Meanings
plural pocket symphonies
- entertainmentA song with some characteristics of a symphony.
The changes of orchestration and acoustic space from section to section serve to take the listener into new sonic realms every thirty seconds or so, which may be one reason Wilson dubbed this song [Good Vibrations] his “pocket symphony”:[…]
2010, Virgil Moorefield, The Producer as Composer: Shaping the Sounds of Popular Music, MIT Press, →ISBN, page 21
Origin
Popularized by English journalist Derek Taylor, meaning “miniature version” of a symphony.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
pocket symphony. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pocket%20symphony
“pocket symphony.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pocket%20symphony. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pocket symphony,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pocket%20symphony.
Source: pocket symphony on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.