MOZART SYMPHONIES

4/25/16, 12:52 AM

THE SYMPHONIES OF MOZART

(These notes are a condensation from Homer Ulrich's book Symphonic Music,
Columbia Prsss, 1952.)
1. Childhood, (musical family, Salzburg, extensive touring, exposure to other styles,
<particularly the Italian and Mannheim>, access to successful composers <Haydn>).
Mozart is the great assimilator; his mature style is a direct result of his almost fourteen
years of touring out of the 29 years between 1762 , when the journeys began, and 1791,
the year of his death.
2. It was characteristic of M that he should write under the influence of whatever music
he was hearing at the time, or had heard earlier and remembered. Several early
symphonies recall Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782), with whom M became
acquainted about 1764. (note on this youngest son of JSBach: - was of great influence
upon English taste. He was among the first to bring the Italian, specifically the
Milanese, light and sweet type of melody to the notice of the English. Very few of his
more than 100 orchestral works are played today; the Sinfonia in Bb is one exception,
and it is an arrangement of the three-movement overture to his opera, Lucio Silla, of
about 1776.
3. As a result of this acquaintance, M's four symphonies of 1768 k.s 45, 45a, 45b, and 48
introduce a powerful and dramatic quality into his style as well as showcase his
effortless and freely flowing melodic gift.
4. The 19 symphonies from K81 to K134 written between 1770 and 1772, partly on his
Italian trips and partly in Salzburg, give evidence of M's facility in imitating Italian
models. The Austrian Symphonies usually include Minuets, the Italians rarely.
5. In these works a deeper and more searching expression begins to show itself in place
of the mere tunefulness or natural 'gaiety' of his models. Thematic materials of first
movements become more widely-spaced and occasionally powerful. Contrasts are more
firmly drawn than in the Italian works. Slow movements often exhibit a depth of
feeling akin to the M of the 1780's. His approach to recapitulations is made with
greater skill and imagination; codas, set off from the movement proper by double bars,
make their appearance. In several cases, the finale becomes more important and tends
to dominate the entire symphony.
6. In all respects, the symphonies of 1772 are among the finest of M's early works.
Virtually every emotional effect and every technical device is carefully prepared; the
listener comes from them with a feeling that they could not have been otherwise than
they are (a signal characteristic surely to be often found in the work of all great artists).
7. In 1773, M spent the summer in Vienna where he was to come into close personal
contact with Haydn. He became acquainted with H's quartets Opus 20 and with the
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symphonies which surround the Symphony #45 "the Farewell". The immediate result
was a set of 6 string quartets (not the "Haydn" quartets which will be written in
response to H's Opus 33 quartets) K.168-173; here M not only employed contrapuntal
textures but unashamedly borrowed melodic patterns---irregular-length phrases, and
even themes themselves.
8. The three symphonies written between November 1773 and the following spring
(K183 in g minor, K200 in C and K201 in A), each containing a minuet are new and
significant in their contentforeboding, passion, intensity, drama cause these works to
be lifted above their immediate predecessors. There are traces of chromaticism which
will dominate his later style, in fact, taken as a whole, these three symphonies are
among the works which revel what M's mature style will be based upon.
9. Between 1774-1778, M turns to the composition of Concertos and Divertimentos.
10. In the spring of 1778 he returns to the Symphony while in Paris - the so-called
"Paris" symphony K297 in D major. Written for a large Parisian orchestral which
included all the wind instruments (including flutes and clarinets) the "Paris"
symphony requires the largest orchestra of all M's symphonies.
11. Now for the first time, and before Haydn who will write for the same
instrumentation in his #99 of 1793, Mozart wrote for the full "grand" orchestra: pairs
of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets, tympani, and a full string section.
He would repeat this only once: in the Symphonic version of his Haffner Serenade
K250, the "New Haffner Symphony" K385 of 1782.
12. Before this he had wintered at Mannheim (1777-78) and had come into direct
contact with the performance standards, the characteristics, the advanced use of wind
instruments (even to virtuosic levels) of that court, and of the mannerisms of those
symphonists. Elements which left their mark not only on Mozart but all of Europe.
13. But this symphony is largely superficial: it is repetitious rather than developmental
of themes, relies on empty briliance in the transitions, lacks deep feeling, and only in
the last of its three movements, with its excellent counterpoint and striking
modulations, is a measure of the true Mozart restored.
14. His next symphony, and a very fine one, is the aforementioned "New Haffner
Symphony". An added development near the end of the finale movement indicates that
he had begun to adopt something of Haydn's practice: the device of adding a coda,
which is in effect a summarizing development of previous material.
15. In the fall of 1783 Mozart spent a few days in Linz on the way to Vienna from
Salzburg; there the C major symphony #36, K425, was written. One of his great works
which give a preview of the nobility and profundity of his last years is also a work
which owes much to Haydn.
16. For the first time, Mozart uses a slow introduction, but it is of a different type.
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Haydn's were largely well-proportioned facades, stately, imposing. Mozarts' in the

"Linz" symphony is, on the other hand, constructed to prepare a mood that contrasts
with or enhances the following allegro. Elsewhere the spirit of Haydn is apparent in the
"Linz", but the tinges of chromaticism and anxiety remind us that the composer is not
Haydn.
17. The three great symphonies, and Mozarts' last, K543, K550, and K551 were written
in six weeks time in the summer of 1788 - (there are also a number of other works
dated in or about that period ! - the Eb Piano Trio, the C major Piano Sonata, and
other smaller chamber works) - thus not three, but ten works, half of them among his
greatest, were composed within two or three months of each other.
18. #39 in Eb the first of these three begins with a slow introduction, a striking contrast
to the romantic and melodious first allegro. It includes flutes and clarinets but omits
oboesthe clarinet had found slow acceptancenot until the 1770's and then only in
the large orchestras as those of Mannheim, Milan, and Paris. Haydn came to the
clarinet late (#99), so that the classical orchestra, with bassoons specified after about
1780, flutes becoming more frequent about 1772, and required after 1780, clarinets
about 1788, and with trumpets and tympani occurring regularly after about 1790 is a
late entrant of the 18th century.
19. The great G minor #40 K550 is restless, pessimistic even in it's first movement, the
second movement chromatically twisted, and grief laden. The Minuet, with its square
and solid structure conceals a strongly felt passion and the final discloses the full extent
of Mozart's fury and anguish. Wild, almost brutal at times, and relentless in its driving
pace, it runs without relief. Throughout the symphony, chromatic elements and
polyphonic textures are prominent; they bring about moods of unrest, poignant feeling,
and veiled passion. Distant harmonies and dark colors contribute to the generally
melancholy air of this late work.
20. The C major, nicknamed the "Jupiter" by an unknown admirer, represents in
many ways the culmination of M's symphonic writing. Though written for a smaller
orchestra than the "Paris" or "New Haffner" the general quality of workmanship, in
attention to detail and proportion and in emotional significance, is unsurpassed in this
last symphony. The expression is a serious and thoughtful polyphony. The final, with its
fugal episodes in the midst of a sonata-form is perhaps his greatest technical
achievement.
THE SYMPHONIES OF BEETHOVEN

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