symphonism

noun

sym·pho·nism ˈsim(p)-fə-ˌni-zəm

: musical composition in a symphonic style

especially : musical composition of complexity and seriousness of purpose regarded as appropriate to the symphony

… their suspicion of the abstract symphonic genre was deeply rooted enough to provoke calls for a new kind of proletarian symphonism based on mass song. —

Pauline Fairclough, A Soviet Credo, 2006

: the writing of symphonies

So Debussy and Satie began to seek a way out of the hulking fortresses of Beethovenian symphonism and Wagnerian opera.—

Alex Ross, The Rest Is Noise, 2007

Word History

Etymology

symphony + -ism, after Russian simfonizm

Note: The word simfonizm as a musicological term in this sense was introduced by the Russian composer and critic Boris Vladimirovič Asaf'ev (1884-1949; pseudonym, "Igor' Glebov") in an article "Puti v buduščee" ("Paths to the future"), Melos, vypusk 2, St. Petersburg, 1918.

First Known Use

1916, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler

The first known use of symphonism was in 1916

See more words from the same year