Sinfonia
The Italian designation for symphony.
What it means
Sinfonia is the Italian word for symphony, but in older music it designates several things. In the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries it means an instrumental piece within a vocal work — the introduction of a cantata, an interlude in an opera or an oratorio. At the same time it is the name for the three-part Italian opera overture with the sequence fast–slow–fast. From this form the independent symphony developed. Alongside this, a collection of three-voice keyboard pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach carries this title.
Musical use
For performance practice it is important to check the context: a sinfonia at the beginning of a cantata is an independent orchestral movement that prepares mood and key; a sinfonia in opera bridges a scene or accompanies an event on stage. The three-part opera sinfonia is consequential for music history, because its movement sequence passed into the Classical symphony, which was then expanded by a dance movement. The three-voice keyboard pieces of the same name have no connection with the orchestral genre; the title there means the sounding together of several voices. In Bach's Partita No. 2 for keyboard in C minor, the opening movement is headed Sinfonia.
Performance practice
With a sinfonia in a vocal work, clarify its function: if it stands as an introduction, shape it as a preparation of what follows and not as a concert piece. Watch scoring and continuo practice. With the three-voice keyboard pieces, what holds for the Inventions holds: work out voices individually, make motif entries audible, use little pedal. Check, with catalogue entries, which meaning is intended, because the title easily leads to confusion.
Bear in mind that the title leads to confusion in catalogues: the same designation stands for an orchestral movement in a vocal work, for the Italian opera overture, and for three-voice keyboard pieces. Always check the context before assuming scoring or scope. In Bach's cantatas the sinfonia often stands at the beginning. Watch scoring and continuo practice. Bach's three-voice sinfonias, BWV 787–801, correspond in layout and key sequence to the Inventions.
The Neapolitan opera sinfonia is associated with Alessandro Scarlatti.