(Ital. Sinfonia). Anciently this word had various musical meanings. It now usually signifies a piece of instrumental music for an orchestra, consisting of several movements, and generally performed in a concert-room. The overture differs from the symphony chiefly in the smaller number of its movements, seldom containing more than a short, slow, introductory movement, and an allegro, and being used at the beginning of an opera or a ballet. The word symphony is also used to signify an instrumental passage which usually introduces a piece of vocal music, or is brought in at its close, or occurs during some pause of the voice. Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven have produced the finest models of the orchestral symphony in point of originality, beauty, ingenious construction, and skilful instrumentation. For clearness of design

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3 Fabriici Bibliotheca Latina, tom. iii. p. 208. edit. Ernesti.