Does anyone know how long a symphony orchestra usually is???

Question

This sounds dumb but I need to know for a project ,I can't find anywhere how long they're supposed to be.

Answer 1

i went to the CSO in October and the whole program (2 Acts) took 2 hours. i felt a bit sleepy in the 2nd half but overall not too long of an experience

Answer 2

A symphony orchestra is a BIG band, ranging anywhere from 60 to 150 players, depending on what composition they are playing.
A symphony can range from 40 minutes ( works by Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Mozart) to over an hour and a half ( Gustav Mahler and Anton Bruckner).
Other pieces, also played by a symphony orchestra, but not necessarily symphonies, can also last from a few minutes up to an hour.
Saunter down to your local music store, and dare to go into the classical section. Check out the recording times on the back of the Cd's, each work is generally given a listing of how long it lasts.The times will be different depending on what kind of work it is, and who the composer is.
When most of these pieces were written, there were no recording companies or radio to tell the people they had a 3 minute limit per song. that all started up in the days of records ( remember those things- big black pancakes?) where the speed of the record also determined how much recording space there was on each disk.
Have a good look around, and better yet, buy one of those symphonies and have a good listen!

Answer 3

This question doesn't make sense.. a symphony orchestra is a group of musicians.. do you mean how big is an orchestra?? If so, there is usually 80 to 100 musicians in a symphony orchestra.

Answer 4

do you mean a whole symphony, an opus, a no. or a movement? any of them can vary dramatically. If you are talking about a performance, i would guess about two hours, but they also vary dramatically.

Answer 5

it was so long it put me to sleep. thank you for asking.