Eine kleine Nachtmusik

Eine kleine Nachtmusik
Serenade No. 13
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Holograph manuscript, 1787
Key	G major
Catalogue	K. 525
Composed	1787
Published	1827, Offenbach am Main
Scoring	two violins viola cello double bass

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 (1756–1791). The German title means "a little night music" and it is one of the most famous classical music pieces.

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

Background

The serenade was completed in Vienna on 10 August 1787, around the time when Mozart was working on the second act of his opera Don Giovanni. It is not known why he composed it, nor is it known whether it was performed in his lifetime. 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.

The traditionally used name of the work comes from the entry Mozart made for it in his personal catalog, which begins Eine kleine Nacht-Musick. 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.

The work was not published until about 1827, long after Mozart's death, by Johann André in Offenbach am Main. 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.

The work has four movements:

1. Allegro (G major)
2. Romance: Andante (C major)
3. Menuetto: Allegretto (G major, with trio in D major)
4. Finale: Rondo Allegro (G major)

I. Allegro

This first movement is in sonata-allegro form. It opens with an ascending 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.

II. Romance: Andante

The second movement, with the tempo marked Andante, is a Romance in the subdominant key of C major, and was originally the third movement out of five. 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 gavotte rhythm: each of its sections begins in the middle of the measure, with a double upbeat.

III. Menuetto: Allegretto

The third movement, marked Allegretto, is a minuet and trio, both in ³
₄ time. The minuet is in the home key of G major, the contrasting trio in the dominant key of D major. As is normal in this form, the minuet is played again da capo following the trio.

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 form. Mozart specifies repeats not just for the exposition section but also for the following development and recapitulation section. The recapitulation's first theme is unusual because only its last two bars return, in the parallel minor. A coda ends the piece.

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."). The second movement in his listing — a minuet and trio — was long thought lost, and no one knows if Mozart or someone else 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. Musicologist Alfred 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, 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.

In 1971, this movement was incorporated into a recording of the work prepared by the musicologist and performer Thurston Dart. 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.

Modern reception

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

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

References

Sources

• Broder, Nathan (June 1956). "Eine kleine Nachtmusik, 1787. Faksimile der Original-Handschrift by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Manfred Gorke". Notes (review). 13 (3): 514. doi:10.2307/893344. JSTOR 893344.
• Dart, Thurston (1971). Chamber Music by Mozart at Discogs (list of releases).
• Einstein, Alfred (1962). Mozart, His Character, His Work. Translated by Arthur Mendel, Nathan Broder. Oxford: Oxford University Press. OCLC 511324.
• Goodman, Roy. "Mozart, Eine kleine Nachtmusic". Nimbus Records. NI7023. Archived from the original on 26 April 2009.
• Heartz, Daniel (2009). Mozart, Haydn and Early Beethoven, 1781–1802. New York: W. W. Norton.
• 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.
• Manze, Andrew (2003). Mozart Night Music (PDF). The English Concert. Harmonia Mundi. HMU 807280. Retrieved 15 November 2025 – via nativedsd.com.
• Papoutsoglou, Sofronios E.; Karakatsouli, Nafsika; Psarrou, Anna; Apostolidou, Sofia; Papoutsoglou, Eustratios S.; Batzina, Alkisti; Leondaritis, Georgios; Sakellaridis, N. (February 2015). "Gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) response to three music stimuli (Mozart—"Eine kleine Nachtmusik", Anonymous—"Romanza", Bach—"Violin Concerto No. 1") and white noise under recirculating water conditions". Fish Physiology and Biochemistry. 41: 219–232. doi:10.1007/s10695-014-0018-5. ISSN 0920-1742.
• Rexroth, Dieter (2017). "Preface". Eine kleine Nachtmusik: Serenade G major, K. 525. Eulenburg. ISBN 9783795713454. Retrieved 15 November 2025.
• Schwarm, Betsy. "Eine kleine Nachtmusik". Britannica. Retrieved 15 November 2025.
• Smith, J. C.; Joyce, C. A. (September 2004). "Mozart versus New Age Music: Relaxation States, Stress, and ABC Relaxation Theory". Journal of Music Therapy. 41 (3): 215–224. doi:10.1093/jmt/41.3.215. ISSN 0022-2917. PMID 15327344.
• Unverricht, Hubert; Eisen, Cliff (2001a). "Nachtmusik (Ger.: 'night music')". Grove Music Online (8th ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.19524. ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0. (subscription, Wikilibrary access, or UK public library membership required)
• Unverricht, Hubert; Eisen, Cliff (2001b). "Notturno (It.: 'nocturnal')". Grove Music Online (8th ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.20135. ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0. (subscription, Wikilibrary access, or UK public library membership required)
• Zaslaw, Neal; Cowdery, William (1991). The Compleat Mozart: A Guide to the Musical Works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Norton. ISBN 0-393-02886-0.

External links

• Serenade in G. Eine kleine Nachtmusik, KV 525: Score and critical report (in German) in the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe
• 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