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A substantial part of Mozart's oeuvre consists of works that may be called
‘entertainment music'. Most of these pieces were composed for festive occasions in
Salzburg, such as name days, birthdays, New Year's festivities, weddings, or traditional
celebrations at the conclusion of the academic year. There are indications that a
number of them were meant to be played out-of-doors, in a rustic garden setting
with party guests enjoying a drink or a meal. Many of the easy-going works were
labelled ‘Divertimento', others ‘Serenade', ‘Cassation' or ‘Notturno'. There is no sharp
dividing line between these genres, although Divertimenti were generally meant for
performance by a relatively small ensemble, while the other terms could imply
orchestral performance.
All music of this entertaining type is characterised by a loose multi-movement
structure and a relaxed gait.Moments of dramatic tension, as they so often appear in
symphonies or quartets, are absent, save for a few exceptions. Dance-like rhythms
prevail and harmonies are kept within the conventional boundaries of popular music.
The key of D major is dominant.
Artistic challenges
Most of Mozart's Divertimenti and Serenades were composed in the seventies of the
eighteenth century, when the young composer was still in the service of the
Archbishop of Salzburg. In general, these were depressing years for the ever ambitious
and energetic Mozart, who at an early age had visited the major courts and capitals of
Europe. He realized that the cultural climate in his native city was anything but
beneficial for an artist of his calibre, and he felt that in the provincial Salzburg his
talent was stifled. ‘Theres is no room here for someone like me', he sadly wrote to his
teacher Martini in Italy, ‘and music is not at all appreciated here'. Opportunities for
exposing his skills were indeed limited and Mozart longed for the outside world. He
was chained however to his routine activities in the chapel. It was in this rather
uneventful decade (1769-1779) that he composed the bulk of the Divertimenti and
Serenades collected in this album.
Mozart's music of this nature was welcomed for many social purposes in Salzburg,
both indoors and outdoors. The light, entertaining character was appreciated by the
many Liebhaber that crowded the town, and Mozart enhanced the diverting spirit by
using folk-like theme types and keeping harmonies and forms extremely simple.
Nevertheless, he succeeded in creating a balance between grace and decorum on one
side, and subtle innovations on the other, and these artistic challenges resulted in a
stylistic conglomerate that was to fascinate both Liebhaber (musical amateurs) and
Kenner (musical connoisseurs). An important formal procedure for bridging these
different levels was the regular introduction of concertante writing.
Did Mozart himself differentiate between ‘Divertimento' and ‘Serenade'? It seems that
he did not. By tradition a serenade had amorous connotations, but in Mozart's time
serenading had evolved into a summer custom in free nature. A characteristic device
was the introductory movement, which was generally in march rhythm; in many
cases this opening was repeated at the end of the work. Serenades also tended to
consist of a flexible number of movements, sometimes even eight, while divertimenti
in general followed the fixed sequence of four movements (fast - minuet and trio -
slow - fast) familiar from symphonies and quartets. In some cases however a second
minuet was inserted after the slow movement.Mozart felt free from tradition, in this
respect, and the same was true for the way he designated his works.
Finalmusik
A number of works in these genres were designed for the celebrations marking the
end of the academic year at Salzburg's Benedictine University. Such works were
traditionally labelled Finalmusik, a term that was often used by both Mozart and his
father. The earliest Finalmusik was the seven movement Cassation (‘Divertimento' in
the Köchel Verzeichnis) in G major, K. 63, written when Mozart was only thirteen
(1769), and it was followed by the Serenade in D major, K. 100. Both are of modest
dimensions and have prominent passages for wind instruments. A more sophisticated
Finalmusik was K. 185, a Serenade in D major from 1773 to which most probably the
March K. 189 belonged. It has a richer sound, with horns and trumpets, and some of
the eight movements have solo passages for a violin. This festive work was written in
Vienna, where Mozart and his father were seeking employment, but in vain.
Also belonging to the Finalmusik genre is the Serenade in D major, K. 203, now
known as the Colloredo Serenade.Mozart wrote this charming piece in the summer
of 1774, not as a contribution to the festivities for the name day of Archbishop
Colleredo - as has long been assumed - but again for the end of the academic year of
the University. It consists of eight movements, of which the second and the fourth
have concertante writing for a solo violin. There are three minuets, as well as a long
Andante (sixth movement), where Mozart reaches the artistic level of his
symphonies. The finale is a gay Presto.
Five years later Mozart composed again a Finalmusik. He commenced it after his
return from the devastating journey to Mannheim and Paris. This Serenade in D
major, K. 320 was finished on 3 August 1779. Apart from the famous ‘Mannheim
crescendo', this work betrays many south-German influences. The orchestra is
massive, with strings, flutes, oboes, bassoons, horns, trumpets and timpani, and
Mozart makes full use of the many coloristic opportunities. The third and fourth
movements have passages for paired wind instruments and in the trio of the second
minuet there is a part for a corno di posta, hence the nickname Posthornserenade for
this work. This was most probably a joke by Mozart, who wanted to remind the
university students that their term was over and that they would soon be home again
with their parents. The seven-minute Andante, of unusual seriousness and intensity,
must have had a surprising effect as well.Maybe Mozart liked to demonstrate here
that music and science were interrelated.
Concertante writing
Mozart was a great composer, but he was also a performing musician of great skill.
He often played the violin, having been instructed by his father who was after all the
author of the notorious Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule (first edition 1756,
many reprints in several languages). It may be assumed that at some occasions
Mozart played the solo passages of his Serenades himself. Such passages may occur in
any movement, but especially in the initimate trios of minuets. The Divertimento in
B flat major, K. 287 is an example of a work of which we know for certain that
Mozart partly wrote it for himself. In a letter he stated that ‘everyone made big eyes.
I played as though I were the greatest violinist in Europe' (1777). No doubt it was
Leopold who stimulated his son to combine his creative and reproductive talents.
Other works with a florid violin part are the Divertimento in D major, K. 334 (1779)
and the Serenade in D major, K. 250; the last is commonly known as the Haffner
Serenade.
The Haffnerserenade (1776) was a work of a boy still in his teens. He was unsurgent,
resulting from the annoying work in the chapel of Sauschwanz Colloredo, but this
did not prevent him to compose works of breathtaking originality. Among the many
church sonatas, divertimenti and other occasional works the orchestral Serenade D
major, K. 250 is in more than one aspect a juwel. It has unusual dimensions, is richly
colored (double woodwinds, horns, trumpets) and is larded with solo passages for
various instruments. This was no routine job and Mozart was probably well payed for
it. ‘Serenata per lo sposalitio del Sgr: Spath colla Sgra Elisabetta Haffner der Sgr:
Caval: Amadeo Wolfg: Mozart', says the autograph. This clarifies the origin of the
work, and also the festive character. The serenade was written for the wedding of the
daughter of the well-to-do Salzburg merchant Sigmund Haffner, Elisabeth, who
married on 22 July, 1776. It was the brother of the bride who had commissioned the
work, which was first played at a sultry summer evening in the garden house of the
Haffners in the Paris-Lodrongasse. The Haffner Serenade comprises a complete violin
concerto (Andante - Menuetto - Rondo) and two minuets. The opening movement
has an unusually dramatic and solemn Allegro maestoso as introduction.Maybe
Mozart was only joking here, and the serious chords were possibly meant ironicly.
Soon there is a carefree spirit of the other movements, with an abundance of folk-like
themes, especially in the first Menuetto. Only in the finale the opening movement is
recalled, as if Mozart likes to moralize: marriage is not a bed of roses.
Experiments
In some of his Serenades and Divertimenti Mozart experimented with unusual
combinations of instruments. He not seldom enriched an ensemble of strings by
adding woodwinds and brass instruments, in search for coloristic effects and new
sound spectra. A fine example is the curious ‘Concerto ï sia Divertimento' in E flat
major, K. 113, composed in Milan in 1771. Here Mozart for the first time used
clarinets. He revised the work a few years later, adding oboes, english horns and
bassoons and enabling the clarinets to be omitted.
A daring combination was tried in the six-movement Divertimento in D major, K.
131 from the summer of 1772. Along the strings (with diveded violas) there was a
flute, an oboe, a bassoon, and last but not least four horns. The horns feature as a
solo quartet in several movements and these passages call for very skilled musicians.
Such passages as the slow introduction to the finale, where the seven wind
instruments play without strings, must have been a real playground for Mozart to
exploring a variety of timbres. In a later stage he transplanted such innovations into
his major works, like symphonies.
Another bold experiment, this time limited to a combination of strings, was carried
out in the Serenade in D major, K. 239, popularly known as the ‘Serenata notturna'. In
this charming work, written in January 1776 most probably as jolly Neujahrsmusik, a
string quartet is a concertante group against a string orchestra, which results in
strong antiphonal, echo-like effects. The three elegant movements, the first of which
is a march with pizzicati, must have astounished the Salzburg music lovers on New
Year's Day, 1776.
Exactly one year later, Mozart again composed a winter serenade, this time the
Notturno in D major, K. 286. Again there are antiphonal effects, but this time the
orchestra is devided into four small ensembles consisting of four-part strings and two
horns. Nothing is known about a performance of the piece, but it must have been quite
an event, with triple echos whirling from one corner of the room to another. Again
there are three short movements, but this time the third is a minuet, which is rather
unsatisfactory as a finale; it has been suggested that the real finale of this work is lost.
Musical nonsense
Three of the works assembled in this album do not belong to Mozart's ‘Divertimentodecade',
1769-1779. One curious piece, composed as early as 1766, preceeds this
period and may be regarded as a product of a child, the Galimathias musicum, K. 32.
There are indications that father Leopold had an active part in the composition, as is
suggested by the autograph manuscript in The Hague. It was in this Dutch city that
Mozart composed his Galimathias, to celebrate the installation of prince William V as
stadhouder of The Dutch Republic. The jolly work is a medley, consisting of eighteen
short pieces of music almost all based on pre-existing material, such as folksongs and
popular organ pieces. Nos. 10 and 15 are based on organ Versets of Johann Ernst
Eberlin and No. 11 on a movement of one of Leopold's symphonies. The central part
of No. 3 is a Christmas song (‘Joseph, lieber Joseph mein') and No. 5 is a folksong
with a bagpipe-like accompaniment. The work ends with a kind of fugue based on
the Dutch song ‘Willem van Nassau' that was to be heard in Dutch streets all over the
country. Of course Leopold was the brain behind this work. He had written music of
the same kind earlier, such as his ‘Bauernhochzeit' of 1755.
The Galimathias musicum, which means ‘musical nonsense', survives in two settings.
Some months after the first performance in The Hague, the Mozarts had the work
performed in Donaueschingen. The copy (of the orchestral parts) of this second
version has survived and proves that the individual numbers had by then been
somewhat re-arranged. Movement No. 8 seems to have had a short episode for
chorus to the silly words ‘Eitelkeit! Eitelkeit! ewig's verderben! Wenn all's versoffen ist,
gibts nichts zu erben', presumably sung by the instrumentalists themselves.
Unpretentious masterpieces
Two other works date from a relatively late phase of Mozart's career. They are
worldwide known today as Ein musikalischer Spass and Eine kleine Nachtmusik.
Both titels are authentic. In the Verzeichnüss aller meiner Werke that was kept by
Mozart in order to get some order in his musical activities, we read under date of
August 10, 1787: ‘Eine kleine Nacht-Musik, bestehend in einem Allegro,Menuett und
Trio - Romance,Menuett und Trio, und Finale'.Mozart could not suspect that this
little Serenade in D major, K. 525 would one day be one of the most played musical
masterpieces of Western civilisation.
The ‘Nacht-Musik' was not meant as a title. Mozart only enhanced that it was an
unpretentious, short work for five strings written for an special occasion (unknown
to us) and to be performed on a fine summer evening. It was a simple Nocturne, not
very different from many other serenades he had written. It is, however, not given to
an artist to project the future of his creations, that is a task for the general public.
When the ‘kleine Nacht-Musik' was printed, in 1828 long after Mozart had died, the
three movements immediately conquered the hearts and souls of music lovers, and
this would last until the present day.
The unaffected simplicity of both material and treatment have provided this work a
special, informal charm.Most curiously, the Nachtmusik as we know it today is
probably incomplete. For as a rule Mozart's serenades have two minuets, but there is
only one in this work. Possibly there was originally a minuet between the opening
Allegro and the Romanze (second movement), now lost.
As with Eine kleine Nachtmusik, we do not know what occasion led Mozart to write
his Musikalischer Spass, K. 522. Both works were composed in the summer of 1787,
when Mozart buried himself in writing the greatest masterpiece that was to leave his
hands, the opera Don Giovanni.When traveling to Prague for the premiere, in
October, he was still feverishly composing, and it remains a mystery that he found
time and opportunity to compose the two divertimenti that are now so famous. His
financial position must have been alarming and these pieces may well have been
commissioned by some wealthy person. Ein musikalischer Spass is unique in the
history of music. The curious work, scored for string quartet and two horns, is a
failed sextet in four movements.Mozart here ridicules an amateur composer who
tries his hand at a work without having sufficient control over the musical grammar
and compositional rules and techniques. Time and again the music derails. There is a
chain of uncoordinated passages, broken off fugues, faulty sequenses, annoying
repeats, corrupt harmonies, unbalanced cadences, uneven phrases, clumsy
instrumentations et cetera. A long list can be assembled of the elementary mistakes of
this would-be composer. Then of course there is the horror of the final chord of the
Presto, which leaves the concert public in laughter, even if the chord is expected. The
many defects in Ein musikalischer Spass are on various compositional levels: some
are easy distinguishable, others are subtle and hidden. As always, Mozart succeeds in
arousing the interest of both Liebhaber and Kenner, which may called the motto of
his musical activities.
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