Eine kleine Nachtmusik
Two chords, perfectly balanced, and you recognise it in two seconds. Mozart's Serenade No. 13 in G major, K. 525 (1787), "a little night music", opens by spelling out the home chord, G, and answering with the dominant, D7: a question and an answer built from just two chords, with a rising arpeggio, the "rocket", that grabs your attention. Then go deep on what makes Mozart sound so balanced: build a two-bar question and a two-bar answer of our own (antecedent and consequent), hear how a lopsided 3 + 1 version compares, and write your own question and answer. The last lesson of Inside the Classics 3, with a look back at the whole module.
In this lesson you'll
- Decode the opening of Eine kleine Nachtmusik: bars 1–2 spell out the home chord G major (G D G D G D G B D), bars 3–4 answer with the dominant D7 (C A C A C A F♯ A D), which pulls back home to the tonic (lesson 7), and the rising arpeggio, the rocket, grabs attention.
- Hear phrase balance: a two-bar question on G that climbs the G chord and stops open on D (the antecedent), a two-bar answer on D7 → G (the consequent, ending with an authentic cadence, lesson 8), and how a 3 + 1 version feels lopsided.
- Write your own question (two bars climbing G · B · D, ending open) and answer (two bars on the D7 shape, coming home to G), and tell G from D7, question from answer and arpeggio from scale by ear.
Music in this lesson
- Eine kleine Nachtmusik (Serenade No. 13 in G major, K. 525)Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart · 1787 · public domain, opening bars 1–4 played
Remember
Eine kleine Nachtmusik (Mozart, Serenade No. 13 in G major, K. 525, 1787) opens with just two chords: the home chord G, spelled out note by note, then the dominant D7 answering. A question and an answer.
An arpeggio plays a chord's notes one after another; a rising one, the rocket figure composers of Mozart's time loved, grabs attention instantly.
Mozart's style is balance: two bars ask, two bars answer, clear tonic–dominant harmony, everything in proportion. The question ends open, the answer lands home (V7 → I, an authentic cadence); stretch it to 3 + 1 bars and it still ends home, but feels lopsided.