Mozarts Jupiter Symphony: First and Second Movements

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May 12, 2015

1. Introduction
In this essay, the first two movements of Mozarts (1756-1791) Jupiter Symphony (1788)
will be analyzed. First, context about the origins of the work will be given, including a general
historical evaluation of the work according to its place in musical history as well as the authors
aesthetic judgment of taste.
2. Origin of the Work
What we know about the origins of Mozarts Symphony K. 551, also know as the Jupiter
Symphony, or Symphony No. 41 in C Major, was that it was completed on August 10, 1788 in
Vienna. Mozart, unlike composers like Schubert, never wrote musical compositions on a whim
(Schwarm, 2011, p. 20). He was always motivated to write pieces on commission, or because he
knew the work would be performed. It was this business model that formed the career of the
composer. It is not known whether Mozart made money for his work on the Jupiter Symphony.
While Mozart wrote extensive letters and journal entries about his earlier works, the historical
record is empty when it comes to the production history of the Jupiter. Most likely the
combination of Mozarts need for money, and his declining health, as well as the reality of
feeding and housing a large family, were external stressors that did not allow him to record the
details of his works progress. Needless, to say, the work output of Mozarts later years was not
hampered by his external circumstances.
3. The Jupiter
The Jupiter was Mozarts last symphony and it was neither published nor performed
during his lifetime. Why the symphony is called the Jupiter Symphony is not known, but
scholars tend to agree the name was not known to Mozart himself, and was most likely a
sobriquet given to the symphony that was English in origin (Woodfield, 2006, p. 44). In fact,

according to the Oxford Dictionary of Music, the Jupiter name probably came from the 1821
Philharmonic Society of London concert, in which Bishop conducted (Jupiter Symphony,
2014). It was this 1821 performance that the symphony most likely had its first recorded
performance, long after Mozarts death. Until this time, the score had not been published, and
there is no public record of Mozart having a public performance of the work.
4. Theme
The main theme of the symphony makes no hesitation in appearing at the very beginning.
The theme is not a hummable theme nor can it be whistled, but it is memorable. There is no
introductory music to this symphony. The theme comes bursting out in the first several bars, and
it is softened by the use of the violins. Since the the Jupiter Symphony is the largest and most
complex of Mozarts symphonies it is not possible to lay out all the details of the work in this
essay, although we can point out its salient feature. It is interesting that the piece is called the
Jupiter, named after the Roman God of wine and the name of the chief god. We are apt to
approach the piece as jovial like Jupiter.
5. C Major
It is often the key of C major that music students first learn when studying music. Mozart
uses this rather conventional key to set the tone for the work. It is important to point out
thatAlthough today we think of C major as the plainest and most basic of keys all white
notes on the piano in the late 18th century it was usually associated with court and highchurch pomp since it was well suited to the valveless trumpets of the period (Bedell,
2013).However we have to take the fact that it was written heartily in the celebratory key of C
Major as no indication that this piece will work for a military parade or for the procession of the
gods (Jupiter Symphony, 2014).

6. Anticipation of Beethoven and the Romantics

The Jupiter does not have a vocal chorus. Nor does it allude to nature. These two facts are
mentioned because it is how the work is different from later Romantic composers like
Beethoven. It is not that the Symphony is not joyful, but it actually has a way of undermining its
own composition, in the way that the counterbalance between sounds play out. The Jupiter
Symphony is a questioning work. If Romanticism, as has been touted in the history of music, is
about emotional vulnerability, Mozarts Symphony is more restrained, and certainly less inclined
to reveal itself in emotional passion. The passionate parts come as surprises, and they do not
shape the work as a whole.
The work does have the impression of being a joyful work, although it is certainly not the
bombastic joy we find in the later composer Beethovens Ninth Symphony. The Jupiter is
actually a very seriously-minded piece, which perhaps hints at the great Romantic works of
Beethoven and others to come. It is said that the works of Mozart are more authoritative than
romantic, and we can get a sense of this interplay in the Jupiters first movement, as well as in its
more famous final movement.
7. The First Movement
The opening movement of the Jupiter is the authoritative sonata form (Jupiter
Symphony, 2015). The sonata form is perhaps the most common form-style in music, but in
symphonic form it takes on a grander scale. The movements of the symphony each have their
own theme. In fact, most large-scale expositions include a cadential closing group or codetta
following the largest paragraph of the second group, especially in bars 101, 111 (Webster,
2014). The opening notes of the symphony are rousing, compared to the softer openings of
Symphonies 25 and 29.

8. The Second Movement

The second Movement of the symphony is more subdued, a lyrical mixture of themes in
major and minor keys (Jupiter Symphony, 2015). Listening to the work, partly inspired by the
name, one is inspired to think of it in relationship to other works that celebrate god-like
creations. Jupiter is certainly a god, but the name, also makes one think of the names of the
planets. It was not until the early twentieth century that, for example, Holsts The Planets, was
written. However, The Jupiter is a much more somber piece than the planetary tour that Holst
gives, and listeners are often fooled that it is opening movement will lead into something like
Haydn. It is the Second Movement that stretches the dominant themes of the first movement into
a more reflective meditation. However the genre is stretched, and even in the Second Movement,
the tonal quality goes from soft meditation, to even the more robust sound of the violins that
quickens the pace, and the sound of the flute rounds out the notes.
9. Note About The Final Movement
While the last movement of the Jupiter Symphony is perhaps Mozarts most famous
contribution to music, the symphony is actually divided into four movements. The first two
movements, Allegro vivace, and the second movement, Andante cantabile will be analysed in
this essay. The last movement, however, is important to understanding the work. The final
movement is sometimes described as fugal writing, but it is more apt to describe it as a
musica combinatoria, for all the independent motifs that we hear in the first four movements
are brought together in the coda to create a fugato in five-part invertible counterpoint (Eisen,
2014).
10. Overall Texture

The overall quality of the symphony is its compositional texture. As Eisen has pointed
out, Mozart brought to the symphony orchestra a new understanding of its possibilities both as a
corporate body and as a collection of individuals. As in the first movement, we can easily point
out the individual sounds of the instruments, which by the end of the second movement come
together in a splendid semin-finale. How do we go from the first movements bursts of sound, to
the second movements more grandiose and symphonic texture? Mozart is able to arrange the
symphony to work like a body, going from what Eisen calls its most intimate and chamber
music-like, similar to the opening of Mozarts 40th Symphony (Eisen, 2014). In the Jupiter,
the textures and gestures are in full range, and the listener is able to follow the work like the
poem, even though it lacks a poetic text, or a vocal harmony.
11. Conclusion
During the period he wrote his great Jupiter symphony in C Major, Mozart was under
severe financial stress, but the last symphonies he wrote, including the Jupiter, is described by
von Hildebrand as confrontation with a world of spirituality, masterful shaping, light, and
noblest beauty (Von Hildebrand, p. 204). Mozarts work, and especially the Jupiter, are often
clouded by the admiration heaped on it by history that it is difficult to experience the work fresh.
Mozart has been compared to Shakespeare, as well as the defining figure of the classical music
zeitgeist (von Hildebrand, 2006, p. 189).
Regardless, Mozart stirs the emotion. Even if one has never heard the name Mozart,
listening to his work plays on the strings of the human soul. It was the philosopher Kierkegaard
who summed up Mozart the best:
You immortal one, to whom I owe everything, to whom I owe the loss of
my understandingthat my soul was stirred up and my innermost being

was shakento whom I owe my not having to walk through life as one
who is incapable of being deeply moved; you whom I thank for my not
having to die dying without having loved (qtd. in von Hildebrand, p.
191).

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