G minor has been considered the key through which
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart best expressed sadness and tragedy, and many of his minor key works are in G minor, such as
Piano Quartet No. 1 and
String Quintet No. 4. Though Mozart touched on various minor keys in his
symphonies, G minor is the only minor key he used as a main key for his numbered symphonies (
No. 25, and the famous
No. 40). In the
Classical period, symphonies in G minor almost always used four
horns, two in G and two in B alto. Another convention of G minor symphonies observed in Mozart's No. 25 and Mozart's No. 40 was the choice of
E-flat major, the subdominant of the relative major B, for the slow movement, with other examples including
Joseph Haydn's
No. 39 and
Johann Baptist Wanhal's G minor symphony from before 1771. ==Notable works in G minor==