Sanssouci
sat 19 sep 2026 10:00 hrs
Finally, in this episode of Sansoucci: That One Piece
We had a bit of a dilemma. Eine kleine Nachtmusik is perhaps the most famous piece Mozart has ever written. We’ve known it since childhood and listened to it dozens of times—if not hundreds. Should a piece like this really be on the radio?
It wasn’t enough of a dilemma to think on it long, though. This serenade embodies the essence of Mozart’s style. Everything that makes Mozart Mozart is there; if we were to discover the piece tomorrow with no composer’s name attached, musicologists would confidently point to him.
So, what kind of work is Eine kleine Nachtmusik? It is traditionally described as a serenade: music intended primarily for entertainment rather than dramatic effect. That doesn’t, of course, mean that the music simply washes over us without leaving an impression.
The instrumentation is unusual: two violins, viola, cello, and double bass. A string quartet with an added double bass. A string quintet, but not quite. The piece is often performed by a string orchestra, in which case it becomes something approaching a symphony. Quite a lot of ink has been spilled over the years debating whether the strings should be played one to a part or with multiple players. Mozart himself would probably have found the question rather pointless: either works.
The piece originally had five movements: between the first movement and the slow movement, there was another minuet. That minuet was removed and has been lost. A shame, but the work is also complete as it stands in its four-movement form. The Nachtmusik can hold its own alongside Mozart’s symphonies and string quartets and quintets.
We hear Mozart’s hand immediately in the first movement. Where most composers use only one or two themes in a movement, Mozart comes up with no fewer than six. After the famous opening four bars, the first theme has already come and gone. In a limited amount of time, he has a lot to tell us. The slow movement brings to mind an Andante from his String Quintet K. 614—a work he had not yet written at the time, which only goes to show that the comparison is not entirely far-fetched. The minuet is short but forceful. It has none of the rustic quality of Haydn’s minuets and even shows a touch of polyphony. The final movement is perhaps the most carefree and divertimento-like of the four; it almost takes us back to Mozart’s teenage years.
Mozart wrote Nachtmusik in the summer of 1787, between his two triumphs in Prague, though we do not know what occasion prompted it. Perhaps he simply had little else to do, as his career in Vienna was not going particularly well at the time. In any case, shortly before this he had written another serenade: Ein musikalischer Spaß. This work is also in four movements and can be performed either as chamber music or with an orchestra. Beyond that, however, it has very little in common with Eine kleine Nachtmusik.
We can safely regard this work as the worst thing he ever wrote. Of course, he did it deliberately – the title says it all. It is also sometimes called the Dorfmusikanten-Sextett, although that name was not Mozart’s own and is somewhat misleading: while the work certainly pokes fun at amateur performers, it is primarily aimed at composers with little talent and even less technical knowledge.
Everything a composer or performer could possibly get wrong is in there. In the first movement alone, the composer fails to reach the dominant – the key a fifth above the tonic. The second movement cannot decide whether it wants to be slow or a minuet. The musicians’ mistakes are cheerfully written into the score, while the composer himself happily introduces things such as parallel fifths. At the end, an awkward fugue struggles to get going before ending in a polytonal cacophony.
Exactly what Mozart intended with this work is unclear. It does not seem to be a compliment to some of his fellow composers, but what prompted it? There were plenty of composers in Vienna, and most of them had a solid technical grounding. Mozart may instead have been poking fun at the mistakes of his own pupils. The theme of the halting fugue, for example, is based on an exercise by his English pupil Thomas Attwood.
Mozart’s own canary may also have been an inspiration. The bird would imitate Mozart’s melodies and could even sing two melodies at once. When the canary died, Mozart mourned it; could this piece perhaps contain a tribute?
There may well also be a tribute to his father. Leopold Mozart made a name for himself with music written for fun. Think of the Toy Symphony, the Symphony with Alphorn, and the Musikalische Schlittenfahrt. Leopold died in 1787; perhaps Wolfgang wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps with this kind of “musical joke”.
We will also hear four of Mozart’s songs today. This part of his output is little known. Mozart himself would probably have been quite happy with that. In his day, the song was held in low esteem. Opera and church music were the great genres, followed by symphonies, concertos and, of course, string quartets. Then came amateur genres such as piano sonatas and piano trios, followed by serenades – and only much further down the pecking order came songs. Songs flourished in the countryside and in the streets, among people of all social classes, but they were not considered art.
Yet many eighteenth-century composers wrote them. Telemann, for example, and C.P.E. Bach. Mozart wrote around thirty himself. What is more, you can already glimpse in his songs the beginnings of a development that would later, in the hands of Schubert and Schumann, turn the Lied into a major art form.
Mozart often chose texts of little literary merit for his songs: sentimental, melodramatic verses. In “Abendempfindung (an Laura)”, for example, a rejected lover laments his fate while reflecting on the transience of life. But the music Mozart places beneath the words makes every emotion palpable and takes the song far beyond a simple verse-and-refrain structure. Mozart himself may not have thought very highly of many of his songs, but with the benefit of hindsight, we can appreciate these works at their full value.
Playlist
Everything by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Eine kleine Nachtmusik, K. 525
Dans un bois solitaire, K. 308
Erzeugt von heißer Phantasie, K. 520
Die Spinnerin, K. 531
Abendempfindung an Laura, K. 523
Ein musikalischer Spaß, K. 522
Performers
The English Concert, conducted by Andrew Manze (1, 6)
John Mark Ainsley (tenor), Joan Rodgers (soprano), Roger Vignoles (piano) (2–5)
