I. Adagio; allegro
II. Andante
III. Minuetto; trio
IV. Finale: allegro
Mozart wrote his symphony when in a condition of distress, but who would
know from the music of the composer’s poverty and gloom? The iteration
of the chief theme of the second movement soon frets the nerves, not
from any poignancy of emotion, but from its very placidity. And how
seldom in Mozart’s music is there any emotional burst as we understand
emotion today! There are a few passages in the first movement of the G
minor symphony, pages in certain chamber works, and in the _Requiem_,
and there are the two great scenes in _Don Giovanni_, the trio between
the Don, the Commander, and Leporello after the duel, and the scene
between the blaspheming rake and the Stone Man. As a rule the emotion of
Mozart is that of the classic frieze or urn. Beauty with him is calm and
serene, and emotion, he believed, should always be beautiful.
* * *
The symphony in E flat induced A. Apel to attempt a translation of the
music into poetry that should express the character of each movement. It
excited the fantastical E. T. A. Hoffmann to an extraordinary rhapsody:
“Love and melancholy are breathed forth in purest spirit tones; we feel
ourselves drawn with inexpressible longing toward the forms which beckon
us to join them in their move with the spheres in the eternal circles of
the solemn dance.” So explained Johannes Kreisler in the
_Phantasiestücke in Callots Manier_.