The same praise may be bestowed on a nocturne (286 K.) for four orchestras, each consisting of a stringed quartet and two horns, so arranged as to represent a threefold echo. When the first orchestra has played a connected phrase the second orchestra falls in at the last bar with the same, or with the four last bars of the same, the third follows the second at the last bar with the three last bars, and the fourth comes in in the same way with the two last bars; then the first orchestra continues the theme. In this way all the three movements--andante, allegro, and minuet--are managed, with but slight modifications; only the trio of the minuet is played by one orchestra alone, or by all together. It need scarcely be said that the omission of the echoes does not affect the connection of the parts. The main point in such a trifle as this is to carry it out with as little visible constraint as possible. There is an especially good effect in the minuet where short passages follow each other in rapid succession, falling in at different parts of the bars, and the way in which in the first part the horns alone conclude a phrase with--[See Page Image] cutting each other short in the most impatient manner, is truly comical. Similar instrumental compositions to this are called by the name of divertimento or cassatio (which last term has never been satisfactorily explained), in which the various parts are simply arranged.[37] The first of these (113 K.), composed in Milan in 1771, "Concerto ossia Divertimento," has the four movements of the symphony, the last in rondo form, and {INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC.} (304) resembles the symphonies of that time also in the brevity and preciseness of its arrangement. The strings are not obbligato, the wind instruments--two clarinets and two horns--although not concertante, are more than usually independent. For a later performance, probably in 1773, two oboes, two English horns, and two bassoons were so added that the clarinets might be omitted.[38] The stringed instruments were left untouched; the strengthening of the wind instruments was utilised for the alternations, with slight and clever modifications. In the next divertimento, belonging to June, 1772 (131 K.), consisting of seven movements, the combination of the different instruments (four horns,[39] flutes, oboes, and bassoons) is varied with evident care. The first adagio is for strings alone, the second for wind instruments; the first minuet is for strings, the wind instruments alternate with each other in the three trios, and all the instruments unite in the coda. In the second minuet the four horns are especially prominent; in the third movement, an allegretto, the flute is obbligato and the horns are silent; in the first and last movements all the instruments work together.