Download History of the Composition

Tyler Hamilton
10/29/13
History of the Composition
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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Mozart’s 40th Symphony
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart completed his last three symphonies (39, 40, and 41) in just
a six or seven week span in the summer of 1788. This task is unheard of! Most composers could
only imagine writing a couple symphonies in such a short time period. Because of this amazing
accomplishment, Mozart is known as the most prolific composer known to man. Let us put this
into perspective. Mozart only lived to the age of 35 and wrote 41 symphonies, but in total
around 600 pieces of work! That is incredible! No wonder he is known as the best composer
ever! Mozart was not creating or inventing any new devices to increase the speed of his
publishing either, he was using the same tools and techniques as the other composers of his
time were, he was simply using the tools and techniques he had better than the others. One of
Mozart’s more famous and well known symphonies he composed was Symphony 40. Mozart
concluded his 40th Symphony on July 25, 1788. Mozart’s symphony is said to be “one of the
most emotionally charged works.”1
When Mozart was writing his 40th Symphony, also known as the “Great G Minor
Symphony”2, he originally scored it for only the flute, oboes, and bassoons. As we know today,
Mozart altered his first scoring thought. Mozart decided to give a portion of the oboes part to
two clarinets making, “leading scholars to assume that he made the alteration with a real
performance in mind.”3 Scholars were very accurate with their prediction. He did have a great
performance in mind. The instruments used in Symphony 40 are a flute, two oboes, two
clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, and strings. Mozart wrote only two of his 41 symphonies in
G minor, Symphony 25 being the only other one along with Symphony 40. In the Classical Era
(about 1730-1820), composers wrote majority of their works in the major mode. It was not until
Ludwig van Beethoven, another well know composer, and the Romantic era that writing in the
minor mode became popular and normal.
We know that toward the end of the great composer’s life he dealt with tremendous
depression and many difficult times. It was during this time that Mozart was working on his 40th
Symphony that times were dark and gloomy for the prestigious composer. Many people saw
and noticed that Mozart began to look like he was forming some form of depression. Mozart
began to travel on long trips to try to help turn around the hard times that he was having, but it
did not work out the way that he had hoped for. He continued to struggle with depression
symptoms. Symphony 40 was concluded toward the end of Mozart’s life; the times that Mozart
was at his poorest as well and as Mozart said in his own words, “Black thoughts often come to
me, thoughts that I push away with a tremendous effort.”4 Mozart was not known for creating
his symphonies in harmony with his personal feelings, but Symphony 40 seems to most critics
as an exception to this hypothesis. Most of the critics think that Symphony 40 portrays what
David Roden on June 25th, 2009
Mozart - Symphony No. 40 in G minor by Mark Millington
3 W.A. Mozart Symphony no. 40 by Barbara Heninger
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W.A. Mozart Symphony no. 40 by Barbara Heninger
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Mozart was feeling and thinking at the time of his work. “I pay no attention whatever to
anybody’s praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings.”5 –Mozart. This quote by himself
says otherwise. Maybe Mozart did write what he was feeling, the feelings of darkness and
depression. Some commentators say that Mozart never even heard Symphony 40 performed
and actually wrote the symphony intended not to be performed but rather wrote it for the
history of his work. In a book entitled Amadeus- A Mozart Mosaic it says, “There is no actual
record of the symphony being performed until after his death.”6 Nobody is really quite sure
whether this is true or not. Is it true or is it a myth? We may never know!
Symphony 40 has four different movements in the usual arrangement. The usual
arrangement consists of fast movement, slow movement, minuet, fast movement; combining
for a classical musical. The four movements are first, Molto Allegro, second Andante, third
Menuetto and ending with Allegro assai. It is also written in the sonata form meaning that it has
three sections: exposition, development and recapitulation.
Symphony 40 is arguably Mozart’s most famous of his 41 symphonies. This symphony
was so popular and well written that it caught the eye of the great Ludwig van Beethoven.
Beethoven was seen to write similar or even use some of Mozart’s ideas in his own musical
inventions. This symphony is also used endlessly in film and television shows. Symphony 40 is
still well known today and is still played in television shows as it was in years earlier. Even my
generation has heard this great masterpiece despite it being published hundreds of years
before. A historian was quoted saying, “This young man will make his mark in the world.”7 I am
sure if this historian had the opportunity to rephrase his quote at the end of Mozart’s incredible
life and accomplishments, I would be willing to bet that he would. Another quote another
composer had to say about Mozart was, “From Paris the name and fame of a man of great
talent resounds through the entire world.”8 Mozart is arguably the greatest ever in his niche.
In conclusion, I have come to appreciate classical music as well as Mozart more by doing
this project and research paper. I have never been into music or even really appreciated music
until I did some research on Mozart. I have been able to see what an influence Mozart has had
on other composers even up until our day, and what an incredible man he was. He was a child
prodigy at such a young age and continued his brilliance until his death. I feel like Peter
Shaffer’s quote puts into perspective what other composers feel when they think of Mozart
when Shaffer said, “I looked on astounded as from his ordinary life he made his art. We were
both ordinary men, he and I. Yet from the ordinary he created Legends--and I from Legends
created only the ordinary!”9 Mozart was given a gift from birth and he used it to his fullest. He
will forever be a legend!
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Brainy Quote (Mozart Quote)
Amadeus-A Mozart-Mosaic by Herbert Kupferberg
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Amadeus-A Mozart-Mosaic by Herbert Kupferberg
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Amadeus-A Mozart-Mosaic by Herbert Kupferberg
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Good Reads- Quote by Peter Shaffer
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Reference Sited Page
Three Websites
Roden, David. "Classical Music » Mozart’s 40th Symphony » WKSU." WKSU Classical Music RSS.
N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.
Millington, Mark. "Mozart - Symphony No. 40 in G Minor." Classic FM. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct.
2013.
Heninger, Barbara. "Mozart 40th Symphony." Mozart 40th Symphony. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct.
2013.
One Book
Kupferberg, Herbert. Amadeus: A Mozart Mosaic. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1986. Print.
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