20. "I have no small amount of work ahead of me. By Sunday week I
must have my opera arranged for military band or somebody will be
ahead of me and carry away the profits; and I must also write a
new symphony. How will that be possible? You have no idea how
difficult it is to make such an arrangement so that it shall be
adapted to wind instruments and yet lose nothing of its effect.
Well, well;--I shall have to do the work at night."

(Vienna, July 20, 1782, to his father who had asked for a
symphony for the Hafner family in Salzburg. The opera referred
to is "Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail.")

21. "I was firmly resolved to write the Adagio for the clock-maker
at once so that I might drop a few ducats into the hands of my
dear little wife; and I began it, but was unlucky enough--because
I hate such work--not to be able to finish it. I write at it every
day, but have to drop it because it bores me. If the reason for its
existence were not such a momentous one, rest assured I should let
the thing drop. I hope, however, to force it through in time. Ah,
yes! if it were a large clock-work with a sound like an organ I'd
be glad to do it; but as it is the thing is made up of tiny pipes
only, which sound too shrill and childish for me."

(Frankfort-on-the-Main, October 3, 1790, to his wife. "A Piece
for an Organ in a Clock." [Kochel's catalogue, No. 594.] It was
probably ordered by Count Deym for his Wax-works Museum on the
occasion of the death of the famous Field Marshal Laudon. The
dominant mood of sorrow prevails in the first movement; the
Allegro is in Handel's style.)