Fantasia in F minor for Keyboard (fragment), K. 383c
av Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart’s Fantasia in F minor (K. 383c) survives only as an unfinished keyboard fragment, probably jotted down in Vienna in the late 1780s or around 1790. Barely a page long, it offers a rare glimpse of Mozart thinking at the keyboard in an unbuttoned, exploratory manner.
What Is Known
Only a single, incomplete leaf of Mozart’s Fantasia in F minor (K. 383c; also catalogued as K. Anh. 32) is transmitted, and the work is explicitly regarded as uncompleted. The online Köchel Catalogue maintained by the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum lists an extant autograph (one leaf, written on one side) and notes Vienna as the place of origin, with a broad dating range of 1786–1790.[1]
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Because the surviving page is so short, the fragment is sometimes described in performance contexts as a two-minute torso—enough for a concentrated atmosphere, but not enough to indicate a full formal plan.[2]
Musical Content
The fragment is for solo keyboard (clavier) and belongs to Mozart’s tradition of freely unfolding, improvisation-adjacent writing—music that seems to “discover” its path through harmony rather than proceed by balanced, sonata-like paragraphs. The F minor tonal world places it near Mozart’s most inward, dramatic keyboard language, and one can hear it as a private counterpart to the theatrical intensity he was cultivating in Vienna.
In modern editions, it is typically presented simply as what it is: a striking opening span that breaks off mid-thought, inviting performers to treat the ending not as a cadence, but as an interrupted utterance.[3]
[1] Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum: Köchel Catalogue Online entry for KV 383C, including status (uncompleted), dating (Vienna, 1786–1790), and transmission details.
[2] Seen and Heard International review noting the fragment’s brief duration in recital context (K Anh 32 in F minor).
[3] IMSLP index page for the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe volumes, listing “Fantasie in f (Fragment), KV Anh.32 (KV⁶: 383 C)” within NMA IX/27/2.