Violin Sonata No. 21 in E Minor

In 1777 Mozart, aged 21, took leave from his Salzburg employment to seek a post elsewhere. He travelled with his mother to Munich, Augsburg, Mannheim, and Paris on a 16-month tour that was to bring only professional disappointment and personal sorrow. No new position was forthcoming. In Mannheim he fell in love with Aloysia Weber (the sister of his future wife) but was ultimately rejected, and in Paris the following summer his mother fell ill and died. Nevertheless, he continued to compose prolifically. Among his successes of the period is a set of six violin sonatas, begun in Mannheim and completed in Paris, where he published them with a dedication to the keyboard-playing Electress Palatine Maria Elisabeth. The most remarkable of the six works is the two-movement fourth, in the rare key of E minor. In contrast to the cheerful lyricism of the other five, this is a work shot through with sadness, from its stark unison opening—later richly harmonized—to its melancholy minuet, the young composer wearing his broken heart upon his sleeve.