Mozart's Last Three Symphonies

Mozart at the Summit:
The Last Three Symphonies

July of 1788 was a bad time for Wolfgang Mozart. It was hot and humid. His wife, Constanze, was in poor health and away at the spa in Baden. Mozart's own health was not particularly good, and his infant daughter, teresa, had just died on June 29. Mozart, deeply in debt, was in the process of begging money from anyone who'd listen to him. Given this information, many commentators have, over the years, fallen into the trap of attributing autobiographical substance to Mozart's dark and even violent G minor Symphony. Are they Right?

NO. Because, back to back with his G minor Symphony, Mozart composed two of his most brilliant and upbeat works. He composed the glowing and gorgeous Symphony no.39 in E-Flate Major between June 10 and 26. He then composed the G minor Symphony, completing it on July 25, after which he wrote out the magisterial and magnificent Symphony in C Major, the Jupiter, completing it on August 10.

In fact, Mozart was among the least autobiographical composers in the canon. His music came from a source frankly divorced from issues and worries of the everyday.

Without resorting to voodoo or a discussion of extraterrestrials, it's hard to say where Mozart's music did come from. let us take these three perfect symphonies as an example. there are no extant sketches for any of them; Mozart apparently sat down and wrote them out in full score, as quickly and as neatly as a copyist could copy them. There are no erasures or alterations on the scores: everything is written with a firm, confident hand. (Mozart referred to this process as "copying out"; he did not refer to it as "composing". The implication is that the symphonies were complete, to their every detail, somewhere in his noggin, and all he needed todo was write them down, "copy them out", something he could do while he was talking, drinking, playing billiards, bowling, whatever). Referring to the apparent ease with which he composed, Mozart once wrote, "I write music the way cow piss", and inelegant if not inaccurate appraisal of his abilities.

Mozart was freaky. It's no wonder he scared the bejesus out of his contemporaries.

Wolfgang Mozart

From the book "How To Listen To Great Music", by Robert Greenberg