The Symphony in E flat major (543 K., part 3) is a veritable triumph of
euphony. Mozart has employed clarinets here, and their union with the
horns and bassoons produces that full, mellow tone which is so important
an element in the modern orchestra; the addition of flutes gives
it clearness and light, and trumpets endow it with brilliancy and
freshness. It will suffice to remind the reader of the beautiful passage
in the andante, where the wind instruments enter in imitation, or of
the charming trio to the minuet, to make manifest the importance of the
choice of tone-colouring in giving characteristic expression. We find
the expression of perfect happiness in the exuberant charm of euphony,
the brilliancy of maturest beauty in which these symphonies are, as it
were, steeped, leaving such an impression as that made on the eye by the
dazzling colours of a glorious summer day. How seldom is this unalloyed
happiness and joy in living granted to mankind, how seldom does art
succeed in reproducing it entire and pure, as it is in this symphony!
The feeling of pride in the consciousness of power shines through the
magnificent introduction, while the allegro expresses purest pleasure,
now in frolicsome joy, now in active excitement, and now in noble and
dignified composure. Some shadows appear, it is true, in the andante,
but they only serve to throw into stronger relief the mild serenity of a
{G MINOR SYMPHONY, 1788.}
(35)
mind that communes with itself and rejoices in the peace which fills it.
This is the true source of the cheerful transport which rules the last
movement, rejoicing in its own strength and in the joy of being. The
last movement in especial is full of a mocking joviality more frequent
with Haydn than Mozart, but it does not lose its hold on the more
refined and elevated tone of the preceding movements. This movement
receives its peculiar stamp from its startling harmonic and rhythmical
surprises. Thus it has an extremely comic effect when the wind
instruments try to continue the subject begun by the violins, but
because these pursue their way unheeding, are thrown out as it were, and
break off in the middle. This mocking tone is kept up to the
conclusion, which appears to Nägeli ("Vorlesungen," p. 158) "so noisily
inconclusive" (_so stillos unschliessend_), "such a bang, that the
unsuspecting hearer does not know what has happened to him."[46]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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