KUSC’s Alan Chapman has a lot to say about music, but can he say it in 60 seconds? That’s the Chapman Challenge. We ask a question and Alan has a minute to answer it.
Today’s question is from David in Los Angeles, who writes, “First, let me say that I’m a big fan of Mozart in the Morning. My question has to do with Mozart’s symphonies. Everybody talks about his 40 symphonies, but the “Jupiter” is number 41. Please explain.”
Hit play below to listen to this week’s Chapman Challenge on Arts Alive.
The story begins with a wedding. Mozart married Constanze Weber in August of 1782, but it wasn’t until the fall of the following year that he took her to his hometown of Salzburg to meet his father. On their way back to Vienna, they stopped off in the Austrian town of Linz, where he was invited to give a concert. He didn’t have one of his symphonies with him, so he composed a new one in the space of four days, No. 36, the “Linz” symphony.
He also presented a symphony by his good friend back in Salzburg, Michel Haydn. And he added his own slow introduction to the symphony.
So with a manuscript in Mozart’s own hand, the entire symphony was taken to be Mozart’s work, and it went into the catalog as Symphony No. 37. It wasn’t until 1907 that an expert caught the mistake. What had been listed as No. 37 was not a Mozart symphony, but all the subsequent ones retained their numbers. So if you bought a set of Mozart symphonies and it’s missing No. 37, it’s not defective. That’s just the way it is.
That’s today’s Chapman Challenge. Is there a question you’d like to have answered in 60 seconds? Send it to us at [email protected]
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Alan Chapman
Alan Chapman, in addition to his weekday morning program, is also the host and producer of two weekend programs: Modern Times and A Musical Offering.
After receiving his undergraduate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he earned a Ph.D. in music theory from Yale University. He is currently a member of the music theory faculty of the Colburn Conservatory. He was a longtime member of the music faculty at Occidental College and has also been a visiting professor at UCLA and UC Santa Barbara. His analytical work has appeared in the Journal of Music Theory and in The New Orpheus: Essays on Kurt Weill, winner of the Deems Taylor Award for excellence in writing on music.
Well known as a pre-concert lecturer, Alan has been a regular speaker on the L.A. Philharmonic's "Upbeat Live" series since its inception in 1984. He also works closely with the Los Angeles Master Chorale and Pacific Symphony. His lectures have been presented by virtually every major performing organization in southern California. He has been heard globally as programmer and host of the inflight classical channel on Delta Airlines.
Alan is also active as a composer/lyricist. His songs have been performed and recorded by many artists around the world and have been honored by ASCAP, the Johnny Mercer Foundation, and the Manhattan Association of Cabarets. His children's opera Les Moose: The Operatic Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle was commissioned by LA Opera for its 1997-98 season. Alan frequently appears in cabaret evenings with his wife, soprano Karen Benjamin. They made their Carnegie Hall debut in 2000 and performed at Lincoln Center in 2006. Their recent CD, Que Será, Será: The Songs of Livingston and Evans, features the late Ray Evans telling the stories behind such beloved songs as "Mona Lisa" and "Silver Bells."
