Symphony No. 40 (Mozart)

• 1. The July 1788 Catalog Entry

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  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart entered the date of his completion into a personal catalog on the 25th of July 1788. This specific entry marked the end of work on what would become Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550. The composer had been working through an exceptionally productive period that lasted only a few weeks during that summer. He finished three symphonies in rapid succession: the 39th on the 26th of June and the 41st on the 10th of August. Nikolaus Harnoncourt later conjectured that these three works formed a unified artistic statement. The middle piece lacks an introduction, unlike its neighbor No. 39, and does not possess a finale as grand as No. 41's. Mozart kept this full catalog of completed works throughout his mature years to track his output. Only two of his symphonies exist today in a minor key.

• 2. Two Versions And Clarinet Parts

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  The symphony exists in two distinct versions that differ primarily by the inclusion of clarinet parts. Most likely, the clarinet parts were added in a revised version created after the initial composition. The autograph scores for both versions were acquired in the 1860s by Johannes Brahms. Brahms later donated these manuscripts to the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna where they reside today. Modern scholarship suggests that the version without clarinets must have been performed first. Mozart would hardly have gone to the trouble of adding clarinets and rewriting flutes and oboes to accommodate them if he had no specific performance in view. A reorchestrated version of two passages in the slow movement exists in Mozart's hand. This revision resulted from him having heard the work and discovering an aspect needing improvement. The orchestra for the 1791 Vienna concert included the clarinetist brothers Anton and Johann Nepomuk Stadler.

• 3. Performance Evidence And The Van Swieten Letter

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  Writers on Mozart have often suggested or even asserted that Mozart never heard his 40th Symphony performed during his lifetime. Some commentators go further, suggesting he wrote it as an appeal to eternity rather than for immediate public consumption. Modern scholarship challenges this conjecture with evidence found in a letter dated the 10th of July 1802. The musician Johann Wenzel wrote to publisher Ambrosius Kühnel in Leipzig about a performance at the home of Baron Gottfried van Swieten. Mozart was present at this event but left the room because the execution was so poor. There is strong circumstantial evidence for other performances between the composition date and the composer's death. Program copies survive from Dresden on the 14th of April 1789 and from Leipzig on the 12th of May 1789. A poster announced a concert given by the Tonkünstler-Societät on the 17th of April 1791 in the Burgtheater in Vienna. Antonio Salieri conducted this final concert which featured Mozart's music.

• 4. The Mannheim Rocket And Four Movements

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  The symphony is scored for flute, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, and strings. It follows the usual arrangement for a classical-style symphony with four movements. The first movement begins darkly not with its first theme but with an accompaniment played by lower strings with divided violas. This technique of beginning a work with an accompaniment figure later became a favorite of the Romantics. The fourth movement opens with a series of rapidly ascending notes outlining the tonic triad. Musicologists commonly refer to this opening as the Mannheim rocket. Simon P. Keefe points out that unlike Mozart's other works in G minor, the finale continues in the minor right up until the final chord. A remarkable modulating passage occurs at the beginning of the development section where every tone in the chromatic scale except one is played. The single note left out is G, the tonic key of the piece.

• 5. Romantic Interpretations And Critical Shifts

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  This work has elicited varying interpretations from critics over the last two centuries. Robert Schumann regarded it as possessing Grecian lightness and grace while Donald Tovey saw opera buffa character within it. A more common perception today describes the symphony as tragic in tone and intensely emotional. Charles Rosen called the symphony a work of passion, violence, and grief in his book The Classical Style. During the 19th century interest in 18th-century music declined yet the impassioned character kept it steadily in the repertoire. The Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung praised it as a true masterpiece in 1804 and a classical masterwork by 1813. References to the symphony appeared frequently in trade press publications throughout the early 1800s. It remains unquestionably one of Mozart's most greatly admired works despite these shifting critical opinions.

• 6. Borrowings By Beethoven And Schubert

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  Ludwig van Beethoven knew the symphony well enough to copy out 29 bars from the score in one of his sketchbooks. Gustav Nottebohm observed in 1887 that these copied bars appear amid sketches for Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. The third movement of Beethoven's symphony begins with a pitch sequence similar to that of Mozart's finale. Franz Schubert likewise copied out the music of Mozart's minuet in his own working papers. The minuet of Schubert's Fifth Symphony strongly evokes Mozart's original composition. Joseph Haydn included a passage late in his oratorio The Seasons that quotes the second movement of the 40th Symphony. This section serves as a meditation on death and was likely included as a memorial to his long-dead friend. Salil Chowdhury set a song from the 1961 Bollywood movie Chhaya to the tune of the first movement of this symphony.