third movement of Mozart's 'Haffner' Serenade has long
attracted special attention (ex.i). Hermann Abert, for example,
notes
that the serenade as a whole 'is a real feast-poem in music, now
highly
pathetic, then amiably obliging, then chatty and full of wit, but always with
due respect for the feted. Only
once ? and this is characteristic of Mozart's
special inner participation in this work ? a
gloomy, indeed dark, guest
mingles with the festal round dance: in the ingenious G minor minuet, which
suddenly reveals the whole sombre, pessimistic side of Mozart's spiritual life
once
again."
Th?odore de Wyzewa and Georges de Saint-Foix comment on the
movement in a
very similar vein,
even
elaborating
on Mozart's
peculiar
choice of key: