31st Symphony (Mozart)

The Symphony in D major Köchelverzeichnis 297 , known as the Paris Symphony , was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Paris in 1778. According to the Old Mozart Edition, the symphony bears the number 31.

General

Mozart in 1777

On March 23, 1778, Mozart arrived in Paris with his mother Anna Maria Mozart after quitting his position in Salzburg and trying in vain to find employment in Munich, Augsburg and Mannheim. It was Mozart's third stay in Paris.

Mozart was commissioned by Joseph Legros (sometimes also Le Gros), the director of the Concert spirituel , for a Sinfonia concertante with solo winds. This was to be composed especially for the four wind instruments of the well-known Mannheim orchestra who had traveled with Mozart from Mannheim to Paris. Mozart composed the work (Köchel catalog 297b), but it was not performed due to an obvious intrigue: Instead, a Sinfonia concertante by Giovanni Giuseppe Cambini was performed. To make amends, Mozart received a new commission from Legros: he was to write a large symphony for the Concert spirituel. Mozart accepted and played the completed symphony on June 12, 1778, at the piano for two friends in Paris. He writes about this in a letter:

“Everyone really liked her. I am very happy with it too. But whether it pleases I don't know - and to say the truth is very little to me; because who will not like it? I take good care of the few clever French who are there that they please; the stupid - I don't see any great misfortune if they don't like it. But I have hope that the donkeys will find something in it that they can like; and then I didn’t miss the premier coup d'archet! - and that's enough. "

According to Mozart, the first performance of the symphony on Corpus Christi Day (June 18, 1778) was also a success after the rehearsals were unsatisfactory:

"I was very worried about the prob, because I haven't heard anything worse in my life, you can't imagine how you knocked and scratched the symphony twice in a row."

Legros was impressed by the performance and offered Mozart the prospect of a commission for an oratorio (which only later failed), but at the same time asked him to change the second movement: “[...] the Andante was not lucky enough to be satisfied ask - he says there is too much modulation in it - and too long […] ”. Mozart disagreed (“it's completely natural - and short”), but came across Legros and composed an alternative sentence: “[…] each one is right in its own way - because each has a different character - but I like the last one even better. ”The symphony was repeated on August 15, 1778 with the alternative movement.

Although both slow movements have been preserved, it has so far not been possible to decide which of them originated earlier. According to the conventional view, the movement originally headed “Andantino” in 6/8 time is the earlier version and the movement in 3/4 time is the alternative version; However, Alan Tyson disagrees based on paper analysis. The first printed version appeared in Paris in 1779 with the 3/4 movement, in 1800 the version with the 6/8 movement that is still in use today was published for the first time; the 3/4 movement was forgotten, was excluded from the old Mozart edition and was only available in a piano version. Most of the recordings contain the movement in 6/8 time.

Not only in the complete change in the second movement shows how hard Mozart tried to please the Parisian audience. The hoped-for sensational success must have been very important, otherwise he would not have reported about it so often and in detail (and possibly exaggerated). Mozart deleted, erased and improved almost every page of the autograph . For the "stupid donkeys", the symphony offers a lot of effects (e.g. fanfares, triad melodies, virtuoso runs), especially in the first and third movements, simple and memorable melodies, sections are regularly repeated. According to French fashion, the minuet is absent.

Mozart's mother died on July 3, 1778. When Mozart heard from his father that the Archbishop of Salzburg, Hieronymus von Colloredo , was willing to reinstate him on better terms, he traveled back via Mannheim and Munich. In a letter from Paris, Mozart mentions another symphony, which, however, is still unknown today. The work may have been lost or it may be an exaggeration (to report success to the father).

To the music

Instrumentation: two flutes , two oboes , two clarinets , two bassoons , two horns , two trumpets , timpani , two violins , viola , cello , double bass . The work is Mozart's first symphony with clarinet. In contemporary orchestras, a harpsichord (if available in the orchestra) was probably also used as a figured bass instrument.

Performance time: approx. 15 to 20 minutes.

With the terms of the sonata form used here, it should be noted that this scheme was designed in the first half of the 19th century (see there) and can therefore only be transferred to the symphony with restrictions. - The description and structure of the sentences given here is to be understood as a suggestion. Depending on the point of view, other delimitations and interpretations are also possible.

First movement: Allegro assai

Allegro assai: beginning in the manuscript

D major, 4/4 time, 295 bars

The movement begins with the already mentioned “coup d'archet”: A unison insert in the forte tutti on a D repeated four times, followed by a sixteenth-note run upwards, underlaid by the drum roll. After two quarter breaks, there follows a violin figure made up of two two bars: first descending, legato, dotted rhythm, then a staccato row in eighths.

This fanfare-like opening (“first theme”) is now repeated from bars 9-18 and then seamlessly merges into the following section (bars 19-26), which is characterized by octave leaps in the violins with energetic tone repetition, tremolo and triad melody. After a short caesura in bar 26, the 1st violin begins with a new, suggestive phrase piano, accompanied by the other strings in staccato. At first, the listener does not know whether this figure should represent the second theme or whether it will develop into it. After a short crescendo , in bar 32, the whole orchestra begins forte with energetic unison repetition and the suggestion phrase in the bass, but this now goes down instead of up. A triad motif in A major develops from the phrase in bar 40, which is repeated (bars 44–47 correspond to bars 40–43). The first main section of the movement ends with the variant of the fanfare-like sentence opening, which modulates according to A.

After a caesura and a short eighth-note tremolo carpet on the viola, the “correct” second theme begins in bar 53, which literally takes up the suggestion from bar 26, but now continues and adds clarinet and bassoon to it. With a sustained chord of the horns, the six-bar theme is repeated, then Mozart continues the material and, after repeating this continuation in a minor key, leads into the broad final part of the exposition . This initially brings a large volume of sound with tremolo, a modulation of the first theme with staggered use between flutes and oboes on the one hand and bassoon, viola, cello and double bass on the other (bars 74-80), then triad melodies and tremolo. The expected target chord on A in bar 84 is missing, instead the tension builds up again in the strings, which again discharges in an outbreak from bar 93, bar 93 ff. Representing a repetition of bar 75 ff. After this second pass, the target chord A is reached in bar 105 and leads to a triplet section with triad melodies and tremolo, which is repeated. This second repetition leads to a unison on A (bar 119), which leads to the return of the first theme. The implementation now begins .

The development initially consists of the complete run-through of the first theme in the dominant A major, but when the repetition begins, Mozart surprisingly switches to F major, which is established in bar 138 with the use of a third theme. This theme (bars 138–146) has a dance-like character and occurs in the two violins with two bars offset. In the following, the dancing character fades away, the harmony changes back to A, and after a crescendo with a pendulous eighth-note figure, the recapitulation begins in measure 164 . The implementation is therefore kept quite short and contains almost no material from the exposition (therefore one could also speak of a transition section depending on your point of view).

The recapitulation begins like the exposition, but the first theme is modulated at the beginning of the second repetition and - similarly to bars 75 ff. - is inserted (now clarinets instead of flutes and oboes). The piano presentation of the suggestion phrase is omitted, it begins immediately in the forte tutti in bar 194 (corresponding to bar 32). The end is extended: bars 257 ff. Represent a repetition of bars 238 ff. (These correspond to bars 84 ff.), With a crescendo in tonic-dominant changes for additional tension build-up (bars 263–269). The tonic in D major is reached in bar 276 and is predominant until the end of the movement. After repeated tonic dominant melodies (bars 280–283 correspond to bars 276–279), a figure going upwards (bars 284 ff.) And down in triplets (bars 288 ff.), The movement ends with a final appearance of the opening theme.

The exposition and development with recapitulation are not repeated. Michael Kontarsky thinks that this is also unnecessary, "because the subject areas appear clearly separated, so when listening are already so catchy that even 'the donkeys' have to understand them (...)."

In the letter of July 3, 1778, Mozart comments (in addition to the above-mentioned premier coup d'archet) how he tried to meet the expectations of the audience (Mozart may be referring to the section bar 238 ff., That of bar 257 to be repeated):

“… In the middle of the First Allegro, was a passage that I knew it would have to please, all the listeners were carried away by it - and it was a great applause - because I knew how to write it, what kind of effect it would make, like that I added it to the last one - da capo went now. "

Second sentence

Probable first version: Andante, originally Andantino in
G major, 6/8 time, 98 bars, two-part form, clarinets, trumpets and timpani are silent

The main theme consists of four predominantly vocal, two-bar motifs that form an eight-bar group and are repeated in slightly varied ways. In addition to changes in volume, the transitions from legato and staccato are noticeable. The first run ends on the dominant D, the second closes in the tonic G. From bars 17-22 the 1st violin plays a vocal melody in the tonic in G major, which modulates at the end to A major. With a strong contrast in the timbre, there is an ascending unison movement in forte and dotted rhythm in bars 23/24, which is "answered" by a motif with chromatics in the piano (bars 25-27). Both motifs are repeated as a variant (bars 28–34). This is followed by another motif (“final motif”) with forte use, again “answered” by a phrase in the piano (bars 35–37). These two motifs are also repeated with slight variations (bars 38–41) and end the first main section.

The second main section consists of the modified sequence of the first. The main theme is played as at the beginning of the sentence, but with the beginning of the vocal melody (bar 59 ff.), Harmonic changes occur (e.g. the unison motif on D instead of A, the chromatic motif in G instead of D and in the second repetition also in G minor). The final motif is followed by a coda with the further appearance of the main theme and a stop in downward staccato runs and a lead. The sentence breathes in pianissimo.

Probable second version: Andante in
G major, 3/4 time, 58 bars

The sentence consists of several motifs, loosely lined up one behind the other and each repeated once. It is mainly held in the piano.

• The first motif (bars 1–8), with its total length of eight bars and the structure of the front and back sentences, can also be seen as the (first) theme. It is in the tonic G major and has a characteristic tone repetition in the second bar.
• Motif 2 (bars 8–12), like the following motifs, has two bars and modulates to the double dominant A major. Characteristic are the descending row of notes with end curlicues and the sixteenth-note repetition of the accompanying 2nd violin, which creates a floating character.
• Motif 3 (bars 13-20) in the dominant D major is lower than motif 2 and has a dotted rhythm, bound eighth note movement and a similar end flourish as motif 2.
• Motif 4 (bars 20-24) consists of a descending sixteenth-note figure with D as the target tone.

The end of the first section is an unscrewing trill figure. The section ends in measure 26 and is repeated.

From bar 27, the middle section is followed by a unison figure in the forte, which oscillates between A minor and E major via a triplet phrase with distinctive dissonance between 1st and 2nd violin. Bars 34–36 bring a brief clouding with a change to G minor.

The “recapitulation” starts from bar 37 with motif 2 and is structured largely similar to the “exposition” with the exception of small extensions (e.g. eight trill figures instead of five at the end of the section). The second section is not repeated.

Third movement: Allegro

D major, 2/2 time (alla breve), 242 measures

Mozart describes the beginning of the sentence in a letter of July 3, 1778:

“Because I heard that all the last Allegro, like the first, start with all instruments at the same time, and mostly in unison, I started only eight bars with the 2 violins alone, piano - then a forte came straight away, so the listeners did (as I expected) on the piano sh! - then came the forte. - You hear the forte and clap your hands was one thing. So immediately after the symphony I went to the Palais Royal for joy, took some good frozen food, asked the rosary that I had promised and went home. "

The “first theme” could be separated from bars 1–12, consisting of a “antecedent” with a separate melody in the 1st violin (the 2nd violin accompanied in eighth runs) and the noisy forte-tutti as a “follow-up”. The theme is repeated with a varied antecedent, the subsequent clause then merges seamlessly into the transition section (bars 25 ff.). This is characterized by three-note melodies, a constant eighth note movement in the 2nd violin and strong interval jumps in the 1st violin (over two octaves). From bar 33 the double dominant E major stabilizes, which has a dominant effect on the second theme (bar 45 ff.) In A major.

The second theme consists of a fourth up in full notes, followed by a two measures eighth note down. This four-bar motif appears offset by two bars between the two violins. Additional jumps in fifths in oboes, horns and bassoons (without the eighth barrel) simulate the beginning of a polyphonic interweaving.

Further motifs with triad melodies follow until the end of the exposition, some of which are repeated as in the first movement (e.g. bars 91/92 and 93/94). Characteristic is the change from virtuoso piano eighth runs of the 1st violin and sound carpets in the forte, at bar 65 ff. With a change to minor. Also noteworthy are two sections with an upward sequencing (bar 85 ff. Broken triads in the 1st violin, bar 95 ff. With chromatics in the strings). The final group with its unison eighth down in the strings can be delimited from measure 109. The exposition ends in bar 116 with chords, it is not repeated.

In the development, the motif of the second theme increases to fugato (bars 117–150). The strings, flute, oboes and bassoons are involved in the 11 complete runs. Initially piano, from bar 143 there is an outbreak alternating between D minor and A major. From bar 151 there is a transition to the recapitulation with chord strikes and trill phrases.

The recapitulation (bars 159 ff.) Is structured in a similar way to the exposition, but has some extensions (e.g. pendulum figure bars 170–174), while the second theme is omitted (possibly as a consequence of the fact that it is dealt with in detail in the development has been). Like the exposition, the development and recapitulation are not repeated.

Individual references, comments

1. ↑ Explanation see the first sentence.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Hermann Abert: WA Mozart. Revised and expanded edition of Otto Jahn's Mozart. First part 1756-1782. 7th expanded edition. Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig 1955.
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Letter of July 9th to the father, quoted in Harry Newstone.
4. ^ Alan Tyson: Mozart: Studies of the Autograph Scores. Chapter 9: The Two Slow Movements of Mozart's “Paris Symphony”. Cambridge / MA London 1987, pp. 106–113, cited in Newstone (2006)
5. ↑ ^{a b} Harry Newstone: Foreword (to the Eulenburg edition of the Symphony in D major KV 297). Edition Eulenburg, No. 541, London / Mainz 2006.
6. ↑ HF Redlich: WA Mozart: Symphony "a 10 instrumenti" in D major (Paris) Koechel No. 297 (300a). Foreword to the pocket score edition by Eulenburg-Verlag from 1956 (current edition from 2006 with foreword by Harry Newstone)
7. ^ ^{A b} Michael Kontarsky: The “Paris” Symphony KV 297 and the Symphonies KV 318-338. In: Joachim Brügge, Claudia Maria Knispel (Ed.): The Mozart Handbook, Volume 1: Mozart's orchestral works and concerts. Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2007, ISBN 978-3-89007-461-0 , pp. 58-68.
8. ^ Neal Zaslaw: Mozart's Symphonies. Context, performance practice, reception. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1989.

literature

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 31 in D major K. 297 “Paris”. Edition Eulenburg, No. 541, London / Mainz 2006. (including appendix with the first version of the Andante)
• W. Meves: Symphonies de WA Mozart. Collection Litolff No. 168. Henry Litolff's Verlag, Braunschweig approx. 1890. (including a version of the symphony KV 297 for two-handed piano)

See also

• List of symphonies by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Web links

• Symphony in D K. 297 : Score and critical report in the New Mozart Edition
• 31st Symphony (Mozart) : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project