 Some recent efforts have paid less attention to symphonic form and more to programmic intent . Hans Werner Henze wrote his 1997 Ninth Symphony in seven movements , basing the structure of the symphony on the novel The Seventh Cross by Anna Seghers . The novel recounts the flight of seven fugitives from a Nazi prison camp , the seven crosses symbolizing the seven death sentences ; the ordeal of the one prisoner who makes it to freedom becomes the crux of the text . Penderecki 's Seventh Symphony , subtitled " Seven Gates of Jerusalem " and originally conceived as an oratorio , is not only written in seven movements but , musicologist Richard Whitehouse writes , is " pervaded by the number ' seven ' at various levels . " An extensive system of seven @-@ note phrases binds the work together , as well as the frequent use of seven notes repeated at a single pitch . Seven chords played fortissimo bring the work to a close . 
