Eine kleine Nachtmusik

Template:Efn (Serenade No. 13 for strings in G major), K. 525, is a 1787 composition for a chamber ensemble by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791). The German title means "a little night music"Template:Efn and it is one of the most famous pieces of classical music.

The reasoning behind this piece is unknown. The extant piece contains four movements: Allegro, Romance, Menuetto, and Finale. However, another movement is now believed to be lost.

Background

The serenade was completed in Vienna on 10 August 1787,Template:Sfn around the time when Mozart was working on the second act of his opera Don Giovanni.Template:Sfn It is not known why he composed it, nor is it known whether it was performed in his lifetime.Template:Sfn Wolfgang Hildesheimer, noting that most of Mozart's serenades were written on commission, suggests that this was a commission whose origin and first performance were not recorded.Template:Sfn

The traditionally used name of the work comes from the entry Mozart made for it in his personal catalogue, which begins .Template:Efn Zaslaw and Cowdery point out that Mozart was probably not giving the piece a special title but only entering in his records that he had completed a little serenade.Template:Sfn

The work was not published until about 1827, long after Mozart's death, by Johann André in Offenbach am Main.Template:Sfn Mozart's widow Constanze sold it to the publisher as part of a large bundle of her husband's compositions.

Music

The serenade is written for an ensemble of two violins, viola, cello, and double bass, but it is often performed by string orchestras.Template:Sfn

The work has four movements: Template:Ordered list

I. Allegro

This first movement is in sonata-allegro form.Template:Sfn It opens with a theme of an ascending Mannheim rocket. The second theme is more graceful and in D major, the dominant key of G major. The exposition closes in D major and is repeated. The development section begins in D major and touches on D minor and C major before the work returns to G major for the recapitulation. <score sound="1"> \layout { \set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t line-width = 12\cm } \relative c {

 \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"string ensemble 1"
 \tempo 4 = 148
 \key g \major
 \time 4/4
 g4^"First theme" r8 d8 g4 r8 d8 | g8 d g b d4 r4 | c4 r8 a8 c4 r8 a8 | c8 a fis a d,4 r4 |

} </score> <score sound="1"> \layout { \set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t line-width = 14\cm } \relative c {

 \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"string ensemble 1"
 \tempo 4 = 148
 \key g \major
 \time 4/4
 \override Score.BarNumber.break-visibility = ##(#f #f #t)
 \set Score.currentBarNumber = #28 \bar ""
 a4.^"Second theme" (\tuplet 3/2 { g16 fis e } d8) r b' r | g r e r a r r4 | fis4. (\tuplet 3/2 { e16 d cis } b8) r g' r | fis2 (e4)

} </score>

II. Romance: Andante

The second movement, with the tempo marked Andante, is a Romance in C major, the subdominant key of G major, and was originally the third movement out of five.Template:Sfn It is in rondo form, taking the shape A–B–A–C–A plus a final coda. The keys of the sections are C major for A and B, C minor for C. The middle appearance of A is truncated, consisting of only the first half of the theme. Daniel Heartz describes the movement as evoking a gavotte rhythm: each of its sections begins in the middle of the measure, with a double upbeat.Template:Sfn <score lang="lilypond" sound="1"> \layout { \set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t } \relative c { \key c \major \time 2/2 \set Staff.midiInstrument = "string ensemble 1" \tempo 4 = 72 \partial 2 e8\p r8 e8 r8 | e4. (g8) f8 (d8 f8 a8) | g8. [(e16)] g8 r8 c8-. c4 (b8) | a8-. a4 (g8) g8 (f16) r16 f8 (e16) r16 | g8. (e16) d8 } </score>

III. Menuetto: Allegretto

The third movement, marked Allegretto, is a minuet and trio,Template:Sfn both in Template:Time signature time. The minuet is in the home key of G major; the contrasting trio is in D major, the dominant key of G major. As is normal in this form, the minuet is played again da capo following the trio. <score lang="lilypond" sound="1"> \layout { \set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t } \relative c { \key g \major \time 3/4 \set Staff.midiInstrument = "string ensemble 1" \tempo "Menuetto" \tempo 4=120 \partial 4 d4-.\f | g4-. a4-. b4-. | c2 a4 | b4 g4 a4 | \grace g8 (fis4) e8 d e fis | } </score> <score lang="lilypond" sound="1"> \layout { \set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t } \relative c { \key d \major \time 3/4 \set Staff.midiInstrument = "string ensemble 1" \tempo "Trio" \tempo 4=120 \partial 4 fis8_"sotto voce" (g8 | a2) b8 (cis8 | d4. cis8 b8 a8) | g8 (fis8 g8 a8 ais8 b8) | e,4. } </score>

IV. Rondo: Allegro

The fourth and last movement is in lively tempo, marked Allegro; the key is again G major, and the movement is written in sonata rondo form. Mozart specifies repeats not just for the exposition section but also for the following development and recapitulation sections. The recapitulation's first theme is unusual because only its last two bars return, in the parallel minor. A coda ends the piece. <score lang="lilypond" sound="1"> \layout { \set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t } \relative c { \key g \major \time 2/4 \partial 2 \set Staff.midiInstrument = "string ensemble 1" \tempo 2=108 r8 d-. g-.b-. | d4 d d d | fis, fis g g(\turn | c) c b b | a } </score>

Possible extra movement

In the catalogue entry mentioned above, Mozart listed the work as having five movements ("Allegro – Minuet and Trio – Romance – Minuet and Trio – Finale.").Template:Sfn The second movement in his listing — a minuet and trio — was long thought lost, and musicologist Alfred Einstein does not not know who removed it. In his 1984 recording, Christopher Hogwood used a minuet of Thomas Attwood (found in his sketchbooks used while he took lessons from Mozart) and an additional newly composed trio to substitute the missing movement. Einstein suggested, however, that a minuet in the Piano Sonata in B♭ major, K. 498a, is the missing movement. K. 498a, which is credited to the composer August Eberhard Müller,Template:Sfn incorporates significant amounts of Mozart's work in the form of reworkings of material from the piano concertos K. 450, K. 456, and K. 595, leading Einstein to suggest that the minuet in Müller's sonata might be an arrangement of the missing movement from Eine kleine Nachtmusik, however, the evidence for this is limited.Template:Sfn

In 1971, this movement was incorporated into a recording of the work prepared by the musicologist and performer Thurston Dart.Template:Sfn In 1989, the minuet and trio of K. 498a was again recorded as part of an arrangement of Eine kleine Nachtmusik made by Jonathan Del Mar for Nimbus Records.Template:Sfn

Modern reception

Today, the serenade is widely performed and recorded. Hildesheimer suggests that it is the most popular of all Mozart's works,Template:Sfn writing: "even if we hear it on every street corner, its high quality is undisputed, an occasional piece from a light but happy pen."Template:Sfn This piece has been featured in studies about the impact of music on fishTemplate:Sfn and humans.Template:Sfn Britannica has referred to it as "among the most frequently performed and iconic of all classical compositions."Template:Sfn

See also

• Ganz kleine Nachtmusik: An earlier, shorter Mozart piece given a similar name
• A Little Night Music: A Stephen Sondheim musical named after the composition
• Parodies by Peter Schickele:
  • Eine kleine Nichtmusik
  • A Little Nightmare Music

Notes and references

Notes Template:Notelist References

Sources

• Dart, Thurston (1971). Template:Discogs master.

External links

• Template:NMA
• Eine kleine Nachtmusik: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
• Performance of Eine kleine Nachtmusik by A Far Cry from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in MP3 format