Editing Symphony (section)

==Romantic era==
{{listen|type=music|header=Beethoven's Symphony No. 5
|filename=Ludwig van Beethoven - symphony no. 5 in c minor, op. 67 - i. allegro con brio.ogg|title=First movement: Allegro con brio
|filename2=Ludwig van Beethoven - symphony no. 5 in c minor, op. 67 - ii. andante con moto.ogg|title2=Second movement: Andante con moto
|filename3=Ludwig van Beethoven - symphony no. 5 in c minor, op. 67 - iii. allegro.ogg|title3=Third movement: Scherzo. Allegro
|filename4=Ludwig van Beethoven - symphony no. 5 in c minor, op. 67 - iv. allegro.ogg|title4=Fourth movement: Allegro|description4=Performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra}}

At the beginning of the 19th century, [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]] elevated the symphony from an everyday genre produced in large quantities to a supreme form in which composers strove to reach the highest potential of music in just a few works.<ref name="Dahlhaus1989"/> Beethoven began with two works directly emulating his models Mozart and Haydn, then seven more symphonies, starting with the [[Symphony No. 3 (Beethoven)|Third Symphony]] ("Eroica") that expanded the scope and ambition of the genre. His [[Symphony No. 5 (Beethoven)|Symphony No. 5]] is perhaps the most famous symphony ever written; its transition from the emotionally stormy [[Beethoven and C minor|C minor]] opening movement to a triumphant major-key finale provided a model adopted by later symphonists such as [[Johannes Brahms|Brahms]]{{sfn|Libbey|1999|page=40}} and [[Gustav Mahler|Mahler]].{{Citation needed|date=December 2014}} His [[Symphony No. 6 (Beethoven)|Symphony No. 6]] is a [[program music|programmatic]] work, featuring instrumental imitations of bird calls and a storm; and, unconventionally, a fifth movement (symphonies usually had at most four movements). His [[Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)|Symphony No. 9]] includes parts for vocal soloists and choir in the last movement, making it a [[choral symphony]].<ref>Beethoven's Ninth is not the first choral symphony, though it is surely the most celebrated one. Beethoven was anticipated by [[Peter von Winter]]'s ''Schlacht-Sinfonie'' ("Battle Symphony"), which includes a concluding chorus and was written in 1814, ten years before Beethoven's Ninth. Source: {{harvnb|LaRue, Bonds, Walsh, and Wilson|2001}}</ref>

Of the [[Schubert's symphonies|symphonies]] by [[Franz Schubert|Schubert]], two are core repertory items and are frequently performed. Of the [[Symphony No. 8 (Schubert)|Eighth Symphony]] (1822), Schubert completed only the first two movements; this highly Romantic work is usually called by its nickname "The Unfinished". His last completed symphony, the [[Symphony No. 9 (Schubert)|Ninth]] (1826) is a massive work in the Classical idiom.{{sfn|Rosen|1997|p=521}}

Of the early Romantics, [[Felix Mendelssohn]] (five symphonies, plus [[String symphonies (Mendelssohn)|thirteen string symphonies]]) and [[Robert Schumann]] (four) continued to write symphonies in the classical mould, though using their own musical language. In contrast, [[Hector Berlioz|Berlioz]] favored programmatic works, including his "dramatic symphony" ''[[Roméo et Juliette (Berlioz)|Roméo et Juliette]]'', the viola symphony ''[[Harold en Italie]]'' and the highly original ''[[Symphonie fantastique]]''. The latter is also a programme work and has both a march and a [[waltz]] and five movements instead of the customary four. His fourth and last symphony, the ''[[Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale]]'' (originally titled ''Symphonie militaire'') was composed in 1840 for a 200-piece [[Marching band|marching]] [[military band]], to be performed out of doors, and is an early example of a band symphony. Berlioz later added optional string parts and a choral finale.{{sfn|Macdonald|2001|loc=§3: 1831–42}} In 1851, [[Richard Wagner]] declared that all of these post-Beethoven symphonies were no more than an epilogue, offering nothing substantially new. Indeed, after Schumann's last symphony, the [[Symphony No. 3 (Schumann)|"Rhenish"]] composed in 1850, for two decades the [[Franz Liszt|Lisztian]] [[symphonic poem]] appeared to have displaced the symphony as the leading form of large-scale instrumental music. However, Liszt also composed two programmatic choral symphonies during this time, ''[[Faust Symphony|Faust]]'' and ''[[Dante Symphony|Dante]]''. If the symphony had otherwise been eclipsed, it was not long before it re-emerged in a "second age" in the 1870s and 1880s, with the symphonies by [[Anton Bruckner|Bruckner]], [[Johannes Brahms|Brahms]], [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky|Tchaikovsky]], [[Camille Saint-Saëns|Saint-Saëns]], [[Alexander Borodin|Borodin]], [[Antonín Dvořák|Dvořák]], and [[César Franck|Franck]]—works which largely avoided the programmatic elements of Berlioz and Liszt and dominated the concert repertory for at least a century.<ref name="Dahlhaus1989">{{harvnb|Dahlhaus|1989|page=265}}</ref>

Over the course of the 19th century, composers continued to add to the size of the symphonic orchestra. Around the beginning of the century, a full-scale orchestra would consist of the string section plus pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets, and lastly a set of timpani.{{sfnp|LaRue, Bonds, Walsh, and Wilson|2001|loc=II.1}} This is, for instance, the scoring used in Beethoven's symphonies [[Symphony No. 1 (Beethoven)|numbered 1]], [[Symphony No. 2 (Beethoven)|2]], [[Symphony No. 4 (Beethoven)|4]], [[Symphony No. 7 (Beethoven)|7]], and [[Symphony No. 8 (Beethoven)|8]]. Trombones, which had previously been confined to church and theater music, came to be added to the symphonic orchestra, notably in Beethoven's [[Symphony No. 5 (Beethoven)|5th]], [[Symphony No. 6 (Beethoven)|6th]], and [[Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)|9th]] symphonies. The combination of bass drum, triangle, and cymbals (sometimes also: piccolo), which 18th-century composers employed as a coloristic effect in so-called "[[Turkish music (style)|Turkish music]]", came to be increasingly used during the second half of the 19th century without any such connotations of genre.{{sfnp|LaRue, Bonds, Walsh, and Wilson|2001|loc=II.1}} By the time of Mahler (see below), it was possible for a composer to write a symphony scored for "a veritable compendium of orchestral instruments".{{sfnp|LaRue, Bonds, Walsh, and Wilson|2001|loc=II.1}} In addition to increasing in variety of instruments, 19th-century symphonies were gradually augmented with more string players and more wind parts, so that the orchestra grew substantially in sheer numbers, as concert halls likewise grew.{{sfnp|LaRue, Bonds, Walsh, and Wilson|2001|loc=II.1}}