Giovanni Battista
Sammartini was one of the early classical composers who worked on writing
symphonies. As mentioned last time, I often find it easy to mistake an early
symphony score for a string quartet.
Scored for
four-part strings with a possible harpsichord, Sammartini’s Symphony No. 32 in
F major has the standard three-movement structure of that time. Unlike standard
symphonies of today, this work takes less than ten minutes to perform with a
much smaller orchestra than what we’re used to seeing on stages today.
Here is a recording
of Sammartini’s symphony.
What are your
initial impressions based on your modern-day experience with symphonies?
