Mozart's Gran Partita

For the love of...

The Serenade No. 10 in B-flat Major KV361, popularly known as Mozart's Gran Partita, is charming and supremely beautiful yet interwoven with a sweet, melancholic voice. Everytime I listen to the Adagio (the third movement -- listen) I am alternately moved to tears then filled to the top with joy.

I had to know the meaning behind the serenade, who it was written for and why was it written with such a sad voice? What is the voice saying? Who is the object of desire?

A quick search uncovered various opinions. Some sources claim Mozart wrote it for his wedding to Constanze, some say it was written earlier. It is agreed he wrote it neatly, in that he took great care while composing and didn't scribble it down quickly as was often his way. I am left with the impression his wedding was a major event for him.

I have listened to the Adagio endless times as I love it so much. I've often imagined it to express unrequited love. Sometimes the second voice is a tease. By the time the movement wraps up the yearning voice seems to be either resolved to accept loneliness and singledom. Or, the lover has returned and they are swept away. I go back and forth between my musings. I'm racy that way.

On the page it looked nothing. The beginning simple, almost comic. Just a pulse - bassoons and basset horns - like a rusty squeezebox. Then suddenly - high above it - an oboe, a single note, hanging there unwavering, till a clarinet took over and sweetened it into a phrase of such delight! This was no composition by a performing monkey! This was a music I'd never heard. Filled with such longing, such unfulfillable longing, it had me trembling. It seemed to me that I was hearing a voice of God.

~Salieri quote from Amadeus (1984)