Musical description
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik was written in 1787 but was not published until after Mozart’s death in 1827. The English translation is a little serenade but it has more popularly become known as a little night music.
Form and structure
The third movement is written as a minuet and trio, which was a routine structure for composers because it suited many of the period dances. Both the minuet and trio would contain contrasting sections to signify a change in the dance.
| Minuet | Trio | Minuet |
| Section A is repeated | Section A is repeated | Section A is not repeated |
| Section B is repeated | Section B is repeated | B is not repeated |
| Minuet | Section A is repeated |
|---|---|
| Trio | Section A is repeated |
| Minuet | Section A is not repeated |
| Minuet | Section B is repeated |
|---|---|
| Trio | Section B is repeated |
| Minuet | B is not repeated |
It is normal practice to repeat the minuet; this is called 'Menuetto da capo' or DC for short.
Tonality and harmony
The home key or tonic is G major, but the piece modulationA change of key. to the dominant key, D major, for the trio. This is an example of the music signalling to the court that there should be a change in the dance routine. The harmony is described as diatonicMelody or harmony which uses pitches of the given key. which means the chords used are based on the key of the piece.
Tempo
This is a marking on a score to instruct the ensemble to play at a particular speed. This can be either by a term or an exact number of beats per minuteThe number of beats that occur during a minute. The tempo is allegretto, which is slower than allegroLively and fast.
Metre and rhythm
Both the minuet and trio are in simple triple time. The metre - time signatureNumbers or letters written at the start of a piece of music depicting how many beats are in a bar and what type of beat are in each bar. - is 3/4 which means three crotchet beats in every bar.
Simple rhythms are used throughout with a range of note values and a lot of quaver movement. All sections start with an anacrusis to help count the dancers in.