“Symphonic breadth”: structural style in Mozart's symphonies

Most music theorists and historians would surely agree that the style and structure of a composition are conditioned in various ways by its performance medium. Nevertheless, in dealing both with individual works and with general categories – sonata-allegro form, for example – analysts tend to focus primarily on thematic, harmonic, and (more recently) voice-leading factors with the medium regarded only as a means of realization. Analytical essays seldom consider how the structure of a sonata-allegro or other movement of a symphony, quartet, or sonata might have been shaped and, to some extent, even determined by the nature of the medium. On the other hand, historical studies of a given style – studies that may include a consideration of performance media and genres – typically discuss the music in primarily descriptive terms.