Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) 1788 A minor 2/2 Easy 0:11 Both hands
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The opening of Mozart's Symphony No. 40 is one of the most recognisable themes in classical music: a sighing two-note figure, repeated again and again, then a sudden leap up. This easy version gives you the first violins' theme, read note by note from a 1908 score: the first nine bars, two phrases that answer each other and close on the home note. It is moved from G minor to A minor and down an octave, so it sits around middle C, and the left hand plays the bass line of the cellos and basses in long notes. Learn the right hand first in Practice mode: the whole theme grows from one tiny idea, so once the first bar is in your fingers, the rest follows.
The theme stays between middle C and the C above it. The first phrase rocks between F and E, leaps up to the high C in bar 3 and walks down B A G F E to D in bar 5. The second phrase does the same one step lower: it rocks between E and D, leaps from D up to B in bar 7 and comes down to middle C in bar 9.
One long note per bar, the bass line of the orchestra: the low A, with the E above it in bars 2, 3 and 9, then G sharp in bar 7 and E in bar 8 to lead back home. Use 5 on the low note and 1 on the E, and keep it soft.
The rests. In bars 3, 5 and 7 a silent beat follows the two longer notes, before the next two quick notes: count it instead of holding the note on. Bar 8 has the only black key, G sharp, followed by F - the wide step between them gives the theme its sad colour.
Bars 1-2: F with 2 and E with 1, the hand still. Bar 3: E with 1 and the high C with 5 - a sixth, an easy stretch - then C B with 5-4. Bar 7: D with 1, the leap to B with 5, then B A with 5-4.
The right-hand melody of this version, bar by bar, in letter names and in Do Ré Mi. Sharps are written #, flats b; a note held across a bar line is written once.
Melody: F E E F E E F E E C C B A A G F F E D D E D D E …
| Bar | Notes | Do Ré Mi |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | F E | Fa Mi |
| 2 | E F E E F E | Mi Fa Mi Mi Fa Mi |
| 3 | E C C B | Mi Do Do Si |
| 4 | A A G F F E | La La Sol Fa Fa Mi |
| 5 | D D E D | Ré Ré Mi Ré |
| 6 | D E D D E D | Ré Mi Ré Ré Mi Ré |
| 7 | D B B A | Ré Si Si La |
| 8 | G# G# F E E D | Sol# Sol# Fa Mi Mi Ré |
| 9 | C C | Do Do |
The chords this arrangement holds for at least two bars, read from the score with the root in the bass. Each one opens its page: the notes, every inversion and the fingering, playable on a piano.
The piece is in A minor: all the chords of the key
Mozart finished the Symphony No. 40 in G minor in Vienna in the summer of 1788. It is the middle one of his last three symphonies - Nos. 39, 40 and 41, the Jupiter - all written within a few weeks. He later made a second version that adds two clarinets to the orchestra.
It is one of only two symphonies Mozart wrote in a minor key, both in G minor - the other is the much earlier No. 25 - which is why No. 40 is sometimes called the Great G minor symphony. The first movement has no slow introduction: the violas start a quiet, restless accompaniment over the bass, and the violins slip in on the last beat of the first bar with the theme on this page.
This transcription: Mozart, Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550 (1788), first movement, bars 1-9: the first violins' theme as printed in Hugo Ulrich's four-hand arrangement (New York: G. Schirmer, 1908), archive.org twelvecelebrated00moza, page n40 (primo), bass line from page n39 (secondo); transposed to A minor and down an octave, arranged by GOONS Studio. Transcribed by GOONS Studio from the original work, which is in the public domain.
First Theme, Bars 1-12 · C major
Theme A · A minor
Easy Version · C major
Easy Version · G majorThe full piano studio opens this score with your MIDI keyboard and sustain pedal, records what you play and exports it as a MIDI file. It comes with the GOONS Studio subscription - start with the 7-day free trial, no card required.
In A minor, as on this page: F E, E F E, E F E, E C, C B, A A G, F F E, D D - in Do Ré Mi, Fa Mi, Mi Fa Mi, Mi Fa Mi, Mi Do, Do Si, La La Sol. In Mozart's key, G minor, the theme starts E-flat D. Every bar is in the Notes section.
Mozart wrote it in G minor, with two flats. Moved up a step to A minor, the theme has only one black key, G sharp, and it sits an octave lower here so the right hand stays around middle C.
In the summer of 1788, in Vienna. He entered it in his catalogue of works on 25 July, between Symphony No. 39 and Symphony No. 41, the Jupiter.
The theme on this page is level 2 of 5: one small figure, repeated, with two leaps. The hard part in the original is the speed - Molto allegro, very fast - so learn it slowly and raise the tempo in steps.