The word “symphony” is ultimately from Greek “symphonia,” concord of sounds, harmony, a meld of “syn-,” together (as in synchronize, synthesis) and “phōnẽ,” sound (as in phonetics, telephone). The ...

Orchestras began tuning to the oboe, in part, because its sound was more penetrating in a performance setting than gut strings. There were also fewer oboes than violins, and in the earliest orchestras ...