History & The Arts

A timeline of symphonies from 1900-1945

Updated Thursday, 17th November 2011

A timeline of the major symphonic works produced in the first half of the 20th Century

This page was published over five years ago. Please be aware that due to the passage of time, the information provided on this page may be out of date or otherwise inaccurate, and any views or opinions expressed may no longer be relevant. Some technical elements such as audio-visual and interactive media may no longer work. For more detail, see our Archive and Deletion Policy.

For a discussion of the symphony between 1900-45, see Musical landscapes: The symphony after 1900. You can also explore the connections between some of the 20th century's most important composers.

Date	Composer	Symphony
1901-02	Sibelius	Symphony no. 2
1901-02	Nielsen	Symphony no. 2 'The Four Temperaments
1901-02	Mahler	Symphony no. 5
1903-05	Debussy	La Mer 'Symphonic Sketches'
1903-09	Vaughan Williams	A Sea Symphony
1904	Strauss	Sinfonia Domestica
1906	Schoenberg	Chamber Symphony no. 1
1906	Mahler	Symphony no. 8
1907-08	Elgar	Symphony no. 1
1908-11	Ives	Symphony no. 3 'The Camp Meeting'
1912-13	Vaughan Williams	A London Symphony
1914-16	Nielsen	Symphony no. 4 'The Inextinguishable'
1914-16	Szymanowski	Symphony no. 3 'The song of the night'
1915	Strauss	Alpine Symphony
1915	Sibelius	Symphony no. 5
1915-28	Ives	Universe Symphony (unfinished)
1916-17	Prokofiev	Symphony no. 1 'Classical'
1917-19	Ives	A Symphony: New England Holidays
1921	Vaughan Williams	Pastoral Symphony
1922	Milhaud	Symphonie de chambre no. 5
1923	Honegger	Mouvement symphonique no. 1 'Pacific 231'
1924	Sibelius	Symphony no. 7
1926	Janácek	Sinfonietta
1927	Shostakovich	Symphony no. 2 'To October'
1929	Bax	Symphony no. 3
1930	Stravinsky	Symphony of Psalms
1933-34	Britten	Simple Symphony
1934	Hindemith	Mathis der Maler
1934-37	Moeran	Symphony in G minor
1939-40	Casella	Symphony no. 3
1940	Britten	Sinfonia da Requiem
1941	Shostakovich	Symphony no. 7 'Leningrad'
1942-45	Stravinsky	Symphony in Three Movements
1944-46	Copland	Symphony no. 2
1945	Benjamin	Symphony
1945	Klami	Symphony no. 2
1945	Shostakovich	Symphony no. 9
1945-46	Honegger	Symphony no. 3 'Liturgique'