Editing Symphony (section)

==Late-Romantic, modernist and postmodernist eras==
Towards the end of the 19th century, [[Gustav Mahler]] began writing long, large-scale symphonies that he continued composing into the early 20th century. His [[Symphony No. 3 (Mahler)|Third Symphony]], completed in 1896, is one of the longest regularly performed symphonies at around 100 minutes in length for most performances. The [[Symphony No. 8 (Mahler)|Eighth Symphony]] was composed in 1906 and is nicknamed the "Symphony of a Thousand" because of the large number of voices required to perform the work.

The 20th century saw further diversification in the style and content of works that composers labeled ''symphonies''.{{sfn|Anon.|2008}} Some composers, including [[Dmitri Shostakovich]], [[Sergei Rachmaninoff]], and [[Carl Nielsen]], continued to write in the traditional four-movement form, while other composers took different approaches: [[Jean Sibelius]]' [[Symphony No. 7 (Sibelius)|Symphony No. 7]], his last, is in one movement, [[Richard Strauss]]' [[Alpine Symphony]], in one movement, split into twenty-two parts, detailing an eleven hour hike through the mountains and [[Alan Hovhaness]]'s Symphony No. 9, ''Saint Vartan''—originally Op. 80, changed to Op. 180—composed in 1949–50, is in twenty-four.{{sfn|Tawa|2001|page=352}}

A concern with unification of the traditional four-movement symphony into a single, subsuming formal conception had emerged in the late 19th century. This has been called a "two-dimensional symphonic form", and finds its key turning point in [[Arnold Schoenberg]]'s [[Chamber Symphony No. 1]], Op. 9 (1909), which was followed in the 1920s by other notable single-movement German symphonies, including [[Kurt Weill]]'s First Symphony (1921), [[Max Butting]]'s Chamber Symphony, Op. 25 (1923), and [[Paul Dessau]]'s 1926 Symphony.{{sfn|Vande Moortele|2013|loc=269, 284n9}}

Alongside this experimentation, other 20th-century symphonies deliberately attempted to evoke the 18th-century origins of the genre, in terms of form and even musical style, with prominent examples being [[Sergei Prokofiev]]'s [[Symphony No. 1 (Prokofiev)|Symphony No. 1 "Classical"]] of 1916–17 and the [[Symphony in C (Stravinsky)|Symphony in C]] by [[Igor Stravinsky]] of 1938–40.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=BABITZ|first=SOL|title=Stravinsky's Symphony in C (1940) |date=1941|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mq/xxvii.1.20|journal=The Musical Quarterly|volume=XXVII|issue=1|pages=20–25|doi=10.1093/mq/xxvii.1.20|issn=0027-4631}}</ref>

There remained, however, certain tendencies. Designating a work a "symphony" still implied a degree of sophistication and seriousness of purpose. The word ''[[Sinfonietta (symphony)|sinfonietta]]'' came into use to designate a work that is shorter, of more modest aims, or "lighter" than a symphony, such as [[Sergei Prokofiev]]'s [[Sinfonietta (Prokofiev)|Sinfonietta]] for [[orchestra]].{{sfn|Kennedy|2006}}{{sfn|Temperley|2001}}

In addition to those composers listed above, other symphonists from the first half of the twentieth century include [[Edward Elgar]], [[Bohuslav Martinů]], [[Roger Sessions]], [[William Walton]], and [[Rued Langgaard]]. The symphonies of this period were "extraordinary in scope, richness, originality, and urgency of expression".{{sfn|Steinberg|1995|loc=404}} One measure of a symphony's significance is how much it reflects {{clarify|text=conceptions of temporal form|date=February 2025}} particular to its age. Twentieth-century composers who fulfil this measure include [[Jean Sibelius]], [[Igor Stravinsky]], [[Luciano Berio]] (in his [[Sinfonia (Berio)|Sinfonia]], 1968–69), [[Elliott Carter]] (in his ''Symphony of Three Orchestras'', 1976), and [[Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen]] (in ''Symphony/Antiphony'', 1980).{{sfn|Grimley|2013|p=287}}

From the mid-20th century into the 21st there has been a resurgence of interest in the symphony with many postmodernist composers adding substantially to the canon, not least in the United Kingdom: [[Peter Maxwell Davies]] (10),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gramophone.co.uk/feature/contemporary-composer-sir-peter-maxwell-davies|access-date=12 July 2020|title=Contemporary Composer – Sir Peter Maxwell Davies |last=Whittall|first=Arnold|author-link=Arnold Whittall|work=[[Gramophone (magazine)|Gramophone]]|date=March 14, 2016}}</ref> [[Robin Holloway]] (1),<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/e9bv4f|access-date=12 July 2020|title=Prom 27: Robin Holloway, Strauss & Brahms |publisher=[[BBC]]|date=August 4, 2011}}</ref> [[David Matthews (composer)|David Matthews]] (9),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/natural-selection-17-may-2018|access-date=12 July 2020|title=Natural selection |last=Bratby |first=Richard|work=[[The Spectator]]|date=May 17, 2018}}</ref> [[James MacMillan]] (5),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/aug/04/bbcsso-runnicles-review-prom-24-macmillan-mahler|access-date=12 July 2020|title=BBCSSO/Runnicles review – MacMillan premiere and the raw power of Mahler |last=Ashley |first=Tim|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=August 4, 2015}}</ref> [[Peter Seabourne]] (6),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://theclassicalreviewer.blogspot.com/2016/07/peter-seabournes-symphony-of-roses-is.html|access-date=12 July 2020|title=Peter Seabourne's Symphony of Roses is given a triumphant world premiere by the Biel Solothurn Theatre Orchestra, Switzerland conducted by Kaspar Zehnder |publisher=The Classical Reviewer |website=theclassicalreviewer.blogspot.com |date=July 13, 2016}}</ref> and [[Philip Sawyers]] (6).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/sawyers-symphony-no-3-songs-of-loss-and-regret|access-date=12 July 2020|title=Sawyers Symphony No 3. Songs of Loss and Regret |last=Rickards |first=Guy |work=[[Gramophone (magazine)|Gramophone]]}}</ref> British composer [[Derek Bourgeois]] has surpassed the number of symphonies written by Haydn, with 116 symphonies.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Catalogue |url=https://www.derekbourgeois.com/catalogu.htm |access-date=2023-10-27 |website=www.derekbourgeois.com}}</ref> The greatest number of symphonies to date has been composed by the [[Finland|Finn]] [[Leif Segerstam]], whose list of works includes 371 symphonies.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.sco.org.uk/news/misnumbered-symphonies | title=The (Mis)numbering of symphonies }}</ref>