Symphony No. 1 (Mozart)
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The Symphony No. 1 in E flat major, KV. 16, was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at the age of just eight years. By this time he was already notable in Europe as a wunderkind performer, but had composed little music.
Evidence suggests the piece is written during his family's stay in Chelsea, London, where he was performing. The work shows the influence of several composers, including his father Leopold Mozart and the sons of Johann Sebastian Bach, especially Johann Christian Bach, an important early symphonist working in London whom Mozart had met during his time there.
The symphony is written for an orchestra consisting of two oboes, two horns and strings (the usual first and second violins, violas, cellos and double basses). It is laid out in a three-movement, quick-slow-quick form, reflecting the genre's origins in the Italian overture, and typical of the early Classical symphony:
This three movement form is common in Mozart's early symphonies, though later it was supplanted by the more familiar four-movement scheme.
The first movement of the symphony is a quick piece in something like the usual sonata form, though there is little development section to speak of. The second is slower, in C minor, with an almost constant accompaniment of semiquaver (sixteenth note) triplets. The third is fast and lively, making great play of contrasts between quiet and loud passages, and parts played only by the violins and parts played by the entire orchestra.
Although this piece, compositionally, pales in comparison to his later works, it is viewed by many as a stepping-stone of progress. As Leopold Mozart pointed out, however, in his later writings, young Wolfgang used three parallel fifths in this piece.
