Sigmund Haffner the Younger needed a piece of music for his ennoblement in 1782. His father's old connection to the Mozart family meant that Leopold wrote to Wolfgang in Vienna and asked for a symphony, quickly. Mozart wrote what became K. 385 in days. Sigmund died at 30. The symphony is still played everywhere.
The Story
Sigmund Haffner the Younger was the son of Sigmund the Elder, the Salzburg merchant and Mayor whose daughter's wedding had already produced the Haffner Serenade (K. 250) in 1776. The family's connection to the Mozarts was established; when Sigmund the Younger received his ennoblement in 1782, the occasion called for music, and Leopold wrote to Wolfgang in Vienna asking for a new symphony, at speed.
Mozart was busy with his own Viennese career at the time and had multiple other works underway. He composed the symphony so quickly that he later told Leopold he had forgotten writing some of it. The original version was a serenade; Mozart later reworked it, adding an introduction and expanding the finale, into the symphony in D major that is now K. 385.
The Haffner Symphony is a standard piece in the orchestral repertoire and is performed regularly by major orchestras worldwide. Sigmund the Younger died in 1787 at 30 and left no other notable mark on history. The commission he generated, through the combination of his family name, a social occasion, and Leopold's old friendship with the Haffners, has outlasted him by two and a half centuries.
