Eine kleine Nachtmusik
Encyclopedia
The Serenade No. 13 for strings in G major, K. 525 was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
in 1787. The work is more commonly known by the title Eine kleine Nachtmusik. 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 a chamber ensemble
of two violin
s, viola
, and cello
with optional double bass
, but is often performed by string orchestra
s.
. 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 committed to record.
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."
:
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.
. 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.
and trio
(A–B–A). The minuet is in the home key of G major and the trio section is in D major.
. Mozart specifies repeats not just for the exposition section but also for the following development+recapitulation section. The work ends with a long coda.
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.
composed a parody of this work named Eine Kleine Nichtmusik, recorded on the album Portrait of P. D. Q. Bach
in 1977. The piece consists of Eine kleine Nachtmusik played in its entirety, along with snippets of dozens of famous tunes heard in counterpoint throughout the piece, taken from both American folk music and the classical repertoire. As his alter ego
P. D. Q. Bach
, Schickele wrote the opera in one irrevocable act A Little Nightmare Music
, S. 35 (1983).
The Simpsons
episode "Margical History Tour
" features a segment with Bart
as Mozart. He composes Eine kleine Nachtmusik with lyrics
describing flatulence
.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
in 1787. The work is more commonly known by the title Eine kleine Nachtmusik. 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 a chamber ensemble
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
of two violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
s, viola
Viola
The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
, and cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
with optional double bass
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
, but is often performed by string orchestra
String orchestra
A string orchestra is an orchestra composed solely or primarily of instruments from the string family. These instruments are the violin, the viola, the cello, the double bass , the piano, the harp, and sometimes percussion...
s.
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 GiovanniDon Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
. It is not known why it was composed. Hildesheimer
Wolfgang Hildesheimer
Wolfgang Hildesheimer was a German author who incorporated the Theatre of the Absurd. He originally trained as an artist, before turning to writing.-Biography:...
(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 committed to record.
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
Neal Zaslaw
Neal Zaslaw is an American musicologist.Born in New York, Zaslaw graduated from Harvard in 1961 with a BA and obtained his master's from Juilliard in 1963. He played flute in the American Symphony Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski from 1962 to 1965. In 1970 he received his Ph.D from Columbia...
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
Johann Anton André
Johann Anton André was a German composer and music publisher.André wrote operas, symphonies, masses, and lieder, as well as a still unfinished Lehrbuch der Tonsetzkunst in two volumes...
in Offenbach am Main. It had been sold to this publisher in 1799 by Mozart's widow Constanze
Constanze Mozart
Constanze Mozart was the wife of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.-Early years:Constanze Weber was born in Zell im Wiesental. Her mother was Cäcilia Weber, née Stamm. Her father Fridolin Weber worked as a "double bass player, prompter and music copyist." Fridolin's half-brother was the father of composer...
, 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 movementsMovement (music)
A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession...
:
- I. Allegro
- II. Romanze: Andante
- III. MenuettoMinuetA minuet, also spelled menuet, is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in 3/4 time. The word was adapted from Italian minuetto and French menuet, and may have been from French menu meaning slender, small, referring to the very small steps, or from the early 17th-century popular...
: Allegretto - IV. RondoRondoRondo, and its French equivalent rondeau, is a word that has been used in music in a number of ways, most often in reference to a musical form, but also to a character-type that is distinct from the form...
: Allegro
Allegro
(The first theme)This first movement is in sonata-allegro form
Sonata form
Sonata form is a large-scale musical structure used widely since the middle of the 18th century . While it is typically used in the first movement of multi-movement pieces, it is sometimes used in subsequent movements as well—particularly the final movement...
, which aggressively ascends in a Mannheim rocket
Mannheim school
Mannheim school refers to both the orchestral techniques pioneered by the court orchestra of Mannheim in the latter half of the 18th century as well as the group of composers who wrote such music for the orchestra of Mannheim and others.-History:...
theme. The second theme is more graceful and in D major
D major
D major is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature consists of two sharps. Its relative minor is B minor and its parallel minor is D minor....
, the dominant key
Dominant key
The dominant key in a given musical composition is the key whose tonic is a perfect fifth above the tonic of the main key of the piece. Put another way, the key whose tonic is the dominant scale degree in the main key....
of G major
G major
G major is a major scale based on G, with the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has one sharp, F; in treble-clef key signatures, the sharp-symbol for F is usually placed on the first line from the top, though in some Baroque music it is placed on the first space from the bottom...
. The exposition
Exposition (music)
In musical form and analysis, exposition is the initial presentation of the thematic material of a musical composition, movement, or section. The use of the term generally implies that the material will be developed or varied....
closes in D major and is repeated. The development
Musical development
In European classical music, musical development is a process by which a musical idea is communicated in the course of a composition. It refers to the transformation and restatement of initial material, and is often contrasted with musical variation, which is a slightly different means to the same...
section begins on D major and touches on D minor
D minor
D minor is a minor scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. In the harmonic minor, the C is raised to C. Its key signature has one flat ....
and C major
C major
C major is a musical major scale based on C, with pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature has no flats/sharps.Its relative minor is A minor, and its parallel minor is C minor....
before the work returns to G major for the recapitulation
Recapitulation (music)
In music theory, the recapitulation is one of the sections of a movement written in sonata form. The recapitulation occurs after the movement's development section, and typically presents once more the musical themes from the movement's exposition...
– 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.
Romanza
The second movement, in C major, is a "Romanze", with the tempo marked Andante. It is in rondo form, taking the shape A–B–A–C–A plus a final CodaCoda (music)
Coda is a term used in music in a number of different senses, primarily to designate a passage that brings a piece to an end. Technically, it is an expanded cadence...
. 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.
Menuetto
The third movement, marked Allegretto, is a minuetMinuet
A minuet, also spelled menuet, is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in 3/4 time. The word was adapted from Italian minuetto and French menuet, and may have been from French menu meaning slender, small, referring to the very small steps, or from the early 17th-century popular...
and trio
Ternary form
Ternary form, sometimes called song form, is a three-part musical form, usually schematicized as A-B-A. The first and third parts are musically identical, or very nearly so, while the second part in some way provides a contrast with them...
(A–B–A). The minuet is in the home key of G major and the trio section is in D major.
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 formSonata rondo form
Sonata rondo form was a form of musical organization often used during the Classical music era. As the name implies, it is a blend of sonata form and rondo form.- Structure :...
. Mozart specifies repeats not just for the exposition section but also for the following development+recapitulation section. The work ends with a long coda.
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. MusicologistMusicology
Musicology is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture...
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
Jonathan Del Mar
-Biography:Born in London, he studied at Christ Church, Oxford and the Royal College of Music in London.His father was conductor Norman Del Mar.-Beethoven scholar:...
for Nimbus Records
Nimbus Records
Nimbus Records is a British record company specializing in classical music recordings.Nimbus was founded in 1972 by the late bass singer Numa Labinsky and the brothers Michael and Gerald Reynolds and has traditionally been based at the Wyastone Leys mansion site, near Monmouth and the English/Welsh...
although music scholars are not certain that Einstein is correct.
Satire
Composer Peter SchickelePeter Schickele
Johann Peter Schickele is an American composer, musical educator, and parodist. He is best known for his comedy music albums featuring his music that he presents as music written by the fictional composer P. D. Q...
composed a parody of this work named Eine Kleine Nichtmusik, recorded on the album Portrait of P. D. Q. Bach
Portrait of P. D. Q. Bach
Portrait of P. D. Q. Bach was released in 1977 on Vanguard Records. The album features mostly the work of Peter Schickele writing as P. D. Q...
in 1977. The piece consists of Eine kleine Nachtmusik played in its entirety, along with snippets of dozens of famous tunes heard in counterpoint throughout the piece, taken from both American folk music and the classical repertoire. As his alter ego
Alter ego
An alter ego is a second self, which is believe to be distinct from a person's normal or original personality. The term was coined in the early nineteenth century when dissociative identity disorder was first described by psychologists...
P. D. Q. Bach
P. D. Q. Bach
P. D. Q. Bach is a fictitious composer invented by musical satirist "Professor" Peter Schickele. In a gag that Schickele has developed over a five-decade-long career, he performs "discovered" works of this forgotten member of the Bach family...
, Schickele wrote the opera in one irrevocable act A Little Nightmare Music
A Little Nightmare Music
A Little Nightmare Music is an opera in "one irrevocable act" by Peter Schickele under the pseudonym he uses for parodies and comical works P. D. Q. Bach. The title of the work refers to the English translation of Mozart's famous Eine kleine Nachtmusik...
, S. 35 (1983).
The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
episode "Margical History Tour
Margical History Tour
"Margical History Tour" is the eleventh episode of The Simpsons fifteenth season. The episode was first broadcast on February 8, 2004. This is one of several Simpsons episodes that features mini-stories.-Plot:...
" features a segment with Bart
Bart Simpson
Bartholomew JoJo "Bart" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the Simpson family. He is voiced by actress Nancy Cartwright and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
as Mozart. He composes Eine kleine Nachtmusik with lyrics
Lyrics
Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
describing flatulence
Flatulence
Flatulence is the expulsion through the rectum of a mixture of gases that are byproducts of the digestion process of mammals and other animals. The medical term for the mixture of gases is flatus, informally known as a fart, or simply gas...
.