Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1756-1791. Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, K. 550. Completed July 25th, 1788; scored for flute, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, and strings.
The image of the impoverished artist slowly starving to death, his abilities ignored by the unappreciative masses, is so engraved in our literature and culture that it sometime seems that it must be a fabrication, invented by the untalented to explain away their lack of success. Certainly there have been many cases of gifted men (and a few mediocre ones) who at the least supported themselves comfortably, and at the best became wealthy and popular in their own lifetimes.
Yet the history of music is also replete with stories of composers who could not find an audience, who had to choose between creating and eating, and who perished without a penny in their purse, only to leave behind works that would make their names synonymous with greatness long after their death. Of these, none is more tragic than the tale of Mozart, who achieved popularity but could never pay his debts and rarely even knew how he would purchase his supper.
The summer of 1788 was one of the worst of times for the already-famous composer. Although he was earning a small salary in return for his service to Emperor Joseph II, he was still far behind financially, and had to write a heartbreakingly desperate letter to a close friend, Michael Puchberg, to beg for funds. (Puchberg helped but could not rescue him, and Mozart would never return to solid ground in the remainder of his short life.)
Despite these straits, the pen that had produced so many beautiful melodies was hard at work. Even while writing many other minor works, the master composed his final three symphonies in a space of perhaps 10 weeks. But despite the speed with which he worked, these are no slap-dash collections of triviality. To the contrary, all are superb works, full of invention yet structured so precisely that they have served as instructional material for all following generations. The middle of the three, the 40th, seems to embody Mozart's own unhappiness at his circumstances in its opening movements, yet at the finish erupts with the irrepressible ebullience that characterizes so much of his music and that has brought so much joy to those who have suffered far less than he did.
© 1996, Geoff Kuenning
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