Divertimento in D for strings

Serenades and cassations are two types of orchestral music typical of Salzburg, intended for outdoor performances. These compositions were usually commissioned works, either for private occasions or for university events, such as the end-of-academic-year celebrations (*Finalmusiken*). They typically contain more than five movements, and many begin and end with a march (see Work Group 13a). In keeping with Salzburg traditions from the 1750s and 1760s, Mozart’s orchestral serenades consist of movements of different types: the first and last movements are usually symphonic allegros, followed by a slow movement in a different key and typically two pairs of minuets with trios. A distinctive Salzburg feature is the inclusion of 2–4 movements with solo instruments following the opening allegro, often in a key different from that of the main work.

The use of varied movement types encouraged selected movements to be performed independently: Mozart himself reworked most of his orchestral serenades into symphonies by reducing the number of movements to three or four. Sometimes the solo movements were reused as concertos or as concertante symphonies. Some of Mozart’s cassations are more modest in scoring and scale than his serenades; however, in southern Germany and Austria, the two terms were used largely interchangeably.