Mozart and G minor explained

G minor
Relative:B major
Dominant:D minor
Subdominant:C minor
Parallel:G major
First Pitch:G
Second Pitch:A
Third Pitch:B
Fourth Pitch:C
Fifth Pitch:D
Sixth Pitch:E
Seventh Pitch:F

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.

List of works in G minor

See also

Notes and References

  1. Hellmut Federhofer, Foreword to the Bärenreiter Urtext of Mozart's Piano Quartet in G minor. Kassel: Bärenreiter Verlag (1958), p. iv. "" ["G minor was, for Mozart, the most suitable fate-key throughout his life for the expression of pain and tragedy."]
  2. [H. C. Robbins Landon]
  3. [James Hepokoski]

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Mozart and G minor".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2025, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.