G minor has been considered the key through which
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart best expressed sadness and tragedy,[1] and many of his minor key works are in G minor. Though Mozart touched on various minor keys in his
symphonies, G minor is the only minor key he used as a main key for his numbered symphonies.
In the
Classical period, symphonies in G minor almost always used four
horns, two in G and two in B♭ alto.[2] Another convention of G minor symphonies observed in Mozart's
No. 25 and
No. 40 was the choice of the
subdominant of the
relative key (
B♭ major),
E♭ major, for the slow movement; other non-Mozart examples of this practice include
J. C. Bach Op. 6, No. 6, from 1769, Haydn's
No. 39 (1768/69) and
Johann Baptist Wanhal's G minor symphony sometime before 1771 (Bryan Gm1).[3]
Isolated sections in this key within Mozart's compositions may also evoke an atmosphere of grand tragedy, one example being the stormy G minor middle section to the otherwise serene B♭ major slow movement in the
Piano Concerto No. 20.
^Hellmut Federhofer,
Foreword to the Bärenreiter Urtext of Mozart's Piano Quartet in G minor. Kassel: Bärenreiter Verlag (1958), p. iv. "G-Moll war für Mozart zeitlebens die Schicksaltonart, die ihm für den Ausdruck des Schmerzes und der Tragik am geeignetsten erschien." ["G minor was, for Mozart, the most suitable fate-key throughout his life for the expression of pain and tragedy."]
^H. C. Robbins Landon, Mozart and Vienna. New York: Schirmer Books (1991): 48. "Writing for four horns was a regular part of the Sturm und Drang G minor equipment." Robbins Landon also notes that
Mozart's No. 40 was first intended to have four horns.