The Symphony No. 8 in E flat major by Gustav Mahler, known as the Symphony of a Thousand, was mostly written in 1906, with its vast orchestration and final touches completed in 1907. The symphony takes around eighty minutes to perform.
Beethoven's Symphony no. 8 in F Major (Op. 93) Beethoven referred to it as "my little one." Unusually among Beethoven's works, the Eighth Symphony bears no dedication.
Today, virtually none of the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius's Symphony No. 8 exists. The manuscript was probably burned by Sibelius in 1945. It remains one of the great mysteries of twentieth century classical music.
The Symphony No. 8 in C minor (Opus 65) by Dmitri Shostakovich was written in the summer of 1943, and first performed on November 4 of that year by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under Yevgeny Mravinsky, to whom the work is dedicated.
The Symphony No. 8 in G major was composed and orchestrated by AntonÃn Dvořák within the two-and-a-half-month period from August 26 to November 8 1889 in Vysoka, Bohemia. The score was dedicated: "To the Bohemian Academy of Emperor Franz Joseph for the Encouragement of Arts and Literature, in thanks for my election." Dvořák conducted the premiere in Prague on January 2, 1890.
Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 8 in B minor, commonly known as the Unfinished (German: Unvollendete), was started in 1822 but left with only two movements complete even though Schubert would live for another six years. A scherzo, nearly completed in piano score but with only two pages orchestrated, also survives. It has long been theorized that Schubert may have sketched a finale which instead became the big B minor entr'acte from his incidental music to Rosamunde, but all the evidence for this is circumstantial.
Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 8 in C minor is the last Symphony the composer completed. It exists in two major versions of 1887 and 1890. It was premiered under conductor Hans Richter in 1892 in Vienna.
Ralph Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 8 in D minor was composed between 1953 and 1955. John Barbirolli conducted the premiere of the piece in 1956. It is the shortest of Vaughan Williams' nine symphonies yet is remarkably inventive, especially in the composer's experiments in sonority.