# What's the different between PHILHARMONIC and SYMPHONIC



## jurianbai (Nov 23, 2008)

Any technical different in these two terms as in xxxxx Philharmonic Orchestra and xxxxx Symphonic Orchestra ?

or it is the same as in Manchester United and Manchester City. (>>> football)


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## Andy Loochazee (Aug 2, 2007)

Orchestra

This is the obvious place to look. See third paragraph.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

jurianbai said:


> or it is the same as in Manchester United and Manchester City. (>>> football)


Exactly


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## starry (Jun 2, 2009)

Andy Loochazee said:


> Orchestra


Good to see the orchestra has slimmed down a lot since the late 19th century. I mean...really...EIGHT horns in the late romantic orchestra??? lol.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

starry said:


> Good to see the orchestra has slimmed down a lot since the late 19th century. I mean...really...EIGHT horns in the late romantic orchestra??? lol.


Hey, how many horn players are unemployed? Even those with proper education? More horns in orchestra = less unemployment in society. Let's start a international organization with quest to make goverments all around the world estabilish a law that forces all orchestras (except historical ensambles) to get back to late romantic structure in order to fight with economic crisis.


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## andruini (Apr 14, 2009)

I understood that originally a Philharmonic Orchestra was one that operated under the patronage of a Philharmonic Society of wealthy people who would keep them running, and a Symphony Orchestra was an Orchestra merely formed for the performance of Symphonies (someone correct me if I'm wrong..)
But yeah, nowadays it's the exact same thing..


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## jurianbai (Nov 23, 2008)

Andy Loochazee said:


> Orchestra
> 
> This is the obvious place to look. See third paragraph.





> A full-size orchestra (about 100 players) may sometimes be called a "symphony orchestra" or "philharmonic orchestra"; these modifiers do not necessarily indicate any strict difference in either the instrumental constitution or role of the orchestra, but can be useful to distinguish different ensembles based in the same city (for instance, the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra). A symphony orchestra will usually have over eighty musicians on its roster, in some cases over a hundred, but the actual number of musicians employed in a particular performance may vary according to the work being played and the size of the venue. A leading chamber orchestra might employ as many as fifty musicians; some are much smaller than that.


ha I see ....


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## tgtr0660 (Jan 29, 2010)

Finally I find the answer to one of my questions... And to think it always was just one wiki-click away...


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

andruini said:


> I understood that originally a Philharmonic Orchestra was one that operated under the patronage of a Philharmonic Society of wealthy people who would keep them running, and a Symphony Orchestra was an Orchestra merely formed for the performance of Symphonies (someone correct me if I'm wrong..)..


I'll buy the _Philharmonic _explanation. I think _Symphony Orchestra _is intended to imply quality - ie, they could and would play symphonies; and the implication is that symphonies were in some way, in the public imagination, deemed to be more difficult works. (This would have been in the time when these orchestras were first named, many years ago, when the public could reasonably be imagined to have thoughts about symphony orchestras.) It's a marketing term.

What I find amusing is that the size of the geographical location used in the orchestra's title is assumed to have a direct correlation with its quality. It's inconceivable that the Stroud Symphony Orchestra (it exists) could be better than the London Symphony Orchestra, just by virtue of name alone. If they did exceed the LSO, they'd have to rename themselves the English SO or something.

Incidentally, is there an earlier symphony orchestra than New York's - founded 1842? It's an American term. I thought as much.


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