From the Greek, meaning ΓÇ£sounding togetherΓÇ¥ i.e. a work for many instrumentalists in ensemble, usually the symphony orchestra. A specific form of symphony was developed by the composer Haydn, and became the centre-piece of the flowering of classical music in the works of Mozart, Beethoven, Berlioz, Brahms, and Mahler, to name but a few. Beethoven unusually employed singers in his 9th Symphony (the Choral), and Mahler used them in his 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 8th (The Symphony of a Thousand) and unnumbered (Das Lied von der Erde) Symphonies. Earlier in the 17th and 18th centuries, the word was applied to several other specific types of work, among them an overture to a play or opera, and a section of instrumental music in the middle of a vocal work.
