Symphony No. 30 (Mozart)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote Symphony No. 30 in D major, K. 202/186b^[1] in Salzburg, completing it on 5 May 1774.

1773 miniature of Mozart

The work is scored for two oboes, two horns and two trumpets in D (silent in the Andantino and Trio), timpani and strings, but the timpani part has been lost.^[2] There has been at least one attempt to reconstruct the timpani part.^[3]

The work is in 4 movements:

1. Molto allegro, ³
   ₄
2. Andantino con moto (A major), ²
   ₄
3. Menuetto and Trio (the latter in G major), ³
   ₄
4. Presto, ²
   ₄

The first movement is in sonata form and opens with a falling, dotted fanfare motif.^[4] A transitional section follows which contains a dialogue between violins and bass alternating between loud and soft dynamics and ending with a trill. The second theme a group of the sonata-form structure contains two sections. The first is a ländler scored for two violins against bass while the second is a minuet for the tutti featuring trills on almost every beat.^[4] The expositional coda returns to the ländler style. The development focuses on the minuet style with the phrase-lengths elongated. Following the recapitulation, the movement coda returns to this minuet and regularizes its phrase lengths before the final cadence.^[4]

In the trio of the minuet, the first violin is syncopated an eighth note ahead of the accompaniment.^[4]

The finale starts with a falling dotted fanfare motif similar to the one that starts the opening movement. The answering phrase and the movement's second theme have a contradanse character.^[4]