Description
Music for wind ensemble, also know as Harmoniemusik, played an important part in Mozart’s Austria. Wind ensembles were not only cheaper to employ, but they also were suitable for outdoor performance and so appealed to the lesser nobility of the time.
Mozart composed the three great wind serenades during his first two years in Vienna, with the first of them, the Serenade No.10 in B flat K.361, seeing a huge expansion in terms of instrumentation and length. Instead of six (or eight) instruments, this serenade is scored for thirteen instruments, which include a string double bass. The use of the string bass suggests this work was written to be performed indoors, unlike those which had preceded it.
Available here is a highly authoritative Eulenburg miniature score of Mozart’s Serenade No.10 in B flat K.361, as edited by Harry Newstone, which is the definitive reference source for study, perusal, and performance preparation.