Symphony No. 41 (Mozart) Reportedly, from the very first chords, Mozart's Symphony No. 41, in C Major reminded Cramer of Jupiter and his thunderbolts. The celebrated finale of the symphony is a re-working, albeit a majestic one, of the opening movement of Carl Ditters's symphony in D, "Der Sturz Phaëtons" (The Fall of Phaëton) of 1785. In those days of classical education, members of the Philharmonic Society, of which Salomon was a founding member, will have known that the planet that the ancient Greeks called "Phaët(h)on" is the same planet that the ancient Romans called "Jupiter." Thus the majestic nickname is also a humorous
Symphony No. 41 (Mozart) possessed to the same degree with himself, of concealing that science, and making it the vehicle for music as pleasing as it is learned. Nowhere has he achieved more." Of the piece as a whole, he wrote that "It is the greatest orchestral work of the world which preceded the French Revolution." The four-note theme is a common plainchant motif which can be traced back at least as far as Josquin des Prez's "Missa Pange lingua" from the 16th century. It was very popular with Mozart. It makes a brief appearance as early as his Symphony No. 1 in 1764.