Symphony is a multi-movement instrumental work for an orchestra originating from the Italian Sinfonia, which was an instrumental prelude to large-scale vocal works such as opera and oratorio. Sinfonia comprises of 3 movements written at the tempo sequence of fast- slow fast. According to Dr. Nolan Gasser, the new trend of adopting opera sinfonia for concert use emerged in the 1720s and 30s and soon, composers such as Giovanni Battista Sammartini and Johann Stamitz began composing symphonies as an independent work. Three symphonies from Johann Stamitz, Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven will be used in this paper to compare four elements –movement structure, length of the first movement, instrumentation and the compositional techniques used
