Eine kleine Nachtmusik

For the Venom album, see Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (album).

Eine kleine Nachtmusik (Serenade No. 13 for strings in G major), K. 525, is a 1787 composition for a chamber ensemble by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The German title means "a little serenade," though it is often rendered more literally but less accurately as "a little night music." The work is written for an ensemble of two violins, viola, and cello with optional double bass, but is often performed by string orchestras.

Composition, publication, and reception

The serenade was completed in Vienna on 10 August 1787, around the time Mozart was working on the second act of his opera Don Giovanni. It is not known why it was composed. Hildesheimer (1991, 215), noting that most of Mozart's serenades were written on commission, suggests that this serenade, too, was a commission, whose origin and first performance were not recorded.

The traditionally used name of the work comes from the entry Mozart made for it in his personal catalog, which begins, "Eine kleine Nacht-Musik." As Zaslaw and Cowdery point out, Mozart almost certainly was not giving the piece a special title, but only entering in his records that he had completed a little serenade.

The work was not published until about 1827, long after Mozart's death, by Johann André in Offenbach am Main. It had been sold to this publisher in 1799 by Mozart's widow Constanze, part of a large bundle of her husband's compositions.

Today the serenade is widely performed and recorded; indeed both Jacobson (2003, 38) and Hildesheimer (1992, 215) opine that the serenade is the most popular of all Mozart's works. Of the music, Hildesheimer writes, "even if we hear it on every street corner, its high quality is undisputed, an occasional piece from a light but happy pen."

Movements

The work has four movements:

1. Allegro
2. Romanze: Andante
3. Menuetto: Allegretto
4. Rondo: Allegro

Allegro

(The first theme)

This first movement is in sonata-allegro form, which aggressively ascends in a Mannheim rocket theme. 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 on D major and touches on D minor and C major before the work returns to G major for the recapitulation – a repetition of the exposition with both subjects in the same key, as is conventional. During the recapitulation, it is in G major with the primary themes from the exposition playing. The movement ends in its tonic key, G major.

Romanze

The second movement, in C major, is a "Romanze", with the tempo marked Andante. A feeling of intimacy and tenderness remains throughout this movement. 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. The melody in section A starts out with rests, then immediately becomes smooth and moves a little faster than section A. Section C is contrast employing the tonic minor – C minor. It also sounds dramatic and hurried. Section A returns with a coda to round out the movement in the key of G major.

Menuetto

The third movement, marked Allegretto, is a minuet and trio (A–B–A). The rhythm marking is 3/4. The minuet is in the home key of G major. It commences with an anacrusis which emphasizes the rhythm of 3/4. The opening theme is very strong with ornaments used at the end of the first phrase. The following phrase is contrast, which means smooth and melodious. The trio section is in the dominant key of D major. Balance is this section is achieved with two sections, each repeated. The melody flows gently in trio before the Menuet returns as Menuetto Da Capo.

Rondo

The fourth and last movement is in lively tempo, marked Allegro; the key is again G major. The movement is written in sonata rondo form. Throughout this movement, Mozart utilized and alternated ideas from the first three movements. The movement starts out with a rocket theme, the same G major chord as the opening chord in the first movement. After the rocket theme, Mozart used repeated notes that were also used in the first movement. During the second movement, Mozart employs the interesting modulation of the first theme to the key of E-flat major. Mozart specifies repeats not just for the exposition section but also for the following development and recapitulation section. The work ends with a long coda, which uses the material from the first movement.

Possible extra movement

In the catalog entry mentioned above, Mozart listed the work as having five movements ("Allegro – Minuet and Trio – Romance – Minuet and Trio – Finale."). The second movement in his listing, a minuet and trio, was long thought lost and no one knows if it was Mozart or someone else who removed it. Musicologist Alfred Einstein suggested, however, that a minuet in Piano Sonata in B-flat major, K. 498a, is the missing movement. The sonata's minuet has been recorded in an arrangement for strings made by Jonathan Del Mar for Nimbus Records although music scholars are not certain that Einstein is correct.

See also

• Parodies by Peter Schickele:
  • Eine kleine Nichtmusik
  • A Little Nightmare Music

References

• Hildesheimer, Wolfgang (1991) Mozart. Translated by Marion Faber. Macmillan. ISBN 0-374-52298-7.
• Holoman, D. Kern (1992) Evenings with the orchestra: a Norton companion for concertgoers. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-02936-0.
• Jacobson, Julius H. (2003) The classical music experience: discover the music of the world's greatest composers, Volume 2, narrated by Kevin Kline, Sourcebooks, Inc. ISBN 1-57071-950-0.
• Zaslaw, Neal and Cowdery, W. (1991) The Complete Mozart: A Guide to the Musical Works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Norton. (1991), ISBN 0-393-02886-0.

External links

Media related to Eine kleine Nachtmusik at Wikimedia Commons

•  Serenade in G. Eine kleine Nachtmusik KV 525: Score and critical report (in German) in the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe
• Free scores by Eine kleine Nachtmusik at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)