“On the page it looked—nothing! The beginning simple, almost comic. Just a pulse, like a rusty squeezebox. And then, suddenly, high above it, an oboe.” Salieri, Mozart’s rival in the movie Amadeus, describes this work by the young genius as “filled with such unfulfillable longing” and even “the voice of God.” You can hear Mozart standing on Bach’s shoulders, the architectural structure and intertwining phrases repeated, changed, repeated again. The song goes to a darker place at 2:05 and emerges back into the sunshine a minute later, just as life’s periods of challenge and relative ease are never constant.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Serenade No 10 for Winds 'Gran Partita', III. Adagio, 1781 or 1782. Recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra Wind Ensemble, 2018.

This post is part of Music 100, a love letter to songs. 100 words on 100 songs in 100 days, running from Groundhog Day to early June, 2025.

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