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The Serenade No. 12 for winds in C minor, K. 388/384a, was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1782 or 1783. The work is sometimes called "Nachtmusik". In 1787, Mozart transcribed the work for string quintet. This transcription survives as String Quintet, K. 406/516b.

Instrumentation

The serenade is scored for 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 Natural horns, and 2 bassoons.

Structure

There are four movements:

Allegro, C minor, sonata form
Andante, E-flat major, sonata form
Menuet & Trio, C minor, Trio in C major, ternary form
Allegro, C minor, ends in C major, variation form with the fifth variation (in E-flat major) augmented.

The minuet is a canon. The oboes carry the melody with the bassoons answering one bar later. The trio is also canonic with the response to the melody played upside down.^[1] The finale is a set of variations containing a central episode in E-flat major and a coda that turns to C major near the end.

Unique attributes

Serenade No. 12 set itself apart from most works written by Mozart, as well as most other music written at the time due to a few key attributes - the most notable of which being its key. The work was Mozart’s only serenade, of three. The minor key made it more personal and gave a deeper sense of emotion, which was not the standard of the music or instrumentation of the time. ^[2]

Musical impact

This serenade while also transcribed to be played as a string quartet was originally composed as a Harmonie being performed with eight wind instruments consisting of pairs of Bassoons, Clarinets, Oboes, and Horns. Before this composition was created Harmonies weren’t a popular form of composition, and with its inception it helped popularize this instrumentation as a more common composition style.^[3]

While many works of the time and prior were written for background music to greater purposes such as dance or worship, this work’s more profound themes and compositional techniques instead brought it to the foreground, bringing with it emotional responses from the listeners. The impact of the serenades role as a standalone work of art urged a shift to make music take the focus as an independent art form.^[3]

References

^ Zaslaw, Neal, The Compleat Mozart: a Guide to the Musical Works, pp. 246–247 (New York, 1990) ISBN 0-393-02886-0
^ Newbould, Brian (1991). "Mozart's Lost Melody". The Musical Times. 132 (1785): 552–553. doi:10.2307/966206. ISSN 0027-4666.
^ ^a ^b Mason, Melinda M. "Forming Interpretive Ideas on Mozart's Serenade in C minor, K. 388 Through the Lens of a Musical Detective." (2021).