonietta No. 1 in D minor for small orchestra (1935) and Sinfonietta No. 2 for orchestra (1938)
• Ernesto Halffter's Sinfonietta in D major (1925)
• Josef Matthias Hauer's Sinfonietta in 3 Sätzen, Op. 50
• Bernard Herrmann's Sinfonietta for string orchestra (1935)
• Paul Hindemith's Lustige Sinfonietta, Op. 4 (1916), and Symphonietta (Little Symphony) in E major (1949)
• Alun Hoddinott's Sinfonietta No. 1, Op. 56 (1968), Sinfonietta No. 2, Op. 67 (1969), Sinfonietta No. 3, Op. 71 (1970), and Sinfonietta No. 4 (1971)
• Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov's Sinfonietta, Op. 34 (arrangement for large orchestra of Violin Sonata, Op. 8) (1902)
• Leoš Janáček's Sinfonietta (1926)
• John Joubert's Sinfonietta for chamber orchestra, Op. 38
• Pál Kadosa's Sinfonietta for orchestra
• Vítězslava Kaprálová's Military Sinfonietta, Op. 11 (1937)
• Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Sinfonietta in B major, Op. 5 (1912)
• Ernst Krenek's Sinfonietta for string orchestra, "A brasileira", Op. 131 (1952)
• Elizabeth Maconchy's Sinfonietta (1976), not to be confused with her Little Symphony (1980–81)
• Tomás Marco's Sinfonietta No. 1 ("Opaco resplandor de la memoria"), for orchestra (1998–99), and Sinfonietta No. 2 "Curvas del Guadiana" (2004)
• Igor Markevitch's Sinfonietta in F (1928–29)
• Darius Milhaud's Sinfonietta, Op. 363 (1957)
• Bohuslav Martinů's Sinfonietta giocosa (1940) and Sinfonietta La Jolla (1950), both for piano and chamber orchestra
• E. J. Moeran's Sinfonietta (1944)
• José Pablo Moncayo's Sinfonietta (1945)
• Saburō Moroi's Sinfonietta in B-flat, Op. 24 "For Children" (1943)
• Ottokar Nováček's Sinfonietta for woodwind octet (1905)
• Krzysztof Penderecki's Sinfonietta No. 1, for string orchestra (1992) and Sinfonietta No. 2, for clarinet and strings (1994)
• George Perle's Sinfonietta
• Ástor Piazzolla's Sinfonietta for chamber orchestra, Op. 19
• Walter Piston's Sinfonietta (1941)
• Francis Poulenc's Sinfonietta (1947)
• Sergei Prokofiev's Sinfonietta in A major, Op. 5 (1909, rev. 1929 as Op. 48)
• Joachim Raff's Sinfonietta for ten winds, Op. 188 (1874)
• Max Reger's Sinfonietta in A major, Op. 90 (1904-05)
• Wallingford Riegger's Sinfonietta (1959)
• Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Sinfonietta on Russian Themes in A minor, Op. 31 (1879-84)
• Albert Roussel's Sinfonietta for string orchestra, Op. 52
• Edmund Rubbra's Sinfonietta for large string orchestra, Op. 163 (1984–85)
• Humphrey Searle's Sinfonietta, Op. 49, for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin, viola, violoncello, and double bass
• Carlos Surinach's Sinfonietta flamenca (1953–54)
• Erich Urbanner's Sinfonietta 79
• Heitor Villa-Lobos's Sinfonietta No. 1 (1916) and Sinfonietta No. 2 (1947)
• Graham Waterhouse's Sinfonietta for string orchestra, Op. 54 (2002)
• Felix Weingartner's Sinfonietta, Op. 83 (1932)
• Alexander von Zemlinsky's Sinfonietta for orchestra, Op. 23 (1934)

References

• Temperley, Nicholas. 2001. "Sinfonietta." The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.

Further reading

• Alvarez, Alberto J. 2007. Sinfonietta en re de Ernesto Halffter. Málaga: Ediciones Maestro. ISBN 978-84-96644-50-2.
• Bird, Steven Carl. 1985. "Folk Material and Its Relationship to Structure and Form in Janácek's Sinfonietta". Acta Janáčkiana 2:64-75.
• Kemp, Ian. 1998. "Sinfonietta 1950: Colour of Design". In Hindemith-Jahrbuch/Annales Hindemith, no. 27:180–96.
• Krier, Yves. 1998. "La Sinfonietta: Une introduction à l'art classique roussélien". Musurgia: Analyse et Pratique Musicales 5, nos. 3–4:163–90.
• Loll, Werner. 1992. "Ein Spiel mit Moden und Traditionen: Zur Sinfonietta op. 23". Österreichische Musikzeitschrift 47, no. 4 (April): 190–98.
• Palacios Nieto, María. 2006. "Nueva música sinfónica: Acogida crítica y análisis de Sinfonietta". Cuadernos de Música Iberoamericana, no. 11 ("Monográfico dedicado a Ernesto Halffter (1905–1989) en su centenario", edited by Emilio Casares Rodicio): 123–40.
• Schmitz, Eugen. 1905. Max Reger's Sinfonietta. Münchner Broschüren 4. Munich: G. Müller.