An extensive article organized into three sections based on the century and geographic location.  Includes a good bibliography.  You might also want to read the "Orchestra" entry from Grove.

When finished with publication this work will be a five volume set: v. 1. The eighteenth-century symphony -- v.2. The first golden age of the Viennese symphony: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert -- v. 3. The european symphony, ca. 1800-ca. 1930 -- v.4. The second golden age of the Viennese symphony: Brahms, Bruckner, Dvorak, Mahler, and selected contemporaries -- v. 5. The symphony in Europe and the Americas in the twentieth century.  Currently, volumes 2 and 4 are available.

A good introductory text which includes a useful glossary of terms and bibliographies at the end of each chapter.

Try a subject heading search on:
    Symphonic Poems
    Symphonies
    Symphony  
You can then browse the listings to find narrower topics such as Symphony--18th Century or modify the list by a composers name.  If you're only looking for books also specify material type "books".  For scores and recordings try using a keyword search with the composer's last name and an important word from the title of the work.  You can then modify by material type "music scores", "music cds", or "video".

Covers material published in music and various other fields as they relate to music. Records appear in over a hundred languages. The majority of citations include abstracts. Articles, books, bibliographies, catalogues, conference proceedings, discographies, dissertations, Festschriften, films, and videos are all covered by RILM. Concert reviews, recording notes, and pedagogical manuals if they are of scholarly interest.

Provides abstracts to music titles. Offers articles in full-text for over 80 periodicals. Covers all aspects of music including education, composition, theory and ethnomusicology. Covers 1874-present. Full-text begins in the mid-1990s-present.

A multidisciplinary database covering the journal literature of the arts and humanities with selected, relevant items from major science and social science journals. References to and from journal articles can also be searched.  Swarthmore has access to the AHCI from 1975 to the present through Web of Science.

Provides online access to an extensive collection of full-text articles from journals across a wide range of subject areas, including including music, history, and cultural studies.  Covers 1971-present.

Provides full-text and page images from many of the top journals in most academic disciplines. Coverage is from the inception of the journal through three to five years ago.

A comprehensive collection of writings on music from ancient to modern times.  Although there is no one section on the symphony, there are readings concerning performance practice, the practice of composition, and music criticism from the 18th to 20th centuries.  Notes on each reading places the selection in broader musical and historical context.

A webpage created by former Swarthmore Music Librarian, George Huber.