导言：源于西方的交响乐，作为多种乐器组成的大型管弦乐队共同演奏的乐曲，往往给人带来非同寻常的视听享受。交响乐英文用symphony一词表达，对于这个词的词源及其发展的一些基本知识，下面截选的部分信息，读之，或许会有所收获。

A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, generally scored for orchestra or concert band. The word “symphony” comes from the Greek syn, meaning “together” , and phōnē, meaning “sound”; hence symphony is “a sounding together” . The symphony in the modern sense of the term arose in Germany and Austria during the early 18th century.

A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle. Many symphonies are tonal works in four movements with the first in sonata form, which is often described by music theorists as the structure of a "classical" symphony, although many symphonies by the acknowledged classical masters of the form, Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven do not conform to this model.

By 1740, the symphony had become the principalgenre of orchestral music, and important centers of composition arose in the German cities of Mannheim and Berlin and the Austrian capital, Vienna. The climax of the 18th-century development of the symphony came in Vienna toward the end of the century in the works of composers Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven. Haydn is often called the father of the symphony, who developed the symphony in four movements, gave it what is known as its classical form, and brought it to a new peak. Haydn and his younger friend Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart considerably influenced each other in symphonic technique. One of the greatest symphonic masters of all time, Mozart displayed in his 41 symphonies unsurpassed richness of imagination. Ludwig van Beethoven produced nine symphonies in which Symphony No. 9 in D minor op. 125 (Choral, completed 1824), perhaps the most famous work of classical music in existence.

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编稿：戴远君

更多相关信息也可参阅：

1.      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony

2.      http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/578021/symphony