若是以「一起發聲」的意思來看,這個詞在16世紀及17世紀時開始出現在一些樂曲的名稱中,包括乔万尼·加布里埃利的Sacrae symphoniae及Symphoniae sacrae, liber secundus,分別在1597年及1615年發行。班凱利(英语:Adriano Banchieri)的Eclesiastiche sinfonie, dette canzoni in aria francese, per sonare, et cantare, op. 16,在1607年發行,維當那(英语:Lodovico Grossi da Viadana)的Sinfonie musicali, op. 18,在1610年發行,海因里希·许茨的Symphoniae sacrae I(英语:Symphoniae sacrae), op. 6及Symphoniarum sacrarum secunda pars, op. 10,分別在1629年及1647年發行。其中只有維當那的作品是純器樂的世俗音樂,其他的都是聖樂的聲樂作品,其中有些也有器樂伴奏[5][6]。
Tawa, Nicholas E. From Psalm to Symphony: A History of Music in New England. Boston: Northeastern University Press. ISBN978-1-55553-491-2.
Vande Moortele, Steven. 2013. "'Two-dimensional' Symphonic Forms: Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony, Before and After". In The Cambridge Companion to the Symphony, edited by Julian Horton, 268–84. Cambridge Companions to Music. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN9781107469709.
Kennedy, Michael. 2006a. "Sinfonietta". The Oxford Dictionary of Music, second edition, revised, Joyce Bourne, associate editor. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
Temperley, Nicholas. 2001. "Sinfonietta." The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musician, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
LaRue, Jan, Mark Evan Bonds, Stephen Walsh, and Charles Wilson. 2001. "Symphony". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
Brown, Howard Mayer. 2001. "Symphonia". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
Marcuse, Sybil. 1975. Musical Instruments: A Comprehensive Dictionary. Revised edition. The Norton Library. New York: W. W. Norton. ISBN0-393-00758-8.
Bowman, Carl Byron. 1971. "The Ecclesiastiche Sinfonie (Opus 16) of Adriano Banchieri (1568–1634)". Ph.D. diss. New York: New York University.