In German, Symphonie was a generic term for spinets and virginals from the late 16th century to the 18th century.

In the sense of "sounding together", the word begins to appear in the titles of some works by 16th- and 17th-century composers including Giovanni Gabrieli's Sacrae symphoniae, and Symphoniae sacrae, liber secundus, published in 1597 and 1615, respectively; Adriano Banchieri's