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.
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 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."
Allegro
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.
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 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.
Menuetto
The third movement, marked Allegretto, is a minuet and trio (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 form. Mozart specifies repeats not just for the exposition section but also for the following development+recapitulation section. The work ends with a long coda.
Composer Peter Schickele 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 band Blur titled their 1995 contribution to the War Child charity's The Help Album "Eine Kleine Lift Musik" in parody of this work's title.
http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/hk5studio/archive/2009/4/8
http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/hk5studio/archive/2010/4/8
http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/hk5studio/archive/2011/4/8
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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 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."
Allegro
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.
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 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.
Menuetto
The third movement, marked Allegretto, is a minuet and trio (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 form. Mozart specifies repeats not just for the exposition section but also for the following development+recapitulation section. The work ends with a long coda.
Composer Peter Schickele 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 band Blur titled their 1995 contribution to the War Child charity's The Help Album "Eine Kleine Lift Musik" in parody of this work's title.
http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/hk5studio/archive/2009/4/8
http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/hk5studio/archive/2010/4/8
http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/hk5studio/archive/2011/4/8
http://i.yimg.jp/images/auct/blogparts/Category300250White.swf?s=2&cl=4&cid=2084041489&lf=1&di=0&od=1&ti=HK8SOUNDS%2FCC&pt=1&dotyid=aucy%2Fp%2FDR53R3HaV9rsak.SeSlRxw--&sid=2219441&pid=878398084