Analysis of Mozart's Eline Kleine Nachtmusik

      

Analysis of Mozart's Eline Kleine Nachtmusik

Mozart is considered one of the foremost composers from the Classical era of music, which occurred roughly between 1750 to 1820. Other famous composers from this era included Joseph Haydn and Franz Schubert. These composers focused on two big ideas:

1. Writing hummable, memorable melodies (the main tunes of a piece)

2. Using the melodies within the context of specific musical forms

Musical forms are like the floorplans of a house. The house's blueprints, enables you to see where each room of the house would be laid out (bedroom, kitchen, etc). Similarly, musical forms set up a listener's expectations for how the music will unfold. For example, we know that Taylor Swift is a pop star, and most pop songs are written in verse/chorus form; so we can guess that the chorus will come after the first verse of her latest song.

Just by listening to the opening bars of Mozart’s Eline Kleine Nachtmusik, you can recognize its memorable melody almost instantaneously. This piece is a fantastic example of the type of music composed at that time period, but is still enjoyable to listen to today. Eline Kleine Nachtmusik is one of Mozart’s most well- known works. Although it was written in 17878, it was not published until roughly 40 years after his death. Historians found evidence in his notes of a fifth movement for the piece but think that the music might have been used in another piece instead. Translated into English, Eline Kleine Nachtmusik means “A Little Night Music” and is a serenade or light, entertaining piece of music. Its four movements are all written in different popular forms of the time period and mirror the tempo markings that one would find in a typical four-movement symphony. It was originally written for a string quartet (two violins, a viola, and a cello) but has been arranged for many other ensembles since its creation.

Further detail on each of the movements are provided below:

First movement: Allegro

The tempo is allegro and the form is sonata- allegro. It is in the key of G major and played in 4/4 time signature. This movement has three distinct sections or three different themes.

• Exposition: Theme 1 is disjunctive and march-like containing the aggressive, ascending quickly tune with symmetrical phrasing. There is a transitional passage modulating to the dominant key. Theme 2 is quite contrasting and is played in D major. Its quite different when compared to theme 1 as it’s graceful, less hurried and of course conjunct. Finally, the closing theme ends in D major. This theme is insistent and quite repetitive, like a repeat of the exposition.
• Development: This discusses how fragments of the piece are developed and changed. It is short and begins in D major. Additionally, it manipulates theme 1 and the closing theme. Lastly, it modulates to D minor and C major before returning to G major for recapitulation.
• Recapitulation: This is where the 2 themes are brought back but without changing keys. This applies as theme 1, 2 and the closing theme return in G major. In addition, there is a coda in G major that extends the closing.

The contrasting and varying themes have been depicted in these scores below.

Theme 1:

Theme 2:

Theme 3:

Second movement: Romance

The tempo is andante and it is in a sectional rondo form with a rondo like structure (ABACA with final coda). It is in C major with duple meter and contains gentle, lyrical melodies in slow tempo. A and B sections are in sounded binary form.

•  A section: Lyrical scene melody in 2 parts as shown in figure 1. First the violins play with faster movement at the beginning of the second part A as shown in figure 2.

Figure 1



Figure 2

•  B section: More rhythmic in 2 short sections, each repeated. It varies ideas on A and A comes at end. 
• A section: Only first half. 
• C section: In C minor, more active rhythmic accompaniment; exchanges between violins and cellos; in 2 sections. 
• A section: Return of first section in tonic, without repeats. 
• Coda: 3 loud chords extend idea of A

Third movement: Allegretto

The tempo is allegretto and is in minuet and trio form. It is lively and rhythmic in ¾ time signature with homophonic texture (it has a clear melody and supporting chords). The key is in G major. The minuet theme contains accented triple meter in 2 sections (each 8 bars) and both are repeated showing more decisive character (demonstrated in figure 3). The trio theme is more lyrical and connected and is in 2 sections (8 and 12 measures). Both are repeated and it modulates to the dominant key that is D major (demonstrated in figure 4). Then the minuet returns without any repeats.

Figure 3:

Figure 4: 

Fourth movement: Allegro

This movement has a lively allegro tempo and is in the 4/4 time signature. It is in the key of G major in sonata allegro form. It has a homophonic texture and a light and graceful finale.

• Exposition: Theme 1 is merry, quick paced and spirited. There are symmetrical 4 measure phrases, each repeated. Additionally there’s a transition to the dominant key (D major). Theme 2 is contrasting and begins with a downward leap and is in D major. Theme 1 returns with varied setting and the exposition is repeated.
• Development: Theme 1 modulates through various keys and ends up in G minor.
• Recapitulation: Theme 2 returns in tonic (G major). Theme 1 is in G major and there is an extended cadence (a progression of at least 2 chords that concludes a phrase, section, or piece of music). Lastly, in the coda, theme 1 returns like the exposition in G major

This is a link of the piece:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcpM0yN7p0c

References:

·      https://prezi.com/f2fysi4x0rb3/eine-kleine-nachtmusik/

·     http://www.wwnorton.com/college/music/listeninglab/shared/listening_guides/mozart_eine_kleine_nachtmusik.pdf

·      http://study.com/academy/lesson/eine-kleine-nachtmusik-history-analysis-composer.html