What do we mean when we say that a piece like the first movement of Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik is a quintessentially ‘accessible’ piece of music? This quality stems, perhaps, from its jauntiness, its simplicity, its hummability. The piece is memorable, i.e. easily remembered, and, furthermore, it is familiar to us. Hearing it is like encountering for the umpteenth time an old friend who isn't terribly demanding on our attention.
Now obviously the ‘familiarity’ of Eine kleine Nachtmusik isn't inherent in the music – by definition, it only becomes familiar after repeated hearing. And yet, there is a sense in which Eine kleine Nachtmusik is always already familiar. We are saturated with its idiom not...