41st Symphony (Mozart)

The Symphony in C major Köchelverzeichnis 551 composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the summer of 1788 in Vienna. According to the Old Mozart Edition, the symphony bears the number 41. It is Mozart's last symphony. Your nickname Jupiter Symphony first appeared at the beginning of the 19th century.

Mozart in 1789, silver pen drawing by Doris Stock

General

Regarding the genesis of the symphonies Köchelverzeichnis (KV) 543, 550 and 551, see KV 543 .

On August 10, 1788, Mozart entered the completion of KV 551 in his own catalog raisonné with the following words: “A symphony. - 2 violini, 1 flauto, 2 oboe, 2 fagotti, 2 corni, 2 clarini, Timpany, viole e bassi. ”After Mozart's death, the work - especially the finale - was regarded as one of the most successful pieces in symphonic music and was partly given the title "Symphony with the final fugue". In the Allgemeine Musikischen Zeitung of 1808 it is said that the work in Leipzig is meanwhile “a declared favorite of the local art lovers that we never withhold it from them for a year.” In London in particular, the work was particularly valued, and was published in 1810 as a score printed and celebrated as the “highest triumph of instrumental composition”.

As Mozart's last symphony, KV 551 was partly subject to a somewhat romantic interpretation in the sense that Mozart, knowing that it would be his last symphony, composed a kind of summary of what could be said at all in the symphonic, thus quasi a " Closing word ". On the other hand, it seems unlikely that Mozart should have foreseen his death in 1791 in 1788 and wanted to draw a line with KV 551.

Nickname, title

In addition to the nickname “Symphony with the Closing Fugue”, which is hardly used today (but still as the main subtitle in the third edition of the Köchel catalog from 1937), v. a. the title "Jupiter" or "Jupiter Symphony" is common. In the diaries of the English publisher Vincent Novello and his wife Mary, who visited Constanze Mozart in Salzburg in 1829 , there is an entry on August 7th, after which Mozart's son mentioned that the concert organizer Johann Peter Salomon wrote the work with the nickname "Jupiter" have designated. Kurt Pahlen also refers to another "legend" according to which the nickname goes back to the pianist Johann Baptist Cramer to denote her "divine perfection".

The title “Jupiter's Symphony” appears for the first time in the program of the Edinburgh Music Festival on October 20, 1819, then in the program of the London Royal Philharmonic on March 26, 1821, and in June 1822 the London correspondent of the Allgemeine Musical Zeitung wrote : “The third [concert ] on March 25th (…) began with the symphony in C major by Mozart, which is so popular here and known as Jupiter. ”In 1822 an arrangement of the symphony by Muzio Clementi for piano was published with the title“ Jupiter ” and which represents the god Jupiter enthroned on clouds and with lightning and thunder in her hands. On the other hand, the Jupiter association can also be found in the review of the performance of the symphony KV 550 in the Allgemeine musical newspaper on May 1, 1805.

Reviews (examples)

• Allgemeine musical newspaper of November 4, 1846: “The symphony of Mozart with the final fugue, How pure and clear are all the pictures in it! Each has no more and no less than its nature should have. "
• Bernhard Paumgartner: “Like a triumphant song of power-conscious glory, the C major symphony (...) rises to light heights as a radiant finale above all earthly suffering. The happiness of being in the boldly playful conquering of matter to a noble spiritual form is their meaning. "
• Kurt Pahlen on the finale: “Here Mozart himself can appear to us as God who, according to his own free will, creates, joins and guides constellations in the infinity of space. The magnificence of this sentence does not escape any listener; but his full understanding is only accessible to the initiated, who can follow this perfect polyphonic network, the voices and themes. "

For further quotations see the fourth sentence.

To the music

Instrumentation: flute , two oboes , two bassoons , two horns in C (in the second movement in F), two trumpets in C, timpani , two violins , viola , cello , double bass . It is also possible that a harpsichord was used in contemporary orchestras to amplify the bass voice. Mozart notates cello and double bass separately in the first movement.

Performance time: approx. 30–35 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 KV 551 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 vivace

C major, 4/4 time, 313 bars

First movement, New York Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Bruno Walter, 1945

The first theme (bars 1–8, depending on your point of view also up to bar 55) is symmetrically built up from four bars fore and aft, which in turn consist of two contrasting phrases : three chord strokes with grinder figure (here: triplets ) in the forte ( Phrase 1) and an ascending lead figure with dotted rhythm in the piano (Phrase 2). Some authors associate phrase 1 with "male" and phrase 2 with "female". The structure of the theme corresponds to a standard introductory phrase for symphonies, the triplet grinder figure can be found in Mozart in a similar form e.g. B. at KV 96 , KV 338 and KV 504 .

From bar 9 a march-like forte passage follows with the typical fanfare rhythm of the wind instruments, chords and another grinder figure of the strings, here as a descending thirty-second sequence (in sixteenths also in the fourth movement). After the fermata on the Unison G in bar 23, the first theme is repeated as a piano variant with counter-vocal woodwinds and without bass. Another repetition follows from bar 37 in the forte in the dominant G major, with the second phrase now being spun on like a sequence and from bar 49 back to the march passage. This ends in bar 55 on the double dominant D major with a subsequent general rest.

The following section (from bar 56) is mainly seen as the second theme, while Peter Revers describes the passage as a “dominant field with thematic echoes” and only sees the actual second theme from bar 101 onwards. The theme (G major) is played on the string piano and consists of two motifs (ascending three-tone motif and dancing figure with trill), with the three-tone motif occurring offset in the bass and accompanying the 2nd violin with a continuous eighth note movement. The theme is repeated in various ways and then turns into a passage in which the second phrase from the first theme in the bass is combined with a new motif from the 1st violin. The movement ebbs and ends "harmoniously open, like a question mark" in bar 80 with another general pause.

Unexpectedly, a forte burst of the whole orchestra with tremolo follows , which moves from C minor through C major and F major again to C major (ascending broken chord) and finally ends in G major. With the following passage (similar to that from bar 39 with the continuation of the motif from phrase 2 of the first theme) the tension is built up again, but breaks again surprisingly in bar 99/100 as the broken D major seventh chord of the 1st violin descending in the piano and a third general break completely.

The following, folk dance theme (G major), which z. B. Peter Revers sees the "real" second topic, is usually referred to as the beginning of the final group or the third topic. It is based on the aria “Un bacio di mano” KV 541. The exposition closes with tremolo and the grinder figures of the march section in measure 120 and is repeated.

The implementation can be divided into two parts: The first part (121-160 clock) begins with a unison initiation of the blower according It major and is based on the third subject, and in particular modulations of its Final phrase in the alternation of violins and violas / Bass. From bars 133-138 the fanfare rhythms from the march section also appear. The second part (bars 161–188) initially takes up the first theme as a mock review, but in the subdominant F major and in the piano. This is followed by advancements of the first phrase from the first topic through C major, D major and E major. From bar 171 onwards, the thirty-second grinder figure of the march section appears above a chromatic bass line. With the closing phrase from the third theme, which is played offset by oboe and bassoon, follows the transition to the recapitulation , which begins in bar 189.

The recapitulation differs in some respects from the exposition that v. a. concern the timbre and the instrumentation. E.g. is the second appearance of the first theme after the unison G with fermata in a minor key, and the minor breakout in the forte is also more extended. The development and recapitulation are not repeated.

Second movement: Andante cantabile

F major, 3/4 time 101 bars, strings with mutes

Second movement, New York Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Bruno Walter, 1945

The first theme begins as an upbeat figure with pauses and ascending in dotted rhythms ( “wandering motif of the classical age” , i.e. similar motifs are often found in Mozart's contemporaries). In bars 2 and 4, the second quarter beat of the bar (which is normally unstressed) is emphasized by the forte chord of the entire orchestra ( "metrically disturbing accents" ), which obscures the three bar . The thematic approach in bar 5 reaches the lyrical and lyrical postscript of the theme after touching down in D minor. Here, in particular, the oboe and then the flute determine the timbre. From bar 11, the theme is repeated as a variant, with the bass leading the voice in the "Wandering Motif" and the violins with their thirty-second figure (derived from the postscript) supplementing a motif similar to voices.

From bar 19 an unexpected turn to C minor follows, which is given a restless and excited character by syncopation , accents, dissonances and chromatics. In part, this passage is understood in terms of a second theme. This contrasts with the vocal, ascending motif from bar 28, which is interpreted differently: as a second theme or as a third theme or the beginning of the final group. It is underlaid by a continuous triplet movement of the 2nd violin. Possibly. The passage from bar 32 onwards is to be understood as a follow-up to this motif, which is linked to the antecedent by the continued movement of the triplet and characterized by a repeated tone motif. This obscures the three-time measure with its two-way meter, similar to the beginning of the movement. Mozart then sets the motif in a narrow arrangement of violin and flute and, after a chromatically condensed transition, repeats the antecedent as a variant (dialogue between violins and flute / oboe). The exposition ends in measure 44 and is repeated.

The development (bars 45–59) lifts the motif from the syncope section from bars 19 ff. To various harmonic levels (e.g. D minor, E flat minor). Some authors also use the term “middle part”, since there is no processing of exposure material in the narrower sense. The return to the recapitulation begins in measure 56 as a chromatic wind dialogue based on a phrase from the third theme.

The recapitulation (from bar 60) begins with the first theme in a varied timbre similar to bar 11. The end-sentence is now omitted, but the thirty-second figure is given more weight and increases in a continuation to the forte (bar 65) and C- Major fortissimo (bar 71), accompanied by fanfare-like rhythms of the wind instruments. The syncope section corresponding to bar 19 ff. Is shortened to two bars and no longer acts as a sharp drop. In the coda from bar 92, Mozart takes up the first theme again and lets the movement breath in pianissimo. Mozart only incorporated the recurrence of the first theme afterwards.

The development and recapitulation are not repeated. Overall, the muffling of the violins makes the action sound “as if from a distance, as if behind a veil”.

Third movement: Menuetto. Allegretto

C major, 3/4 time, with trio 87 bars

Third movement, New York Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Bruno Walter, 1945

The theme of the minuet is initially presented piano. It is constructed symmetrically from two four-bar halves (from two-bar blocks). The main component is a chromatically descending line of the violins, in the final turn of which brass and timpani join. Then the whole orchestra takes up the descending line and extends the final turn. At the beginning of the second part, Mozart builds up tension by sequencing the descending line in the woodwinds above the continuously repeated G of the horns and, after the forte unison signal in bars 26-28, also processes it imitatively between the upper and lower parts (included ascending opposing voice with trills). The recapitulation starts from bar 44 in the piano, likewise imitating and only for woodwinds. The last eight bars are structured similarly to the first part.

The first part of the trio (F major, without trumpets and timpani) consists of the alternation of a preface by the wind instruments (reminiscent of the end of movements) and a dancing, falling staccato figure of 1st violin and 1st oboe. The second part begins in a contrasting forte: woodwinds and 1st violin play a melody line made up of full-bar notes, the beginning of which quotes the theme from the fourth movement, accompanied by the other instruments in the rhythmically repeated unison E. From bar 80 the instrumentally varied repetition of the beginning follows.

Fourth movement: Molto allegro

C major, 2/2 time (alla breve), 423 measures

Fourth movement, New York Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Bruno Walter, 1945

Numerous analyzes are available for this sentence in particular. Similar in principle to the scheme of a sonata movement (exposition - development - recapitulation - coda ), there are also sections with a fugue-like structure ( fugato ). Five out of six themes / motifs in the movement are juxtaposed in the coda.

This combination of “learned”, baroque fugue and “gallant” classical style shows the theme at the beginning of the sentence: It is periodically laid out with four bars of the front and back notes. The antecedent is only contested by the violins: the 1st violin plays the baroque chorale-like motif cdfe in full notes (in the following: motif A), but as a gallant, classical moment underlaid by the eighth note movement of the 2nd violin. Instead of a baroque spinning (as found in bars 36 ff.), Mozart uses a dance motif (motif B) in which the grinder figure known from the first movement appears again. The 2nd violin continues its eighth note movement, bass and viola join in. Motif A of the antecedent is based on the third line of the Gregorian hymn Pange lingua . It can also be found with other composers (e.g. in the E major fugue from the 2nd part of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier , the Gradus ad Parnassum by Johann Joseph Fux and in the final movement of Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 13 ); Mozart himself used it in the symphonies KV 16 , KV 45b and KV 319 as well as the masses KV 192 (there: in the Credo) and KV 257 (there: in the Sanctus). Motif B is the only one that is not processed polyphonically in the rest of the movement.

From bar 9 the theme is taken up in the forte of the entire orchestra with varied and repeated postscripts, whereby the basses initially emphasize the grinder figure. In bar 19 (similar to the first movement) a march-like passage begins, in which the signal or fanfare motif C (dotted rhythm and eighth run down) appears for the first time. The march passage ends in bar 35 on the dominant G.

In measure 36, a baroque-looking fugato with motif A begins, with motif D1 (ascending quarter sequence with trills) added from measure 57. This motif also has a closing phrase with large interval jumps (motif D2). With the "rolling" eighth notes of motif C, the section ends on the double dominant D, which is established from bar 64.

The second vocal theme (from measure 74, motif E) is introduced by the strings in the G major piano - in the same structure as at the beginning of the sentence: 1st violin leading the voice, 2nd violin with continuous eighth notes, viola and bass with individual ones , priming tones. The woodwinds add staggered interjections from motifs D2, D1 and C. The theme is repeated. The continuous eighth note movement of the 2nd violin is then also picked up by the 1st violin and spun on over an organ point on D, while the flute and bassoon throw motif D1.

In measure 94, the timbre changes when the brass section comes in: the still vocal, gentle motif E is now spun off in the forte by the instruments (initially only the motif head) and takes on a somewhat heroic character. The “rolling” eighth runs down from motif E then lead to a homophonic passage with motif B. This (bar 115 ff.) In turn has a fanfare-like march-like character, which is also retained from bar 135, where the fanfare motif C occurs offset - partly also in its reverse (eighth run up instead of down). The exposition ends above a throbbing organ point on G with motif C played by the oboe / bassoon in measure 157. The exposition is repeated.

The development begins in the piano with motif A in the strings above another throbbing organ point on G, as a “follow-up” Mozart uses the fanfare motif C in oboe and bassoon. This sequence is now repeated from E - after a “slip” - and goes into the actual passage in measure 172. It is essentially based on motif C, which occurs offset in the instruments and is first sequenced in the circle of fifths downwards in major and then upwards in minor :

• (E major (measure 166) -) A major (measure 172) - D major (measure 176) - G major (measure 180) - C major (measure 183) - F major (measure 187)
• F major (measure 187) - C minor (measure 191) - G minor (measure 196) - D minor (measure 202).

The interjections of the brass with the head of motif C are also characteristic. When sequencing upwards, small chromatic piano passages in the woodwinds with motif A are switched on. With such a passage, Mozart changes from D minor to a section that oscillates between B major and E minor (bars 210-219) and finally, with additional chromatics and motif C, leads to the recapitulation.

In the recapitulation (from bar 225) v. a. the section changed until the second topic begins: when the first topic is repeated, the grinder figure in the bass / viola is expanded, motif A also appears as a variant in the bass from bar 243. The baroque fugato corresponding to bars 36–52 is missing. From the second theme (bars 272 ff.) The recapitulation is structured similar to the exposition. The recapitulation ends in bar 356, is repeated together with the development and then passes through motif C, which is played in the original form (bass) and inversion (remaining strings) on a C major seventh chord , into the coda.

Coda, bars 390-395. Red: design A, yellow: design C, green: design D1, black: design D2, blue: design E.

This begins “mysteriously, weightlessly and almost without comprehensible metric movement” (bar 360 ff.) In the piano with motif A in its inversion and in bar 372 it changes into a fugato in which the five motifs A, C, D1, D2 and E wander through the instruments offset. This section in particular is highlighted by many authors:

• "Here Jupiter is ruler over the world and worlds, creator of absolute beauty, symbol of equilibrium and perfection."
• “With this material Mozart now opens all the floodgates of multiple counterpoint; The familiar thoughts strike the listener's ear in ever new entanglement, and he can only marvel at the wonderful ease with which this highly increased life energy penetrates him. "
• "In terms of its gestures and voice guidance, this passage looks like a lively ensemble of the various characters and people in an opera buffa: a classic dramatization of instrumental music."

With the change from bar 401 to 402, “this highest complexity almost without mediation turns into almost naive homophony” with the “march passage” (motif B), which was left out in the recapitulation. The movement ends with C major fanfares. Overall, the end of this movement is "almost the same note as the end of Act I of the Magic Flute ".

Individual references, comments

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Volker Scherliess : The symphonies. In: Silke Leopold (Ed.): Mozart-Handbuch. Bärenreiter-Verlag, Kassel 2005, ISBN 3-7618-2021-6 , p. 250 ff.
2. ↑ This conception has recently also been used by Attila Csampai ( Symphony in C major KV 551 (“Jupiter”). In: Attila Csampai & Dietmar Holland (ed.): Der Konzertführer. Orchestermusik von 1700 bis zur Gegenwart. Rowohlt-Verlag , Reinbek bei Hamburg 1987, ISBN 3-8052-0450-7 , pp. 166–168): Mozart had the symphony “[composed] in the knowledge that there would be no more to follow”.
3. ^ ^{A b} A. Peter Brown: The Symphonic Repertoire. Volume II. The First Golden Age of the Vienese Symphony: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert. Indiana University Press, Bloomington & Indianapolis 2002, ISBN 0-253-33487-X ; Pp. 423-432.
4. ^ Alfred Einstein : Chronological-thematic directory of all of Wolfgang Amade Mozart's music works. In addition to the information about the lost, started, transferred, dubious and superseded compositions by Dr. Ludwig Ritter von Köchel. Third edition, edited by Alfred Einstein. Breitkopf & Härtel-Verlag, Leipzig 1937, 984 pp.
5. ^ Franz Giegling, Alexander Weinmann , Gerd Sievers : Chronological-thematic directory of all of Wolfgang Amade Mozart's sound works. In addition to the information about the lost, started, transferred, dubious and superseded compositions by Dr. Ludwig Ritter von Köchel. Sixth edition. Breitkopf & Härtel-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1964, 1023 pp.
6. ^ ^{A b c} Kurt Pahlen: Symphony of the World. Schweizer Verlagshaus AG, Zurich 1978 (preface from 1966).
7. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} Peter Revers: Symphony in C major KV 551 ("Jupiter"). In: Joachim Brügge, Claudia Maria Knispel (Ed.): The Mozart Handbook, Volume 1: Mozart's orchestral works and concerts. Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2007, ISBN 3-89007-461-8 , pp. 127-148
8. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Bernhard Paumgartner: Mozart. Atlantis-Verlag, Zurich and Freiburg i. Br. 1957
9. ^ Neal Zaslaw: Mozart's Symphonies. Context, performance practice, reception. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1989.
10. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Hermann Abert (1956): WA Mozart. Revised and expanded edition of Otto Jahn's Mozart. Second part 1783-1791. 7th expanded edition, VEB Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig 1956, 736 pp.
11. ^ Suggested structure in the Philharmonia pocket score
12. ^ ^{A b c d} Arnold Werner-Jensen: Reclams music guide. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Volume 1: Instrumental Music. Philipp Reclam jun., Stuttgart 1989
13. ↑ This passage (bars 171 to 179) is reminiscent of the section from the first movement of Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 48 , there: bars 114 to 119, see there.
14. ↑ Joachim Brügge gives an overview of four reviews: The finale of the “Jupiter” symphony in C major KV 551 in selected reviews of works by Simon Sechter, Johann Nepomuk David, Stefan Kunze and Peter Gülke. In: Joachim Brügge, Claudia Maria Knispel (Ed.): The Mozart Handbook, Volume 1: Mozart's orchestral works and concerts. Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2007, ISBN 3-89007-461-8 , pp. 149-159
15. ↑ Ulrich Michels: dtv atlas on music. Volume 2 Historical Part: From the Baroque to the Present. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 1992 (first edition from 1977), ISBN 3-423-03023-2 , 591 pp.

Web links, notes

• Symphony in C, K. 551 : Score and critical report in the New Mozart Edition
• 41st Symphony (Mozart) : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
• A motive analysis of the fugue from the 4th movement
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony in C major: KV 551 “Jupiter's Symphony”; Pocket score . Introduction and analysis by Manfred Wagner . Goldmann, Mainz and Schott, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-442-33016-5 .
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony 41 C major Jupiter KV 551. Philharmonia No. 6th revised edition, Vienna approx. 1960, 84 pp.
• W. Meves: Symphonies de WA Mozart. Collection Litolff No. 168. Henry Litolff's Verlag, Braunschweig without a year (approx. 1890, including a version of the symphony KV 551 for two-handed piano)
• Thread on the symphony KV 551 with a discussion focus on different recordings
• The New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein play the third movement of the Jupiter Symphony ( audio video )

Further literature

• Stephan Kunze: Mozart: Symphony in C major KV 551 Jupiter's Symphony. Series: Meisterwerke der Musik, issue 50. Wilhelm Finck Verlag, Munich 1988 (the book was not evaluated for this article).
• Ulrich Konrad : Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony in C, KV 551 "Jupiter" . Facsimile of the autograph and commentary, Kassel a. a. 2005.

See also

• List of Mozart's symphonies